Multiple parties asked me if I had checked NBC’s “30 Rock” so I watched an episode last year and was less than impressed (though I got a chuckle out of Alec Baldwin’s character, how can you not?). Well, I’ve given it another run and I’m fully locked. It is laugh out loud funny and has great topical jokes very clever writing. Great production value, fun regulars and fantastic cameos all the time. What’s their not to like?
Verdict: Fuck Yeah
First of all, this film isn’t THAT bad. It has an interesting idea behind it and several scenes that are worthwhile. The critics have almost universally despised it and I think that’s somewhat unfair considering it isn’t nearly as bad as a lot of releases. I guarantee those critics have not lambasted films far worse and whose content don’t have anything nearly as original as the basic premise of Shymalan’s “The Happening”. I have major problems with this flick, but I’m writing about it and I can’t say you shouldn’t see it.
Spoilers as usual. Don’t bother with reviews if you don’t want spoilers people.
The plot reminds me of “The Terminator” series, but instead of Skynet coming on-line and figuring out humans are a threat to them the plants get gnarly and start making people do zany shit like jump of high-rises and take a nap in front of heavy machinery. The characters painfully explain what’s happening in the film every step of the way. Are audiences so dumb they need this sort of hand holding? It’s offensive to me when a filmmaker doesn’t trust me to figure things out. While the characters update us as to what we can clearly see what is happening the dialog is bad and it makes really proficient actors look bad. I like some of this dudes films, but they always seem really flat to me. I noticed it first in “Unbreakable” which I distinctly remember as being a film that had absolutely no dynamics and simply found a droning level and carried it the whole film. This style (if you assume it’s intentional as I do) is present in The Happening and it makes the film pretty tedious. Especially when we have to deal with our characters doing things like outrunning wind and finding random crazy ladies as some of the events that breakup the monotony.
The shotgun scene where a survival-minded individual holed up in a house starts blowing away kids that won’t get off his damn deck was where the film showed glimpses of where this flick could have gone. Maybe Shymalan figured the fear-of-your-fellow-man has been done in the Zombie genre (recently done real well in the excellent “28 Days Later”) or even the completely entertaining “War of the Worlds” remake. I could have stood a little more of it here, though I’m sure the intention is to keep the narrative of “fuck with nature and it’ll fuck you right back” intact and focused.
All this said this movie isn’t nearly as awful as you may hear. A flawed attempt at something fairly original with this type of budget shouldn’t be universally despised like it has been. For the record the count of the word “happening” in this post is 4 and the amount of times I tried to be clever with a joke or pun based on that word is 0. Show some restraint people. Please.
Verdict: Rent It
I like David Brooks. I read him regularly. But lately he’s been struggling to find something to say that is as meaningful as even his most uninspired work. In his most recent column he takes Obama to task for being a good politician. I understand and will be the first to admit that there is a degree of hypocrisy in Obama’s anti-politics politics, but David Brooks is certainly savvy enough to understand that any candidate at this level will engage in politics as they have been defined to this point. You could write column after column dissecting the hypocrisy of ANY political candidate. There are substantive issues between John McCain and Barack Obama that deserve attention such as the offshore drilling issue that was raised very recently.
A lot of the media will focus on the bullshit. I expect more from David Brooks
One of my 3 Lacie Firewire drives went down yesterday. That’s the 2nd HD in the last 3 months. Incredibly annoying. My hope is that it is just the power supply, but I think it may be the drive.
My faith in firewire drives is waning rapidly. My faith in drives period is fading. I’m not sure the fact that 4 failing drives out of an estimated 30 I’ve had in the last 10 years is within the threshold of acceptability.
When I heard “Donnie Darko” director Richard Kelly was making a post-apocalyptic film set in LA I thought we were in for good things. Especially when I read he had almost complete creative control. Not only is “Southland Tales” singularly awful, but it is actually so bad it makes his previous effort worse. Donnie Darko was a film that had some gaps of logic that ultimately worked because aesthetically they somehow managed to fit the film as a whole. They seemed intentional and calculated. After viewing the absolute abortion that is “Southland Tales” you can’t help but wonder if this dude just got lucky.
It also makes you wonder if he’ll ever work again.
