| The Happening | 
 enlarge | Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Actors: Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy Used: $5.35
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Avg. Customer Rating:  171 reviews
Sales Rank: 669
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 90
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: FOXD2253289D
UPC: 024543532897
EAN: 0024543532897
ASIN: B001DZOC6Y
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 10/07/2008 Starring: Mark Wahlberg John Leguizamo Run time: 91 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
You'd expect the end of the world to be no day in the park, but in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, a day in the park is where the end begins. One otherwise peaceful summer morning, New Yorkers strolling in Central Park come to a halt in unison, then begin killing themselves by any means at hand. At a high-rise construction site a few blocks over, it's raining bodies as workers step off girders into space. And all the while, the city is so quiet you can hear the gentle breeze in the trees. That breeze carries a neurotoxin, and what or who put it there (terrorists?) is a question raised periodically as the film unfolds. But the question that really matters is how and whether anybody in the Middle Atlantic states is going to stay alive. The Happening is Shyamalan's best film since The Sixth Sense, partly because he avoids the kind of egregious misjudgment that derailed The Village and Lady in the Water, but mostly because the whole thing has been structured and imagined to keep faith with the point of view of regular, unheroic folks confronted with a mammoth crisis. Focal characters are a Philadelphia high-school science teacher (Mark Wahlberg, excellent), his wife (Zooey Deschanel) and math-teacher colleague (John Leguizamo), and the latter's little girl (Ashlyn Sanchez). Instinct says get out of the cities and move west; most of the film takes place in the delicately picturesque Pennsylvania countryside, with menace hovering somewhere in the haze. There are no special effects (apart from a wind machine and some breakaway glass), but the movie manages to be deeply unsettling in the matter-of-factness of its storytelling. Especially effective is its feel for what we might call the surrealism of banality. One warning sign that someone has been infected by the neurotoxin is irrational or erratic speech and behavior, yet Shyamalan has a genius for dialogue that sounds normal and everyday as it's spoken, yet flies apart grenade-like a second later as its logic (or illogic) sinks in. Then there's Deschanel's eye-rolling dodginess about the messages some guy has been leaving on her cellphone. Or the fellow (Frank Collis) who addresses his greenhouse plants as though they were his children--has a stray toxic zephyr wafted his way, or is this just his idea of normal? --Richard T. Jameson
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Stills from The Happening (Click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 166 more reviews...
 tricky December 5, 2008
This is a tricky movie. I watched it with my husband who agreed with most of you. Saying that it was long and relitivly pointless. However I found it quite different. I enjoy a film that doesn't put it all out there. If it doesn't require any thinking on your part then it really isn't very good. I'm not saying that I kept guessing because he let you know what was happening, but it instilled doubt in the minds of the characters. I did not think that the female lead was a very good actress in this movie but Mark Walburg shined and the old lady was scary as hell. I saw a movie a few years back called The Virgin Suicides. The youngest is always trying to kill herself and then after succeeding the rest follow her. There really wasn't a reason. The movie allowed the viewer to contemplate it and draw their own conclusion. The Happening was like that. If your one who likes to think about it and draw your own conclusions as well as putting yourself in the characters shoes this is a really good movie. On the otherhand, if you watch a movie to pass the time and get a drink without pausing, then possibly try something requiring a little less thought.
Better Than Expected December 4, 2008
I've been a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's movies since the Sixth Sense. Unbreakable is a really overlooked gem, and Signs was a cool take on the alien invasion cliche. There is a slower, more deliberate pace to his movies compared to most Hollywood thrillers, somewhat reminiscent of Hitchcock. However, his past few movies have taken a slide in quality. I found the Village to be somewhat disappointing,with a strong beginning but a weak finish, though it was still watchable and reasonably entertaining. But then there was the Lady in the Water. I really don't know what to say- that movie was just plain terrible. I think it was one of the worst movies I saw in 2006.
When The Happening was released in theaters, I sort of wanted to see it, but I never got around to it. Bad buzz and too many other good movies this summer kept me away. So I finally got around to seeing it on DVD, and I'm happy to say I really enjoyed it.
The movie is a disaster movie of sorts, but it's not exactly clear what kind of disaster is going on. People just start killing themselves. Trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible, the movie follows schoolteacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma as they flee the deadly and mysterious "happening." The movie is creepy and tense in a fairly original way.
Don't buy the negative hype on this one. Check it out, you might be surprised. It's a bit slow, but it's pretty good and worth watching.
Shyamalan's worse is still quite decent December 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I know most people hated this movie and I agree it had many problems. However, I actually liked the strange quirky characters and the film did create quite a bit of tension! It was mostly enjoyable. (I confess, I have loved all of his other films, so I may have a bias!)
The issues, as I see them, are:
1.) Deschanel and Wahlberg's story was not quite rich enough to satisfy on its own. This could have remedied by adding to Leguizamo's story -- his character was in a perfect position to show what was happening in the cities.
2.) Shyamalan seemed far too excited about his R rating so there was a goodly bit of gratuitous gruesomeness that didn't really add to the story. He forgot that won't you barely glimpse is far more terrifying than what is right in front of your face.
 An awful movie.... December 1, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Al Gore would probably like this movie, but Michelle Polk rates it at zero! A gory movie which made little sense. Oh, I get the whole propaganda theme but the movie itself was just stupid. Suicide after suicide is committed because the plants are angry with humans. It might make a good sci-fi book but to watch those scenes over and over was just too rough!
Graceful Characters, Interesting Story November 30, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm noticing an interesting trend in Mr. Shyamalan's movies. While the "threat" or "main issue" of the movie is often dramatic and horrifying, the dialogue and relationships of the characters are usually delicate and graceful. There's a beautiful subtly to his movies that tug at your heart ever so gently. All of his main characters have wounded souls that, somehow through the difficulty they confront in the course of the story, figure out their greatest strengths. Not every ending is a perfect one and not every loose end is neatly tied and I wonder if that's why so many are walking away from his movies disappointed. There's no bang-bang shoot em' up or excessive gratuitous sex in every scene. I really walk away feeling connected to the people in his films. They seem like everyday people (with the exception of a few supernatural powers in some of his films - lol) with everyday internal struggles and I like that.
The Happening's characters are really no different than any of Mr. Shyamalan's other films, but the story is definitely different. No one ever fully answers the question of what is happening, yet there is a perfectly scientific plausibility to the event. I felt a myriad of emotions from fear and panic to being intrigued with how the story unfolded and ultimately how it ended.
This was a good movie. I think what so many viewers are dissatisfied with is M. Night Shyamalan's style. He's a unique director and producer just like Quentin Terantino is... you either like his style or you don't. The Happening was a great story with great characters and a lot of heart.
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