I hope he doesn’t ruin the live-action Airbender. That show has a very special place in my heart.

But it gets worse: the film gives absolutely no closure about the strange happening. There’s so much build-up that to leave the audience with not even a glimmer of a pay-off seems downright unethical!

— again … straight from The Birds. Not because it worked with the plot, but because Hitchcock did it first.

Shyamalan’s statement that it’s “meant to scare you” makes a little more sense in this light … The Birds was definitely scary. Shyamalan took what he thought were the scary elements — nature vs. man, inexplicability, gruesome deaths — and put them to his own story. But that wasn’t what made The Birds scary. Walking through flocks of restless birds ready to attack at any moment … that was scary. Never knowing what might hide behind a closed door … that was scary. What Shyamalan seemed to understand in some of his previous films and has now apparently forgotten is that jumping out and saying “boo” may be startling … but waiting for someone to jump out and say “boo” is downright terrifying.

“I can’t believe we paid money to see that piece of (crap) movie!”

You all know what I meant by (crap). Censoring sucks, but it helps to be respectable.

Regardless, fantastic thoughts. By all means, stick around and comment more in the future. Having (smart) opinionated people like yourself really adds to the community.

That said, it was a “B” movie. Not a perfect one but a good one. The failure lies in the actors used. We had Marky-mark in a role he is ill suited for because it is outside his normal pervue. No firearms, cursing, cockiness or muddy football teams. His bewildered look was funnier than his take about how ears grow each year.Try this: Replace Mark with a different A-list actor, say Jet Li or Orlando Bloom. It still doesn’t work. Now, imagine Giovanni Ribisi or (again) Paul Giamatti. It works. Sucess!

It needed more paranoria, more suspicion, more panic. Everyone should have been an actor like Betty Buckly (best role in the film). It needed Leslie Neisen wrestling the grizzly to the death (his) to really qualify as a good “B” movie. Those movies have that feel to them, the feeling that no matter how fast you run, how much you prepare or how hard you fight, you will get snatched by a Triffid the minute you open the lighthouse door. You’d never believe a vampire could grab you but a Ymir? Hey, that’s Venus calling, baby!

C’mon, Harrison Ford is starring in a really good “B” movie right now. Think about it. Remember the last time you and the commies got in that Rugby scrum? Remember how your buddies were fighting off the Fembot with the sword while crazy old Kevin McCarthy kept the flesh eating ants off of you with with the crystal skull of the pod person he uncovered? It’s just like that with the “Happening” in the sense that we should have had David Keith with the hat and whip. Heck, “Star Wars” was the best “B” movie of all time but if Nicholson or De Niro had been in it, we’d have all said “No Way.”

This film wasn’t big enough to support the cast it had. Ditch Wahlberg and Zooey, move up Leguizamo to the lead. Pair him with Faith Domergue and while you’re at it, cut off his legs cause he’s way too tall in this role. What this film need more of was believability and less implausability. I meeded to believe in the lead characters in the situation, not the situation itself.

I think M was trying for the look and feel of “The Beast With A Million Eyes”, the menace that you know is there because the wind is blowing but can’t see because it’s hiding in the scenery. He only missed it because he thought the script was a large as his cast.

Thanks for another great review. I really enjoyed it.

But you make a good point.

Oh, and Luke, you forgot to mention the Heisman and getting picked in an early round of the NFL draft in your list.

(Apparently, the Sports Illustrated/Madden/Wheaties/Campbell’s Chunky Soup Curse extends to non-athletes as well…)

In terms of his canon, I think Sixth Sense is the best, but I think that Signs shows the most promise. His control over the suspense and tension in that film is Hitchcockian.

But yeah. This is a different story.

As for what’s happened to M. Night, I think he’s just far too stuck on how gosh-darn-awesome he is, and he’s spent the last decade trying to establish himself as a brandname, rather than bothering to grow as a filmmaker. He’s at a point where everyone expects him to make the same movie over and over again, and he’s more than happy to deliver on those expectations (while continually putting less effort into it each time).

Hmmm…sort of like Disney animation in the 90’s…

I see you eye’n my lemon drink…LOL