* * * * *
                                        
   It's not even in the “It's so bad it was well worth the price” category …
                                        
> M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening, is not merely bad. It is
> an astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution that,
> after seeing it, one almost wonders whether it was real or imagined. It's
> the kind of movie you want to laugh about with friends, swapping favorite
> moments of inanity: “Do you remember the part when Mark Wahlberg … ?” “God,
> yes. And what about that scene where the wind … ?”
> 
> The problem, of course, is that to have such a conversation, you'd normally
> have to see the movie, which I believe is an unreasonably high price to pay
> just to make fun of it. So rather than write a conventional review
> explaining why you should or shouldn't see The Happening (trust me, you
> shouldn't), I'm offering an alternative: A dozen and a half of the most
> mind-bendingly ridiculous elements of the film, which will enable you to
> marvel at its anti-genius without sacrificing (and I don't use that term
> lightly) 90 minutes of your life. As this is intended to be an alternative
> to seeing the actual film it is, of course, overflowing with spoilers.
> Those who still intend to see the film despite my warnings should probably
> stop reading now; those looking for a more typical review should stop by
> www.rottentomatoes.com [1] and take their pick. For the rest, onward:
> 

Via Instapundit [2], “The Movie Review: ‘The Happening’ [3]”

And now a movie I really don't want to see—“The Happening [4]”. After reading
the spoiler-laden review [5] (because I'm like that—I don't mind spoilers) I
have a few comments about the film, but because someone out there might want
to see this sans spoilers, I'm putting my comments about The Happening [6] on
a separate page.

Update on Monday, June 16^th, 2008

In fact, it's worse than I thought [7] (link via Columbina [8]).


[1] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
[2] http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/020479.php
[3] http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=75893f9a-3391-4ab5-88c8-cf7e74bcd835
[4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0949731/
[5] http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=75893f9a-3391-4ab5-88c8-cf7e74bcd835
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2008/06/14/happening.x-html
[7] http://io9.com/5016361/the-happening-is
[8] http://columbina.livejournal.com/185562.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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