M KNIGHT's The Happening

That ending wasn't even in the original story. I have a list of films that I look at as being from the Rod Serling school of storytelling, and The Mist is the goddamn teacher's pet (brought an apple for teach and everything).

(can you say "new article" wink, wink)
 
I'm working on a SHOT BY SHOT for COP LAND as we speak; well today anyways. I am alos coding in a LIGHTBOX image viewer, a total pain in my arse.

It'll make our images in the blog much cooler.

And then there's the screnplay; keep pluggign away on VERSION 2 and I'm doing the same on VERSION 1.

But

This coming week I am MIA w/ homegirl.
 
Looking back on this past summer's films, I think The Happening holds up. It didn't reach the level of Night's best films, which are his first three (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, & Signs). I know many will not agree, but I would rather re-watch The Happening than Iron Man or Indy 4 any day of the week. I bought The Happening last week and watched it again. I like it even more now. It seems that you either love or hate M. Night's work.

James Newton Howard's score was amazing, especially the opening credits track. I feel that it was more subtle overall than his previous work with M. Night, but still great film music.

Now, for The Mist. What a great film. One of my new favorites. I'd even go as far as to rank it up there with John Carpenter's The Thing remake, Alien / Aliens, the original Night of the Living Dead, and since we are talking about M. Night here I'll also include the last act of Signs. The Mist fits the mold of those perfectly -- a sci-fi/horror siege film. The twist ending was ballsy as well. Plus the film had good 'human monsters' as well, similar to Night of the Living Dead. What a great combo for conflict. Creepy crawlers trying to gnaw their way inside, while you are trapped inside with the crazies.

I would love to see M. Night tackle a full fledged siege film like this. Zombies, mutants, whatever. He seems to like using a single location too (Signs, Lady in the Water, The Village). I think his directorial style would work really well for this type of film.
 
Just saw it...

Potentially better than SIgns/Lady/Village but this was obviously rushed writing/directing. Just too many laughable parts throughout, mainly through the side stories/bit parts.

And it could've been edited a lot better - a lot of the dialogue laughably states the obvious and just cheapens certain moments that could've easily been snipped out - I really think a re-edit can make it substantially better.
 
darkrequiem1134 said:
The man's an arrogant tool.....enough said.
Click to expand...

Having met him once in Philly, I can say he was very nice and took the time to talk with me for a good 15 minutes or so. I was waiting in line to buy some OJ at a bookstore and my friend and I were talking about his newest movie. I was saying how I really liked it and thought that Knight was willing to take chances even if they did not always work. Night tapped me on the shoulder and told me that I really made his day. It was a great moment and we sat down and talked for some time before he had to go. He was about to sign autographs and answer some questions at the store. Everyone has their off days but, I can personally say that he is down to earth and loves to make movies. He passed on doing a lot of other things to stick with film making. (Even when his parents and family pressured him to stop)
 
This Shyamalan dude is a brilliant director, but someone really has to help him with his scripts.

*

The Birds? No, The Plants.

Does it matter that half of the world is dead?

Who cares, I'm finally pregnant from Mark Wahlberg.

* * *

Just my opinion as a viewer.
 
The Happening

The Happening

No doubt there was a thread on this movie a year ago, but the search function brought nothing to the table.

I just saw this last night and SERIOUSLY enjoyed it! Like close to ****ing loved it. I vibe on the whole apocalyptic scenario gig, so this was totally gnarly! I could go into point by points, but whats the point. It was just an entertaining movie.

And screw anyone who calls it a treehugger movie. It had the undertones, but it didn't take away from anything.
 
this movie was one of the worst movies i have ever seen. i went into being aware of negative response, but i had no IDEA it was really THAT bad. the lion scene was astoundingly bad. i could not believe it... i thought it had to be some kind of comic-relief/joke, but then i realized that it was supposed to serious. the lion ripped his arm off with no struggle whatsoever and it fell off like it wasn't even attached. the man's stance didn't even move. in reality he would have been pulled over and dragged first. the whole movie was full of corny things like that. M knight has lost his mind
 
The lion scene was kinda silly, but overall I enjoyed The Happening. The last act in the old farmhouse really made the movie for me though. I don't think I would've liked it nearly as much if not for that aspect of the film. The setup and first act were pretty good too. The weakest aspect of the film is the second act, which is really not that good but I think the third act saves it.

I think that Night's problem after Signs was that maybe he got a little boxed in with making a certain type of film, basically the M Night supernatural suspense film that began with Sixth Sense. If he would've varied things up a bit after The Village, maybe done an action film, or a historical epic I think that he might have done a little better on Lady in the Water and The Happening.

I think audiences would've responded better to The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening if they didn't follow each other and his other three. I also feel that Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs were all better concepts/stories which turned into better films. They also had stronger and more consistent acting, although The Village had some really standout acting and Paul Giamatti in Lady in the Water was amazing. Overall though, his first three films were just all around better conceived and executed in my opinion.

Thing is, for me, I just really like what M Night tries to say with all his films. Even when his narrative structure is flawed, I enjoy how he shoots his films and makes some unconventional choices in his work. Also, he has resisted doing what almost every other big director has done over the past eight years, doing remakes, adaptations, and rehashes or overall unoriginal films. About the only big director besides Shyamalan that hasn't done this is James Cameron, who hasn't made a big theatrical movie since Titanic.
 
This looks like it was shot on digital and not even red, more like hvx quality. The trailer also leaves alot to be dsired and leaning more on sound design, decent cinematography, and arial shots to give it that intrigue.

I was very let down by his last film and this one I have no interest in seeing.
 
It's 35mm shot by Tak Fujimoto, who also did Signs and The Sixth Sense. I think his best looking film is Silence of the Lambs.

3brd.jpg
 
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