The Happening

More like "Nothing Happening", this movie starts out moderately intriguing, and then lapses into silliness, maudlin attempts to engage the audience emotionally, lame attempts to engage intellectually, and then just becomes ridiculous. A scene that is supposed to be tense/scary involves Mark Wahlberg talking to a plant, trying to convince it that mankind is no threat. Despite his earnestness, and the director's attempts at building some kind of tension, the scene is more funny than scary, hardly what one wants from a suspense thriller. How reassuring that the threat to the world is abated by a bad science teacher with only a thin understanding of the scientific method, who's best advice to people is to "stay ahead of the wind" (surely it would be better to be behind the wind rather than in front of it).

M. Night Shyamalan should not go gently - he should just go.