Sunday, December 07, 2008

The Happening rental


MrB was in St. Louis all weekend visiting his family, so I was left in charge, and being home alone I decided to rent movies that he didn't want to see. The Happening is one that got really stinky reviews (19% - a rotten tomatoes splat) - and some of the "good, a.k.a. fresh" reviews on the site are very generously given, such as the good one that says "Undoubtedly M. Night Shyamalan's weakest thriller to date..." OK, so I did not have my hopes up high, but, unlike some of M. Night's other recent movies, the trailer for this one looked pretty good - and Mark Wahlberg was in it. I was intrigued. I thought he was absolutely great in The Departed, and liked him in Shooter too. He's intense, and I think the premise of this movie needs intensity, but instead the script is too silly. It's a waste of actors. {sigh} (Does anyone recommend Max Payne? Haven't seen it.) The basic plot/premise for The Happening is actually pretty good, I mean there is a lot of potential with this scenario to just scare the bejeebers out of you. The romantic subplot is really NOT happening, there's no chemistry, it's juvenile and it really bugs me when a movie plot suggests that a child will patch up your love life. Hope that's not too much of a spoiler.

The title of the movie injects this old Supremes song into my head. Maybe it would have been a good one to put in the movie somewhere. It would have left the viewer with something very memorable - a damned catchy tune!
ADDENDUM: MrB is back from his trip, and informs me that this song has already been used as the theme for a movie called "The Happening" from 1967. Somehow I missed that one. I'll bet it's worth seeing. Can't__get__song__out__of__head__grrrrrr

1 comment:

Freida Bee said...

Ohh, I almost rented "The Happening" for my Mr. Bee and myself the other day, but didn't. Kinda glad.

(Oh, my verfification word... "dorksisr." I like that one.)