Shit Happening

[Gyuri]

****************um. . .spoiler alert?*********

I just walked out of what was easily the worst movie I have ever seen. It was so bad that it was good, then it got worse and was just bad again, and then got worse and was good . . .and that cycle continued throughout it's running time (which, as far as I can tell, was infinite in the way that some imagine that time must slow at the moment of death) and ended with the wheel pointing to egregiously awful.

The acting was atrocious, the directing was terrible, the writing was mind-bogglingly inane, and all in the service of a plot that was so idiotic that I would have felt sorry for the writer and thought it the fault of the producers had it not been for the fact that (a) the writer was the producer (and director), and (b) the movie thought it's plot so clever and so capital-"I" Important, that it left no room for pity.

And if the bad acting, directing, writing, editing, set/costume design, original score, sound effects, visual effects, and probably fucking grip work wasn't enough, the movie was unnecessarily exploitive (Hey look, little kids getting killed for no reason? Hey look, isn't that the time and day put up on the screen the the same time and day of the week when the first plane hit the world trade center? Hey look, doesn't that scene remind you just of the most horrifying image of 9/11?).

Don't see this movie. It's not good. If anybody tells you it was good, they are lying to you and probably hate you.

In case the title wasn't clear, I'm referring to M. Night Shayamalan's new "film" "The Happening". (and yes, I know, I have only myself to blame for going to see it).

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Gyuri.

[Incandenza]

Shit Happening

I found it interesting that the commercials for this were hyping it as Shayamalan's "first R-rated film," like they wanted to be kind of classy and not promised blood and gore, but still wanted everyone to know. I'm not sure if there is blood and gore, however.

And yes, the shot of the bodies falling in the commercial can only make you think of Sept. 11.

[Gyuri]

Shit Happening

There is plenty of blood and gore. It was like some weird combination of a Troma movie and one of those movies like "The Blob" except without the realism.

[Incandenza]

Shit Happening

The LA Weekly called it "nonsense," but did say that the first ten minutes were "genuinely frightening."

I haven't seen a full M.Night movie since the Sixth Sense. I watched part of Signs, and the first time you see an alien--on that TV broadcast of a home video from a kid's birthday party in Brazil--gave me chills, but lord the man takes himself very seriously. The whole marketing of his films and his m.o. just make me really irritated with him. He was good on that episode of Entourage, when he played himself as a egomaniacal prick. Too bad it wasn't an exaggeration.

[jason voorhees]

Shit Happening

Ebert liked it, although it got 20% on the Tomato-Meter.

Having read the script, it just seems like a movie that would be right up my alley. The concept is so f'n intriguing, and got me as excited as when I first heard about Infernal Affairs.

However, M. Night has a way of walking on the wrong side of comedy/tragedy too often (making tragedy comedy, that is,) so I guess that's the problem with this.

Great premise, however.

[erwin]

Shit Happening

.

I haven't seen this, but the things I've read about it remind me of something Peter Bradshaw said of another of Shyamalan's films in the Independent:

My theory is that Lady in the Water was an English-class creative composition he wrote when he was about 12 years old and thought: hmm, yeah, good idea.

.

[Gyuri]

Shit Happening

Ebert liked it, although it got 20% on the Tomato-Meter.

JV,

I really like Roger Ebert, and think he is a great film critic b/c he is willing to critique a film on what it's trying to do, and how it fits into its genre, instead of just disparaging something b/c it's not high art. However, he has a real weakness for films that express his political views, and tends to vastly overrate them. Reading his review, it seems like that is exactly what happened here.

Erwin,

That quote would be dead on for this movie as well, except instead of just seeming as if he wrote it when he was 12, it seems like he also directed it when he was 12 and hadn't re-touched the script since then. Despite some of the overwrought moralizing in his previous films (I'm thinking mainly of Signs), he has always been very effective at presenting a unique and interesting tone to his direction. Even his less good movies (note: I've not seen LitW) have, to me, always looked interesting and done a great job of building and sustaining tension (even if I'd feel a little underwhelmed when I thought back to what he was actually saying).

That is not the case in this one. I haven't witnessed so much derisive laughter in a theater in my life (admittedly, much of it may have come from me) at the choices of direction and acting. Just truly awful.

That being said, I'd be interested in someone else's take on it. So while I would certainly anti-recommend anyone spending their money on this, I'd be curious as to what other people thought.

[oscar mike]

Shit Happening

I saw this yesterday and Gyuri's completely nailed it. Total bobbins, don't waste your time.

[axel]

Shit Happening

Should i bother with it even if i liked 'The Village'?

[Spearmint Rhino]

Shit Happening

I still want the 2 hours of my life back that I wasted watching Signs, so I won't be going to see this.

[Gyuri]

Shit Happening

axel,

I didn't really like The Village, but I would say that it was 10 times the movie this was if it were meaningful to multiply by zero.

[Reed John]

Shit Happening

Richard Roeper liked it too, but the other guy on "At the Movies" thought it will definitely rank as one of the worst films of the year.

