21st
Movie Review - The Happening
So being the shameless M. Night Shyamalan fan that I am, I went to see “The Happening” today with my sister.
The premise (without giving too much away) is that people suddenly start going crazy and killing themselves. In the trailer you see them jumping off of buildings, lying under lawnmowers, etc. etc. etc. Pretty gruesome stuff that was even more gruesome when they actually showed all of it in the movie.
However, if you know me at all you know that I live for bloody horror movies. In fact, the more horror violence, the better.
The leads in the movie were Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel (probably misspelled her last name, but whatever). I’ve seen several movies with Zooey, and I must say that she’s definetely growing on me. She tends to play the more eccentric role though, and this was a bit different for her. Bravo.
Mark Wahlberg’s acting disappointed me. Half the time I couldn’t tell if he was joking or being serious by the way he delivered the lines. That was probably my biggest problem in the film.
The music in the film was done by James Newton Howard, who also did the music for “Signs” (another good movie, in my opinion). It was mostly string-based (the majority was violin and/or cello solo). Pretty run of the mill stuff, but I appreciate the way Howard uses solo instruments to create a creepier feel to the music.
There was one major flaw that really bothered me in the movie, but I’m going to try to not give away too much of the plot by talking about it. Here’s a clue: Can you really make a house airtight by simply closing the doors and windows? I didn’t think so.
Overall, it wasn’t Shayamalan’s best film, but it definetely wasn’t the worst. I give it a 6.5/10.