m night shymalan's 'the happening'

Getcher twist ending guesses in now.

Anyway I selflessly nominate s1ocki to once again throw himself on a viewing of this movie to absorb the blast and spare all of us.

it turns out to be a good film after all?

xpost

it turns out to be a good film after all?

Truly the kind of trick only a master strategist like M. Night could pull off.

hahaha "there's some sort of...event...happening..."

Oy vey, that trailer.

calvin johnson ruins rock for another generation

http://thephoenix.com/secure/uploadedImages/The_Phoenix/Home_Entertainment/The_Ultimate/bloodening.jpg

mass suicides brought on by viewing of shitty M. Night Shamalamadingdong "film"

Given the title, I think Ebert's going to have a whole lotta fun with this one.

"This ISN'T my happening and it's GROSSING me out."

A film about spontaneous mass suicide OH BOY NOW THAT'S A THRILLER.

fuck this guy

Ned with the zing

Just getting it out of the way now.

As David walks away in disgust, Elijah reveals that he realized who he was "because of the kids", proclaiming that they "called me Mr. Glass". The final captions reveal that David informed the police about Elijah who was then arrested and sent to an institute for the criminally insane

I lolled Ned - besides, this bozo will never make a movie as great as BOTVOTD

One of those jumpers in the trailer is Mitt Romney.

What's Happening '08

"Rahj put down the knife AWWWWWW, shit, that's a lot of blood."

mass suicides brought on by viewing of shitty M. Night Shamalamadingdong "film"

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, February 5, 2008 5:46 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

This is literally the first, serious idea I had for what the plot twist might be. TURNS OUT THEY ALL WATCHED THE MOVIE THEY'RE IN, REALIZED THEY ARE ALL FICTIONAL... HARJGOHJWRH<H.

http://www.impawards.com/1993/posters/last_action_hero_ver2.jpg

In a bizarre twist on this performance art, the Improv Everywhere troup freezes the world in a state of shock with mass faked suicides.

The manner in which the "suicidal" person acts out their own "death" will be determined by the using something that begins with the first letter of the name of whatever they are looking at when they hear the word "happen" or any derivation thereof, and "maiming" a part of themselves "fatally" in a body part that coincides with the first letter of the next word they hear AFTER "happen" or any derivation thereof.

Example: Mark Walberg says to a member of the troupe "This type of shit happens every day." The person would then take a mango or a melon or a marker or something else that starts with the letter "M" and would then "maim" their own epiglottis or elbow or ear, to correspond with "every."

Morgan Freeman, playing the President of the United States, declares on national television that they need to go "tactical" with their solution and decides to "make sure this shit never happens again." The entire troupe then "maims" their ass.

ok that was too complicated

That's the twist! Nobody gets it!

AHA!

lolol @ daniel esq

i feel like he should be given a job making trailers for other people to make movies out of

why is this guy allowed to make movies

i thought the one with the grumpywumpus in the pool or whatever tanked bad

why is this guy allowed to make movies

The Sixth Sense

http://i2.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/d7/26/5714_1.JPG

he's allowed to make movies because he's only made one post-sixth sense movie that failed to make money. and even that (lady in the water) had an ok opening weekend and probably made back its money overseas & dvd.

the village would have been better as a smurfs origin tale as s1ocki fantasized

I think the Shyamalan is actually an apt director who's good at depicting ordinary human beings, but because of the success of 6th Sense or whatever his talent is kinda wasted on doing "smart" but ultimately shallow thrillers. I mean, movies like Signs or The Village might've actually been very good without his fixation on twist endings. For the most part, Signs is actually quite a moving depiction of what happens to everyday people in a time of a national crisis, but then Shyamalan has to ruin everything with his "I believe in miracles" ending. Similarly, The Village might have been an interesting film if it had actually presented its twist ending as its initial premise, and then focused on analyzing the internal politics of a close-knit conservative community.

allan_kaprow_the_courtyard.jpeg

Gotta love the IMDB synopsis for The Happening!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/synopsis

Tuomas, otm. I also think he comes up with some original visual ideas, as well, which I really enjoy in movies.

