*** Official THE HAPPENING Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Michael Elliott]

The tiger scene is where I started to look at the film as a "B" movie. It wasn't a LOL moment but it did make me giggle.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I don't really have anything to add, but I wanted to see RAF's comments repeated, since they're what revived this thread.

 

[JediFonger]

has any1 seen the behind the scenes making of or commenataries? what doe night say this is? did he intentionally make a B-movie spoof? if he did, then we're supposed to laugh at it.

 

[Ben Osborne]

He didn't use the word spoof, but he did have this to say:



To which I would respond: "Hey Night! You've been given $60 million and some pretty good actors to work with. Your credibility as a filmmaker is declining rapidly and completely gone in many people's mind. Try making an A-movie. You goal should be for people to say, 'That was an M. Night Shyamalan film that wasn't terrible. Maybe he hasn't lost it.'"

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Quite enjoyed Lady. Giamatti is excellent in it.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Please. We don't need anymore glossy "A" horror movies made with $200 million dollar CGI effects, but with no feeling and no characterization. Hopefully more people will wake up to the good old fashioned genre work Shyamalan is doing, if they aren't already too blown out by all the Hollywood blockbusters.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Just because Shyamalan is doing "old-fashioned genre work" doesn't mean it's GOOD. As I've mentioned, I want to like his movies, but the last few have been varying degrees of bad. The Happening was so stupid it was insulting - though unintentionally hilarious. I saw no feeling and/or characterization there; I saw a lot of one-dimensional characters - none of whom mattered to me - and silly situations.

And it's not like Shyamalan is making indie movies for $500,000. The Happening cost $60m - cheap by super-blockbuster standards, but not exactly pocket change...

 

[Ben Osborne]

Yes, I was not suggesting that Shyamalan make glossy special effects extravaganzas. I would love to see him continue to make movies like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and even The Village. With those, I didn't get the sense that was he was trying to create B movies.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I agree with you that at this point, Shyamalan's goal should be to simply make a DECENT movie. The last few have been so terrible that he needs to prove he can create a competent film that doesn't seem like an embarassment to most who see it...

 

[Michael Elliott]

Very true. There are countless horror movies getting great reviews but very little attention and they don't need $60 million.

 

[rvanward]

I truly liked The Happening. But then i thought the movie was about Americans taking their paranoia and fear to the logical conclusion; not about a revolt of nature.