This is my favorite movie of the year so far, and here’s why: At a certain point in the filmÑabout ten minutes in, if my estimates are right, about the same time we’re offered the first of many diverse TV news reportÑwe’re also offered a choice in how we can approach Shyamalan’s intentions. We can treat The Happening as another sharp bend in the downward arc that has been the director’s career since The Sixth SenseÑand this seems to be the overriding preference thus farÑor what it really is: A fun and surprisingly original B-movie.1
The title that my friends and I have ridiculed over the last few weeksÑa bland, uncommitted, ambiguous singular nounÑis cast from the same mold as other “the” titles from the pastÑThe Blob, The Terror, The Tingler, and The Fly, to name a few. There is the stilted acting that, considering the talent involved, can’t be anything more or less than purposeful, as well as some undeniably satirical dialogueÑabout only being fed one sentence of information at a time, about trying to use science and logic to explain something illogicalÑas well as a PC soldier who exclaims, upon learning of bodies along a Pennsylvania road, “Cheese and crackers!” There’s the necessary crazy old personÑin this case, a Luddite survivalist played by Betty BuckleyÑa soundtrack that cracks and thunders as the plot advances, and dismally amusing depictions of death. And, above all else, the villain is natural, omnipresent, and unstoppable: An entire coast of pissed-off plants.
1Claiming this is the “best B-movie ever,” though, is a bit of an overstatement.
by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
22 Jun 2008 9:02 PM | Comments (5)
Wow, Adam, you’re such a contrarian. How brave of you. I mean, it couldn’t be possible that this movie is as bad as everyone says. That’s why I thank god that we have young people like you, who are able to peer deeply into the muck and pull out some shiny gold coins. I mean, of course, it just can’t be that Mark Wahlberg would give a bad performance, especially when you consider how wonderful he was in The Italian Job and The Big Hit. And the man who wrote and directed Lady in the Water and the AmEx commercial where he sits in the both of an Osteria and silently judges all present humanity to be comprised of nothing but monsters, geeks and grotesques? Nothing but a born iconoclast, always looking to usurp the genre conventions laid out before him. How perceptive of you. Oh the joy you must feel knowing that you and you alone were able to enjoy such a reviled piece of cinema. I look forward to your thoughts on another neglected masterpiece, Club Paradise, starring Robin Williams. A post-colonial satire masquerading as a tepid Hollywood sex comedy? I wait on pins and needles for your verdict.
Wow, Charles, that couldn’t be sarcasm, could it?
I haven’t seen The Happening yet, so I’m just going to assume that it’s an irredeemably terrible movie like everybody says and therefore unworthy of comment. But Club Paradise is hilarious, with a great cameo by Peter O’Toole (whence the post-colonial satire), a thankfully restrained and underused Robin Williams, and an absolutely side-splitting double-act from Eugene Levy and Rick Moranis (“Why don’t your take your clothes off and we’ll go for a jog?”). Not that anyone would assume that a film directed by Harold Ramis and co-written by Brian Doyle-Murray has to be hilarious, but it is.
In any case, thanks for your thoughtful response.
“Not that anyone would assume that a film directed by Harold Ramis and co-written by Brian Doyle-Murray has to be hilarious”
I would assume this.
would you believe that this is the first I’ve ever heard of “Club Paradise”? WHAT A CAST! Moranis! Twiggy! Jimmy Cliff! Peter Fucking O’Toole!? Sweet jesus. Thank you, Notcoming.com!
No, no, Tylerw, thank me, Charles Ensley, not notcoming.com.
Charles Ensley
23 June 2008
11:57 AM