After Signs, I pretty much stopped looking for the twist ending (although I totally called the ending of The Village) and just tried to enjoy the movies themselves.

I really liked Unbreakable. Samuel L. Jackson was a great comic style bad guy.

Yeah I'm in a smaaaaaaaaaaaaall minority of people who liked Unbreakable I think.

Unbreakable was as good an origin story for a superhero (he gets his powers, has to adjust to them, ponders upon the ethical implications of having such powers, meets his nemesis), but the problem is that no sequels ever followed, so as such the movie is sorta incomplete, like a pilot episode for a tv series that never materialized.

It was a good comic book, with Hollywood stars and dark shading. Whats not to like, right Hoos?

Tuomas - possibly, but Hollywood does not work like Marvel comics.

Yeah I know, that's why Shyamalan shouldn't have done a Marvel origin story as a Hollywood film.

I like the scene from The Village when Blind Opie is wandering around the forest being pursued by 'monsters.'

But after paying money to see Signs, I won't be making that mistake again.

I'm with teh HOOS on Unbreakable... until Act III, anyway. There are some really moving shots and very effective scenes. Tuomas OTM as well - dude's an excellent craftsman and observer of stillnesses and sadnesses and thwarted ambitions and emotions held in check and could have a fine movie in him yet if he didn't insist on a) writing them and b) being clever and c) let alone the New Hitchcock.

What amazing is how consistently each of his flix is worse than the last.

Yeah, I guess that's true, 6th Sense was the only one I thought was a good movie even despite the twist ending.

could have a fine movie in him yet if he didn't insist on a) writing them

Absolutely the truth. See also the Coen Brothers with "No Country for Old Men" Almost 20 years of their own stuff - cult following, critical acclaim. Adaptation of novel = Multiple Oscar Noms

Not that an Oscar nom is the end all and be all of film quality, but its a more complete film that a lot of their other stuff.

god please don't let m night make a bleak chamber drama

oh wait he's done that for like six movies in a row now, nm

also blam i think you're forgetting 'fargo'

ya and also they DID make good movies before no country so...

also blam i think you're forgetting 'fargo'

No, they wrote that one, too, and I would put "No Country" above that in my rankings of Coen Bros. movies. Absolutely.

ya and also they DID make good movies before no country so...

No argument there. I just think that No Country is a more focused, solid movie than their earlier stuff. Even Fargo, which is probably the next one on that scale. I think they outsmart themselves sometimes.

And ShamalamaBabyinmylamalamdingdongheyhey would probably greatly benefit from the collaborative elements of working with a writer.

pro tip: writing screenplays but not directing is the exact opposite of what he should be doing

― caek, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 3:31 AM (13 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

truth bomb

― s1ocki, Wednesday, October 29, 2008 5:15 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

;_; http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/devil/

ya.

why doesn't this guy do a movie where the twist is that it's ACTUALLY GOOD

oh man the predictable idiocy of a human vs. demon movie in the thrilling context of an elevator

who'm i kidding, totally gonna see that

me2

well, i'll netflix it at the very least

Ya think?

lol nice

he said it was horrible?

what?...no!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hksKLHt9Kzg

http://www.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/907264_o.gif

my sister and i say "what? noooooooo!" all the time now thanks to this movie.

yeah a friend and i have taken up that mantle also...

There appears to be an event happening on Channel 4 right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8PxA6IVdYo

An attempt to claim the film as a boldly experimental success:

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/26050/looking-back-at-m-night-shyamalans-the-happening

This attempt fails.

dear god

In some senses, it's almost an anti-film

on this, we agree.....

The script here is so carefully constructed, so multi-layered and so rhythmic it's almost poetry. The fact that much of the dialogue was deemed simply ridiculous by audiences saddens me because every word feels so perfectly in place. The opening line of the film is "I forgot where I am". Anyone who's experienced depression need look no further than this beautifully crafted sentence to understand the nature of Shyamalan's vision here.

the second line of the film is "You're at the place where the killers meet to decide what to do with the crippled girl." not only is this a clumsily written line, but it's also badly delivered by the actress, and also if you're reading a book and you lose your place, how the fuck does the person sitting next to you know where you left off? two lines in and the movie is already dumb nonsense.

please say they were talking about the band The Killers

Brandon Flowers is...the Professional.

the article is so batshit that for once the comments aren't as golden, but there are some choice ones in there

i thought that article was a joke until about 3/4 of the way through.

on the plus side i'm watching the "what... nooo" clip again.

on the plus side i'm watching the "what... nooo" clip again.

