M. Knight Sampleamalayan

[bettertomorrowamy]

I'm the most diehard M. Night fan there is -- I've liked every movie of his that I've seen, yes, even Lady in the Water -- and even I have to say that clip looked pretty bad. Mark and Zooey (I'm using first names because I don't think I can spell her last name) act like someone pumped them full of uppers right before shooting.

But you haven't seen the movie!  You don't even know what they are doing.  Anything looks stupid out of context.

I've seen it. I know the context, and I'll vouce for its stupidity...

Yeah, the context is that a crazy guy who rambled on for some length about why he likes hot dogs theorized to them that he believed that plants were causing the mass outbreak of suicides, and so all of a sudden they've started to believe him.  Reacting to the wind rustling is just something they invented to be afraid of on their own.

Why wouldn't it happen that way?  People do odd things and believe odd things when there is little information and mob mentality takes over.

[ScottotD]

Why wouldn't it happen that way?  People do odd things and believe odd things when there is little information and mob mentality takes over.

You're saying that like there's some obvious recent example of the public en masse being duped with bad information 

I've never seen it, but the Title Alone tells me the movie Suck'd!

You must save a lot on books.

[RVR II]

I've never seen it, but the Title Alone tells me the movie Suck'd!

You must save a lot on books.

Ok... After watching this.. this.. movie

I suddenly had the urge to go outside and YELL at the trees in my yard!!

And.. Nothing Happened

Seriously; the title was a 'dead givaway' that this F'N Flick Sucked

[ScottotD]

To me you not liking the title and not liking the movie is more a co-incidence but whatevs. 

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

It really isn't that bad.  The wind isn't the monster, it's the chemicals in the wind.  The enemy is not knowing, so fear is the enemy.

But it makes no sense! >.<

I mean, wind would disperse the chemicals and lessen there effects. Also, a chemical device that turns off the ability to sense mortal danger would allow people to just walk off a building, but it wouldn't turn off pain, anxiety, etc. and it would not lead people to go braindead and kill themselves in the most outlandish way possible.

If this is "nature's revenge", then why are all the bees disappearing? Most plants wouldn't last long without bees to pollenate them.

Also, why are all of the characters mind-bendingly stupid?


Edit; WOW. I think that one scene contained levels of excessive female doey-eyed-ness equal to a 7.6 on the Wicker Man scale! o_o

[ScottotD]

So we're predicting how an evil tree gas would effect people?

Most people do become profoundly stupid in an emergency or disaster situation.

[uruseiranma]

Even with his most recent films...I just can't place M Night into the same realm that Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay exist for me. I guess in my mind, the guy just doesn't have enough credits to his name to really say he 'assaulted my senses' (I will never forget what Bruckheimer and Bay did to me with Armageddon and Pearl Harbor).

Almost none of M Night's films have ever really amazed me. Even when everyone was going nuts over '6th Sense,' I just thought it was an okay film. I remember only snippets of parts from 'Unbreakable,' and 'Signs' was marginally better.

The only M Night film I own is 'The Village.' I mainly bought it because it reminded me of an extended Twilight Zone episode. But I swear it could have been better as a stage play than as a film. Though thinking of the scene where Ivy stares straight into the camera with a blank stare, and seeing Zooey in 'Happening' do the same, I think we've found an M Night trademark.

The Village I think suffered from 'false advertising.' It seemed more like a period-drama, but they sold it like a horror film. Red marks on the door (could it be blood *woooooaahhh*), glimpses of growling creatures. My idea is that some thought this was gonna be a film where the creatures chase the villagers into the woods and kill them one-by-one.Standard 'paint by numbers.'

I was slightly mystified by the first teaser for Lady in the Water. But I just didn't seem to feel the need to see the film. The same feeling I had with The Happening-it caught my eye, but I just didn't feel it warranted $10.50 on a Friday night. Not even really a matinee.

Of course, 'M' is doing 'The Last Airbender' next. At this point, I think he's slowly reaching the point of 'unforgivable' in the Hollywood regions because he hasn't been producing Box-Office Gold. 'Airbender' seems to be his 'last chance.'

And, I leave you with these parting words- (whispering)'hot dogs.'

[ScottotD]

Not sure why you'd think he'd be "unforgivable" Renny Harlin still gets work.

