There are some creepy moments but overall The Happening is a bit of a non-event.
Comment
06/20/08
The Happening (2008)
12
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:4
Rotten:30
Average Rating:3.8/10
Consensus: The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $64,384,941
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan directs this thriller about a science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) who tries to escape with his wife and friend's daughter after an apocalyptic event. THE HAPPENING costars Zooey... [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Reviews for The Happening
1 - 16 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticAnother disappointment from M, despite some disturbing violence and chilly moments.
06/13/08
Top CriticThe movie is a bummer, from beginning to end.
06/13/08
Top CriticA tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters.
06/13/08
Top CriticMaybe Shyamalan has been plugged into those other worlds for too long. Judging from what is on offer here, he needs to become more acquainted with the emotional language of this one.
06/13/08
Top CriticWhile hardly his worst work, this film is so far off his high water mark that it begs the question of whether M. Night Shyamalan will ever truly return.
06/13/08
Top CriticExcluding moments of chilling effectiveness, this could fairly be called his worst film. Even his saving grace of keen directorial acumen visibly loses cohesion on screen.
06/12/08
Top CriticSadly for Mr. Shyamalan, the ideas that have been coming to him since his brilliant first hit The Sixth Sense are progressively worthy of less merit and more deserving of ridicule.
06/10/08
Top CriticThe Happening is an awful letdown, yet it leaves you with something new, as a gently waving tree -- that classical image of pastoral tranquillity -- mutates into a harbinger of doom.
06/23/08
Top CriticIt almost dares you to roll your eyes or laugh at certain scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. But, you know what, I appreciated this creatively offbeat, daring sci-fi mind-trip.
06/16/08
Top CriticWoeful clunker of a paranoid thriller.
06/13/08
Top CriticA patchy, uninspired eco-thriller whose R rating (a first for Shyamalan) looks more like a B.O. hindrance than an artistic boon.
06/13/08
Top CriticShyamalan tries to give the events a scientific underpinning. But his logic is spotty, so what are meant to be eerie moments are not convincing.
06/13/08
Top CriticShyamalan's approach is more effective than smash-and-grab plot-mongering. His use of the landscape is disturbingly effective. The performances by Wahlberg and Deschanel bring a quiet dignity to their characters.
06/13/08
Top CriticThe Happening is a divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense and a solid lead performance from Mark Wahlberg.
06/12/08
Top CriticThe Happening stutter-steps its way in this direction and that to a disappointing ending.
06/12/08
Top Critic1 - 16 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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June 16, 2008:
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