It's creepy, silly fun. And if it came from anyone else, it would be recognized as such. One thing is certain: The man hasn't lost his ability to entertain.
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06/13/08
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The Happening (2008)
18
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:169
Fresh:31
Rotten:138
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle.
Theatrical Release:Jun 13, 2008 Wide
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
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Reviews for The Happening
Basically it's a half-hour Twilight Zone episode blown up to feature length.
06/13/08
Nobody gets the time or the treatment to become a character you'd actually care about, which makes the general planet-in-peril theme of the movie kind of moot.
06/13/08
No mere actor could possibly escape the toxic dialogue oozing from M. Night's pen -- that's merciless.
06/13/08
It's downright stupid.
06/13/08
The shock value wears off quickly and writer-director Shyamalan strands us in a boring cautionary tale with an infantile eco-message about humanity needing to live in harmony with nature -- or else.
06/13/08
Top CriticMr. Shyamalan is plagued by a bad case of Robin Williams Syndrome, characterized by a desire to inspire and change the world through mediocre entertainment â in this case, accompanied by ample and frequently creative bloodshed.
06/13/08
Top CriticIf this was the movie to rescue the reputation of self-styled genius Shyamalan after the disaster of Lady in the Water, then it's back to the old drawing board.
06/13/08
Shyamalan'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 CriticA comeback for the director, but not quite enough of one...an almost equal combination of genuine creepiness and absolute foolishness.
06/13/08
...bad in more than just an everyday, sure-does-suck kind of way.
06/13/08
The film becomes less comprehensible as it goes along, and the audience -- expecting a patented M. Night ending -- is left with no answers, explanation, or narrative closure.
06/13/08
It's also a bit sneaky of Shyamalan to set us up for a paranoid 9/11 thriller and then go all Greenpeace on us. He's trying to be socially conscious but he doesn't have the reformist's temperament. He has the temperament of a self-infatuated messiah.
06/13/08
You feel like you're not watching the end of the world but the end of a career.
06/13/08
Shyamalan wants the rustling of wind through greenery to evoke the same shudders in The Happening that the gathering of birds did in Hitchcock's The Birds
06/13/08
The greatest excuse yet to get that anti-M. Night petition started. The last thing we want is a future of Shyamalan films with the knowledge that we all could have done something sooner.
06/13/08
Shyamalan crafts a somewhat chilling cautionary tale; it just might have been more chilling if he had been a little less cautious.
06/13/08
M. Night Shyamalan has morphed from "the next Spielberg" to a punching bag for critics and audiences alike. The Happening reminds us why.
06/13/08
Shyamalan's latest film is the first in a long time that I can't defend.
06/13/08
If what audiences are looking for is a thrill ride, or even a pervasive eeriness, The Happening's just not happening.
06/13/08
Latest News for The Happening
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June 16, 2008:
WNYC RADIO: A numbing polemical morality tale in dreary doomsday thriller clothing, this dull downer for all its mass panic attack high alert mode, may be more effective in unintentionally boring people to death. 
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