The Happening (2008)
I cannot hate any movie where Mark Whalberg begs a tree for his survival. I simply cant do it. Shyamalan said his intention with The Happening was to make an excellent B-movie. The final product may be far from excellent, but its certainly B-worthy. The film follows a widespread disaster after plants begin sending out an invisible toxin that causes humans to kill themselves, apparently in an attempt to restore order to the planet and stop us from damaging it any further. Whalberg - in Talks to Animals Mode for the whole film - and his wife (Zooey Deschanel) try to escape while the rest of the country seems to fall into peril, phantom winds and blowing leaves bringing on some excessively creative suicides (lion, lawn mower, etc.). There are some scenes of suspense and unease, especially in the early going where we watch different groups of people slowly lose themselves to the toxin, but overall, The Happening has to be taken as farce. Any movie where a main action sequence features characters desperately trying to outrun the wind must be. The Happening is ridiculous to such an extreme extent that its actually kind of lovable in a so-bad-its-good way. If you can dismiss the environmental sermonizing and just enjoy the madness, then its the best film Shyamalan has made in the past 10 years. Thats setting the bar very, very low.