I'm going to miss it. I liked "The Village" and didn't think "Lady in the Water" was better that most people did (which isn't very much), but I thought "Unbreakable" was a disappointment and didn't think much of "Signs."

Also, I already heard what the big secret is in "The Happening" and can't imagine how something so simplistic and stupid could be made into a good film.

[jason voorhees]

Shit Happening

See, to me that's not simplistic and stupid. It ranks up there with the best Twilight Zone ideas.

It is strange that M. Night is the most lefty political filmmaker out there. Village was a Twilight Zone episode about the War On Terror, and this one's about the enviornment. Who knows, maybe both are so far ahead of their time that they'll be good in 30 years. Like Peeping Tom.

[Gyuri]

Shit Happening

JV,
Whether or not the premise of The Happening is good or bad, the execution of it is such, that I think it won't be thought of as ever to be good, except for, maybe, in a midnight movie cult classic sort of way.

I hope you see it, though, as I'd like a different perspective.

[Incandenza]

Shit Happening

Critic Kim Newman has a defense of the Happening on the Guardian's website, which basically boils down to "it's not that bad for its genre, Shyamalan's movies usually have some good moments, and he pisses off critics in general." It's not a very spirited defense...until this kicker of a last paragraph:

Can it be a kind of racism that the Indian-born, Philadelphia-raised auteur is hammered for his apparent character (or funny name) rather more than, say, Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee?

[Reed John]

Shit Happening

No, I don't think so. I think critics don't like his films because they don't like his films.

[Incandenza]

Shit Happening

And Spike Lee has never been the victim of attacks on his character or personality...puh-leeze.

[jason voorhees]

Shit Happening

My favorite response to Kim Newman's quote that Inca posted was "no."

I'm not going to pile on the Guardian. I'm starting to feel bad for them. The article when the one shit-for-brains mocked Glory Road because it had the audacity to portray a white coach coaching an all-black team to the NCAA National Championship in 1966 (I believe the quote was something along the lines of "as if that ever happened,') was the last straw for them as a serious paper - at least when it comes to film/tv.

I suppose it's a valid question, just as any stupid non-thought-out question that pops up in someone's head is valid. I mean, I'd hope there would be a higher thought process after a thought like that pops up, especially in an international paper, but you can't get everything I suppose.

People say M. Night is a horrible director, and I say he's a horrible actor and a decent-if-flawed director. I can assure everyone it's not because he's Indian.

Sayjiit Ray is one of the greatest filmmakers I've ever see. I don't say he's great because he's Indian, or he has a funnier name than M.Night Shamalayandingdong. Okay, maybe not as funny.

Nor did I think Spike Lee was a bad actor because he was black. Anymore than I wanted him to get the fuck off the screen and leave the acting to Denzel because he was black.

Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino have much better track records than M. Night. Neither has made an outright bomb, just as Spielberg at this time in his career was making almost all of the Top 10 money-grossers of all time.

M. Night's problem is his arrogance. Everything he makes is perfect, and nothing he does is wrong, and he is not capable of doing wrong. A script supervisor with a pimp hand, an old-school producer (along with old school money men who'd get in trouble with the ASPCA over the horse thing,) and he'd be making good movies in no time.

He has too little talent for the strength he has. He needs 5,000 rewrites, and Harvey Scissorhands to edit.

[KimCasey]

Shit Happening

Saw this (at last) last night. I wasn't expecting much, but loved the trailer, so thought it worth a gamble.

For what its worth, I quite enjoyed it, whilst acknowledging that it is deeply flawed. Marky Mark was incredibly bad, with Zooey Whetever not much better. But the thing that really stood out as odd, considering I never notice these things: Whay was the "boom" microphone so clearly visible in at least two scenes? Surely this should nver happen?

Some of the "horror" moments were well done, though - especially the car-into-the-tree moment. Who was MNS' character in this, by the way? Don't think I spotted him.

[Guest]

Shit Happening

I'm not sure but I've got a vague idea that visible booms are sometimes a projection problem, ie although they're there on the celluloid, the very top of the shot isn't intended to appear on the screen. That could be bollocks actually.

Re M Night, I didn't like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable was just a mess, so I gave up there although I did see The Village on a plane and it was weak. I think people dislike him not just for his mysticism and the general smugness of his films, but also for his self-aggrandisement. I remember his cameo in Unbreakable was totally superfluous and apparently in The Lady In The Water he cast himself as a great, world-changing writer. Also, isn't "M Night" a pure affectation? His initials are MN but it doesn't seem very racist to take the piss out of someone who makes "dark" movies and changes their middle name to "Night" as a marketing ploy.

I've read the synopsis of The Happening and can't see which bit is the twist?

[Incandenza]

Shit Happening

No, that's completely correct about the projection problems with the boom. They had the frame miscentered on the screen.

And I think I read that M. Night was somebody on the phone in the movie.

[erwin]

Shit Happening

.

I think I'm right in saying that if you see a boom, it's because you're watching an early print that hasn't gone through all the editing stages (which would include cropping to remove extraneous bits).

.