M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening"

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I liked lady in the water so obviously y'all suck :smoker:
 
update:from
firstshowing.net

visit link to view the trailer crazy!!!

The latest M. Night Shyamalan film is The Happening, a thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel as well as John Leguizamo and Spencer Breslin. Some sort of natural crisis causes people to begin killing themselves, but I didn't realize how intense it would be until now. And for fear of knowing too much, I'm not looking into any more of the plot. I prefer to be surprised, and for those who haven't watched it yet, this will surprise the hell out of you. This new teaser trailer is a very short introduction to The Happening, but damn does it hype this movie up.
 
I really enjoyed The Sixth Sense and Signs. Looking forward to this one.
 
He's gotten worse and worse with every new film. I have high hopes for this one though.
 
I love his work and there's nothing he's done I haven't enjoyed. His cintematography is excellent, the stories are very original and he gets great performances from his actors. I'd rate his films so far like this:

1. TIE between Sixth Sense and Unbreakable
2. The Village
3. Signs
4. Lady in the Water
 
I will pose a simple question.

Has he gotten worse with every movie or, inversely, has the expectations that you have become so stale and stereotypical that if he doesn't deliver gimmicky crap, you get pissed off?

Let's address each of his movies from the perception of a movie critic.

"The Sixth Sense" kept people in suspense throughout and related to the supernatural and brilliantly played against our very own perceptions of what we were viewing. He played the viewer along, allowing to form their own expected standards and then turning that around at the end. A well made movie with great acting all around.

"Unbreakable" was a comic book related story and as such Shyamalan framed every scene as you would expect in a comic book. This was very apparent on my first viewing and I had to tip my hat to the film-maker that he is just because of his exceptional use of props to frame the main characters.

Great characters, great development and a brilliant Ying/Yang movie which shows things to be in balance even when we least expect them to be. I thought this movie was superior to Sixth Sense simply because the acting was so much better.

"Signs" was a movie about purpose. Notice that each movie has a different "theme". I personally thought this was his weakest movie but the acting again was decent and there was more comedy in this particular movie. He also had his strongest cameo yet in this movie. An above average movie all around and because it delivered some cheap thrills, the masses loved it.

"The Village" was a movie about relationships in a manner of speaking but more so about how we would react in a world or situation of our own creation and to what lengths people would go to live that lie. It is a movie about human nature at its basest and was, after Unbreakable, one of his strongest efforts. The entire scene near the end where Brody dies was weak, but otherwise great acting all around and the phobia's he plays on are similar to what we experience on a daily basis.

"Lady in the Water" was, in my eyes, his cleverest movie. The fact it did not do as well commercially was people's expectations, not the actual product. The movie is different from the others he has made because he doesn't base it on human nature, but rather he attacks and exploits the standard stereotypical crutches that other writers use when telling their story. He does this and then uses it to tell his own, quite fanciful story.

The bond between people and the atypical hero are a common theme and he has his longest and best role in any of his movies in this one. Every character has a purpose and the movie shows how the people arrive at their goal/purpose in life and the trials and tribulations. Unlike "Signs", the persons purpose is demonstrated in a different way and the clever little story unfolds much like a bed-time story, which was the purpose. The hope that is brought forth in this movie makes it one of the lighter of his stories and I enjoyed it a fair bit.

There are undoubtedly going to be people who are reluctant to be open-minded and who will trash the simply because of it's pacing but.

If you go in with a formulaic view on how things are supposed to be, you will likely enjoy attrocious garbage like Spiderman 3 and similar crap like X-Men 3. If you are a fan of quality movies and story telling that doesn't follow the same stale formula, you will enjoy Shyamalan's work.
 
I had the Sixth Sense figured out before I walked into the theater. You can only be told so many times that its got an ending that you gotta see to believe, until you over think it and figure it out.

Unbreakable was full of potential. I'm still waiting on a sequel.

Signs: Should have been called Sighs. Maddox put it better then I ever could have: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=signs

Had The Village figured out too. At this point I'm so expectant of a twist ending that I look too deep into his stuff and I'm just not surprised. Yet another reason why, the trailer aside, I want to know nothing of The Happening.

Lady in the Water, started watching it on HBO (or Showtime or whatever it was) and fell asleep. I can't form a real opinion except to say that I NEVER fall asleep in movies.

Bottom line on M Night is he's got a perfect arrangement for a creative person. He answers to no one but himself. Yet when he makes a bad movie he's also got no one to blame but himself. He needs a string of movies without a big twist, in fact, not having a twist might just be a twist. Now I'm not sure what to think. At any rate, I'm still a fan, and I'm still hoping for the best.
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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