M. Night Shyamalan's form of late has been mysteriously mediocre since Signs (and even that was borderline disappointing) but the excellent Sixth Sense still gives the movie goer some hope that one day M. Night's great storytelling abilities will return to form. Previews of The Happening suggest that the day may have arrived.
Where?
Cinema 2, Hammersmith, 6.30pm (Got there a little late and missed The X-Files preview!)
Comments?
What has gone wrong with M. Night Shyamalan? He used to be such an adept screenwriter and a director of atmospheric, tense and intriguing tales. Unique and entertaining. Now his movies have the quality of direct-to-video rubbish (and without any sex or dodgy gross out scenes to keep us amused).
His form has dropped off considerably and it's hard to reconcile The Sixth Sense to his latest outing. It's like watching your favourite AFL footy team go from a winning streak at the start of the season to getting walloped by 100 points by Round 11 (or in soccer parlance: 6 nil by mid-December) with exactly the same team on the field. It's very hard to understand why the quality has dropped. Complacency perhaps? Lack of pressure? Surely M. Night can no longer live off the cred he received after his brilliant debut, but that said, that was the main reason why I went to see The Happening in the first place.
Why is it so bad? Poor acting (Walhberg looks out of place, Zooey Deschanel is horrid), dialogue as corny and unrealistic as anything George Lucas has conjured up, and a story that lacks direction, tension and a satisfying ending. I won't go into it too much here so as not to give away the plot (a policy on this blog), but let it be said that surely M. Night could've come up with a more thoughtful and clever way of making a political statement (if that's what he's trying to do here - not entirely sure).
This would have been an average Twilight Zone episode on a good day.
And can I just add: I can't believe how sloppy a director can be to allow a shot to make it through to the final cut where the boom mike makes an appearance. M. Night committed this cardinal sin (in my book, anyway) four times. Count them - FOUR times. And we're not just talking about "blink-and-you-miss-it" type appearances - one of the mikes, with a nice bright red casing, hovers around the actors for at least two minutes! At one stage, I thought these errors were intentional and that M.Night's customary twist in the tale ending would reveal a Truman Show style caper. Unfortunately, I wasn't that fortunate.
Would I pay to see it?
A resounding no.
Rating?
2 out of 10 (a point lost for the cameo boom mike (who was on the screen so much, it should've got an acting credit))
Post Movie Quote:
"That's the first time I've tut-tuted at the end of a movie. Good night M. Night." Daryl Nilbett
3 comments:
Update: Apparently The Lady In The Water has mike gaffs too. Pretty sloppy stuff.
I've only managed to sit through two of Shyamalan's films, one (obviously) being The Sixth Sense.
The other was 'The Village' and that was only because I was trying to pass time on a flight.
On that outing alone, you would have to pay me to go and watch one of his films...
I hate to admit this, but even though I was laughing at how bad it was from start to finish, I just thoroughly enjoyed watching "The Happening" ... Unlike "Lady in the Water" and "The Village" it at least didn't make me want to claw my own eyes out to make it stop!
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