THE HAPPENING- 2008

THE HAPPENING- When I heard the title of this film the first thing that came to my mind was the song by the Supremes from the 60's, so throughout the seriously mysterious trailer, in the back of my head I keep hearing this upbeat 60's Motown tune with the same title. It's understandable because there was another film "The Happening" from the 1967 that featured this upbeat tune.
Silly and upbeat is really how you feel during this movie. It's suppose to be M. Night Shyamalan's first R rated film, the man who brought us "The sixth sense" and "The sign", not only it's his first R rated film, it might be his first comedy. The comedy, however may or may not be intentional.
Marky Mark Wahlberg plays a high school science teacher, this alone is to laugh. Marky Mark still talks with his New Jersey accent and his rapper lisp, teaching kids science encouraging them to use their minds, yeah right, the guy used to drop his pants to close his hip hop tunes.
The movie starts out with mystery in the air as we travel through New York city and one by one random New Yorkers are committing suicide. Some shoot themselves, some stab themselves with knitting needles and a crew of construction workers leap to their deaths from a high rise construction. Each making a loud thud as the hit the ground, to the point it make the audience laugh.
This is one of the films that's perfect as a midnight show where the audience yell back at the screen. The movie is full of thes moments. Zooey Deschanel plays Marky Mark's wife, she's total air head this movie with this dumb blank look in her eyes, for a moment there I thought she was an older Tracy Gold from "Growing Pains". Her performance is really awful, she is tormented with guilt by the an obsessed coworker whom she shared an evening of tirimsu together.
John Leguizamo plays another school teacher, his wife is missing during this crisis so John is trying to deal with comforting his little daughter and the absence of his wife. Sorry but John Leguizamo could never be a sympathetic character, so when you see him committing suicide it's hard for you to feel bad.
Marky Mark is the only likable character in the movie, and you feel sorry for him as he tries to solve this weird mystery of mass suicide and trying to run away from the invisible threat that is causing this chaos. You also have to admire him dealing with these issues with a straight face.
Yes this is definitely a renter, bring a lot of friends and booze with you to yell at the screen. The watch the original "The Happening" film featuring Anthony Quinn, Faye Dunaway and Milton Berl with a lot of 60's style laughs and a catchy theme song.