Mr. Shyamalan or How I Learned to Start Worrying and Love the Plants.

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2009)

When mysterious force starts causing mass suicides in the cities, a school teacher and his friends flee to the country where they must fight to survive this deadly unknown phenomena.
I've been a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan since Signs and I was one of maybe five people who actually liked The Village. Lady in the Water.... well that is another story. Anyhow I was still eager to see this latest work by Shyamalan and it truly did leave an impression on me. That impression was that he will likely never make another big-budgeted Hollywood film again. Sad, but true. The Happening is a very campy kind of disaster film. It has an intriguing premise but it's really muddled down by it's hammy dialog, lack of suspense, and performances that are just bizarre. Seriously, was Shyamalan's direction to Zooey Deschanel to act as if she were stoned through out the entire movie? Even the wonderful Mark Wahlberg is more awkward than anything else in this film. I know it's a poor film, yet...
I found myself genuinely entertained by it. In a campy kind of way this movie did amuse me. It was funny at times, though unintentionally so, and even as the film didn't have the suspense or scares that I had hoped for it had enough action to keep it afloat. It was weird and off-beat and in the end I think it was the pure strangeness of it that saved it from being a bore.
So what's my final verdict? Well, it's a tough call. I found it interesting and never dull, but I'm also the first to admit that it was pretty flawed. I say if you're a die-hard Shyamalan fan, go see it, if not I would do some internet investigating before seeing it. Either way, I think the time of M. Night Shyamalan has ended.
** 1/2 out of ****