[A]n astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution that, after seeing it, one almost wonders whether it was real or imagined.
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09/22/08
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The Happening (2008)
18 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 163
Fresh: 30
Rotten:133
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Consensus: The Happening begins with promise, but unfortunately descends into an incoherent and unconvincing trifle.
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release: Jun 13, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $64,384,941
Synopsis: M. Night Shyamalan directs this thriller about a science teacher (Mark Wahlberg) who tries to escape with his wife and friend's daughter after an apocalyptic event. THE HAPPENING costars Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo.... [More]
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
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Reviews for The Happening
Top Critic It's a great idea. A silent, unknown killing machine knocking people off while a science teacher tries to figure out why. But it just didn't work.
08/27/08
Shyamalan's latest is an improvement, but a full-fledged comeback ain't happening.
08/08/08
Shyamalan is a master at a visual iconic moment - but the "filler" (you might have learned about it in English class by this name: "story") gets weaker and weaker every film.
07/17/08
The M. Knight brilliance is there in quick jolts of suspense and terror, but those moments are the exception in this otherwise flat little thriller.
07/11/08
Shyamalan's religious ideas are a lot like Bush's: Nearly theology free.
07/10/08
In his latest ominous opus, M. Night Shyamalan offers up low-intensity thrills that fail to match the shivery shudders of his best work (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS). His patented approach - mixing domestic drama with horror - plays out on a much larger canvas
07/04/08
It is the first film of his career that feels incompetent and utterly gratuitous at times.
07/03/08
Shyamalan creates another urban myth with this slow burning thriller. But it never quite comes to life, due to stiff directing and acting
07/02/08
Usually Shyamalan can hide his limitations as a screenwriter behind his skill as a director. Here, that skill fails him as well, and the whole movie falls apart.
07/01/08
Un nuevo fiasco de M. Night Shyamalan, que sigue siendo un director con ideas interesantes (tanto argumentales como visuales) pero que necesita urgentemente la ayuda de un buen guionista.
06/28/08
The Happening is an awful letdown, yet it leaves you with something new, as a gently waving tree -- that classical image of pastoral tranquillity -- mutates into a harbinger of doom.
06/23/08
Top Critic This major studio release asks the question, how long can you survive on past glories? Shame on Shyamalan.
06/22/08
An atmospheric tale that rewards with genuine shocks instead of big bang explosions and a hamburger tie in.
06/22/08
[N]owhere near the level of The Sixth Sense, and not quite as good as the subsequent Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village, but at least it suggests that the awfulness of Lady in the Water may have been an aberration.
06/20/08
Shyamalan's ideas might have more impact in a half-hour 'Twilight Zone' episode, where they would be shorn of some of the pretensions that seem to be mandatory in the feature-length work of a one-time Best Director Oscar nominee.
06/20/08
It's hard to believe that at one time Shyamalan was being touted as the next Steven Spielberg by Newsweek magazine, but if things keep going the way they are now, Uwe Boll might end up being a better comparison. And boy is that depressing.
06/20/08
Mark Wahlberg's sturdy performance saves The Happening from becoming a protracted Saturday Night Live spoof of M. Night Shyamalan movies.
06/20/08
I'm shaking my head now like a caring teacher grading a poor assignment written by a bright student.
06/20/08
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June 16, 2008:
WNYC RADIO: A numbing polemical morality tale in dreary doomsday thriller clothing, this dull downer for all its mass panic attack high alert mode, may be more effective in unintentionally boring people to death. 
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June 15, 2008:
M. Night Shyamalan Adventure Suffers from Lack of Suspense
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