[esoobaC .T bocaJ]

M. Knight McShyamallammanamascammallayan, the Ed Wood of the 21st Century

[RVR II]

Even with his most recent films...I just can't place M Night into the same realm that Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay exist for me. I guess in my mind, the guy just doesn't have enough credits to his name to really say he 'assaulted my senses' (I will never forget what Bruckheimer and Bay did to me with Armageddon and Pearl Harbor).

Almost none of M Night's films have ever really amazed me. Even when everyone was going nuts over '6th Sense,' I just thought it was an okay film. I remember only snippets of parts from 'Unbreakable,' and 'Signs' was marginally better.

The only M Night film I own is 'The Village.' I mainly bought it because it reminded me of an extended Twilight Zone episode. But I swear it could have been better as a stage play than as a film. Though thinking of the scene where Ivy stares straight into the camera with a blank stare, and seeing Zooey in 'Happening' do the same, I think we've found an M Night trademark.

The Village I think suffered from 'false advertising.' It seemed more like a period-drama, but they sold it like a horror film. Red marks on the door (could it be blood *woooooaahhh*), glimpses of growling creatures. My idea is that some thought this was gonna be a film where the creatures chase the villagers into the woods and kill them one-by-one.Standard 'paint by numbers.'

I was slightly mystified by the first teaser for Lady in the Water. But I just didn't seem to feel the need to see the film. The same feeling I had with The Happening-it caught my eye, but I just didn't feel it warranted $10.50 on a Friday night. Not even really a matinee.

Of course, 'M' is doing 'The Last Airbender' next. At this point, I think he's slowly reaching the point of 'unforgivable' in the Hollywood regions because he hasn't been producing Box-Office Gold. 'Airbender' seems to be his 'last chance.'

And, I leave you with these parting words- (whispering)'hot dogs.'

Whoa..

Was all this in the movie?? How'd I miss this

[BBQ Platypus]

It really isn't that bad.  The wind isn't the monster, it's the chemicals in the wind.  The enemy is not knowing, so fear is the enemy.

So the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?

I guess.  I'm just saying it isn't an action thriller.  There is no monster.

So it's like the ending to Monster a Go-Go?

[JoshWay]

Watched the movie for the first time last night, unriffed. Oy.

For about the first half of the movie, my wife and I were fairly wrapped up in it. Not bad, not great. But starting with the scene where the woman shows Marky Mark the hi-def iPhone movie of the zoo incident, it begins to slide rapidly downhill. From there it doesn't just get bad, it becomes exponentially more absurd and baffling. It reaches its zenith with Clichéd Crazy Lady, perhaps the most underwritten and overacted character in movie history (OK, that's hyperbole). As soon as she came into the story I told my wife, "just watch: I bet the only thing we learn about her is that she's vaguely religious." Nailed it.

As with Lady in the Water, which I enjoyed more than this, Night's hubris and infatuation with his own ideas is in full view. From the opening line of the movie, a college girl's cruel joke about Central Park being "where the killers meet to decide what to do with the crippled girl," the movie trots out a parade of cruel and ugly "shocks," none of which are particularly shocking, all of which are endlessly underwhelming and do nothing to support or advance the story. The scenes of unexpected violence and gore may be atypical of an M. Night movie, but they're also wimpy and pointless compared with more competent horror movies.

So yeah. Looking very much forward to the Rifftrax accompaniment, even if that means I'll have to watch it again.

[RoninFox]

I think you're right on with the shocks, especially since we saw almost every one of the suicide moments in the trailers in a more normal "M Night" mode (cutting away right before) the only thing the movie gave us different throughout most of it was seeing the blood.  I think the only thing that shocked me at all in the movie was the two kids getting shot, just because it was different than all the other deaths.  As soon as I saw the characters I knew they were going to die eventually, I just didn't expect them to die like that.

[JoshWay]

The death of the kids (SPOILER, I guess?) was unsettling, but it felt absolutely gratuitous. It didn't do anything for the plot. It felt pointlessly tragic and yet somehow comic. Kind of a microcosm for the whole movie.

[Thrifty]

I personally don't understand what's so bad about this movie, but it will make a good Rifftrax.

1. Shitty Acting

2. Retarded Plot

3. Expectations

Those are three reasons why I think this movie is roundly hated by... well everyone. When one thinks of M. Night, they think of 6th Sense and Unbreakable, both of which were good movies.

When you compare those two to this.. this travesty of a film, it's hard to believe they were directed by the same man. It's inexcusable how bad The Happening was.

.....but..... it's rated "R"!

Seriously, has a movie's MPAA rating *ever* been used as a selling point before The Happening?