― Shamrock Shoe (LocalGarda), Friday, June 21, 2013 10:40 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

lol

Was the tagline really "there appears to be an event happening"?

It pains me to this day that the tagline wasn't our own al leong's 'oh no it is happening' from the start of the thread.

oddly enough i think the article gets at some of the qualities that make it entertaining (only shyamalan i own! got it for 3 bucks-ish), but unfortunately does that stupid auteurist "AND HE MEANT TO DO THAT. ALL OF THAT." thing to an absurd degree.

I watched the clip of them watching the dude getting torn apart by lions and when the woman with the cellphone said "Mother of God, what kind of terrorists are these?" I almost hurt myself laughing so hard

This guy almost had me going that he was serious for a bit. But then that last word.

I watched the clip of them watching the dude getting torn apart by lions and when the woman with the cellphone said "Mother of God, what kind of terrorists are these?" I almost hurt myself laughing so hard

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rO8U6vh1Igo/T3NVuj21emI/AAAAAAAALuw/QvBncaiDwTY/s1600/Ohne%2BTitel-173.jpg

I haven't seen that film but the article makes me want to.

the stuff about it being an inversion of B-movie disaster tropes is pretty good "I *meant* to do that" slight of hand, but it breaks down the farther he goes with it

also you should totally see this kyle it is breathtaking

i just find those "this b-movie with some interesting qualities was made by THE GAMEMASTER" articles so absurd. Like yeah, Starship Troopers has some neat references to fascist iconography but don't tell me the director of The Hollow Man casting Denise Richards was part of a grand plan or whatever. Any take on this kind of movie that doesn't acknowledge how many non-auteurist elements factor into production is just idiotic fantasizing.

ya except you're wrong about starship troopers

you picked the like one example in history when this actually is true

Yeah, barking up the wrong tree there.

How did you get involved with the "Starship Troopers" project, though? I look at the rest of your career and it kind of jumps out as random.

Neil Patrick Harris: Wow, thanks. "Troopers" was a grand spectacle while we were filming. $100 million budget, I think? So with a background in TV, I was certain I would never be cast. Thankfully, Paul Verhoeven doesn't watch a lot of television, and I guess I looked just Aryan enough to book the gig.

like, to that degree, though? I'm not denying the film is awesome, just that assumption that everything we see in such a film is part of an immaculate design. I mean, if Verhoeven has spoken about the usage of Denise Richards to further his subversive message lemme see cuz that's way cool.

I realize saying anything remotely irreverent about ST is a red flag, please don't let get it in the way of my larger point.

i do think PV deliberately cast young, pretty, vacant actors as part of his scheme

alright alright ignoring that i dared reach for the top of the mountain, i'm just saying starting from the perspective that a film is the flawless work of an individual and searching for evidence is for pea-brains.

i think my main argument with pieces like this is yes, this all could be shyamalan's BIG PLAN, but you're relying way too much on inferred intentions here—because the director wanted to pull one over on us or whatever doesnt mean it actually worked

esp when it's a film preceded by lady in the water and followed by devil and the last airbender, the possibility that we're dealing with a nutty rod serling wanna-be is far more logical

his new movie THE VISIT is happening-level bad, but not nearly as hilarious, fun, or adventurous. avoid at all costs. packed matinee laughed all the way thru and booed at the end

oh no it is the tenth anniversary of it happening

did it ever really stop happening tbf tho

The Happening 2: The Still Happening

The Happening 3: Shit Happened

ok i just need to get this out. at one point, kind of the suspense highlight of the movie, our protags run for their life from... a light breeze.

― s1ocki, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 1:52 PM bookmarkflaglink