I'm one of many movie fans who's been longing to see acting legends Al Pacino and Robert De Niro star properly in a film together. Their one scene in Heat hardly counts (and they were never actually on-screen together in The Godfather, Part II) and so the notion of the two of them starring alongside one another, finally, as two veteran cops hunting down a serial killer was irresistible. So why is it, then, that it turned out to be such a sub-par flick, one riddled with clichés and bad acting? The storyline, although basic when first announced, was passable for movie goers as long as they got to see these two acting heavyweights play off of one another. As it turns out, story plays a huge part in any film and its ridiculousness and genericness overshadowed even the two legendary stars. As I'm sure has been said many times before, these two deserved better than this utter nonsense.
Possibly the most underwhelming and disappointing features of 2008. M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening is the film that truly solidifies the fact that he is more of an idea-dependent filmmaker, one who is an infinitely better director than he is a writer. The film just doesn't have enough effective scares to make it worthwhile, with only a couple here and there to save it from total disaster. The basic idea for the film is an interesting one with great potential, but you soon get bored of it, and with little to no scares or thrills to back it up, you're left underwhelmed and regretting you've spent the time and money on watching it. It's a shame as Shyamalan started out so well with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and even Signs, but began to go downhill with his subsequent films, and with The Happening, it's clear he's lost what he once had.
Because I'm not best placed to fairly judge films from the documentary genre because of my sheer inexperience with them, I then have to give my honest opinion of what I felt about it as a film, and not one of the specific genre. To reiterate what I said in my review — this is possibly one of the most boring cinematic experiences I've had in a long, long time. Although only 90 minutes — a relatively short runtime for modern movies — you feel every single boring minute of it as we have repetitious scenes one after the other. The whole thing just adds up to a big fat nothing, with only moments here and there that are anything more than boring. Maybe it's just me, perhaps there's worth to be found in it from some angle, but I just couldn't see it. I think this is the first documentary I haven't at least liked.
Article comments
1 - Jordan Richardson
Interesting list.
I actually quite liked Redacted and didn't mind The Happening either. Zohan had a few laughs, too.
I'd consider:
Space Chimps
Meet the Spartans
Disaster Movie
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Rambo
Ugh. I honestly rather watch Zohan ten times over than see any of those again.
2 - Ross Miller
Thankfully I managed to avoid all but one of those (I did see Rambo, but I ended up not minding because of the last half hour of full-on, crazy violence).
My list isn't "the worst of the worst" of ALL movies from 2008 because I managed to skip some of the absolute crap (such as Disaster Movie and Meet The Spartans). My list is just the worst of those I personally saw.
3 - Arlo J. Wiley
Oh man, The Happening is awesome. I mean, yeah, it's actually awful, but it is so rare to see a filmmaker of Shyamalan's stature fail so completely and spectacularly that it kind of inspires awe.
Definitely the funniest movie I saw all year.
4 - jaylord l.
uhm...i think the happenin g is really awful...indeed. your right it is somewhat like incomplete...but if polished can be a very nice film..
5 - heloise
Ihave not seen any of your worst movies. But I did see Australia. It is not a worst just confused. My worst so far is Mama Mia, why did they make it? My question.
Heloise