Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Based on two reviews I read just today (in addition to the others I’ve seen as well), I have removed The Happening from the viewing queue. What follows may contain spoilers.

First negative review was Jan’s:

The Happening feels like someone came up with a really great concept: “Hey, what if the plants decided to get rid of humans?” “Yeah, and people just started dying!” “Yeah!” And then they filmed that. Leaving out one little thing… what was the point?

Here’s a synopsis:
The wind blows.
People get confused.
People kill themselves.
The wind blows.
More dead bodies.
The wind blows some more.
More different and inventive ways for people to kill themselves.
Then it stops.
Or does it…
The End.

Don’t worry… there’s no spoiler here. The spoiler would be letting it slip that they forgot an ending for the movie. The unexpected surprise was that there was no more movie, when the credits rolled at just over 90 minutes.

Basically the same thing that Jared said, but he has the line that made me snort out loud in my office.

Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.
This movie is not just bad. It is beyond bad. It is Ed Wood bad, only not entertainingly bad.
I want to set this movie on fire and pee on it.

Italics mine. So funny.

And sad. I like Shamaylan’s movies. I even gave Lady in the Water 3 stars for all of its flaws. I loved Signs and The Sixth Sense and count myself among others who consider Unbreakable to be his best.

But for him to get such awful reviews means I will not bother. Sad.

Watch me when the DVD comes out, though. I’ll find myself trying to rent it. You who saw it need to stop me, OK?