gregorwossilus Reviews

The Happening (2008)

It's going to kill Shyamalan's career for good!

[1/10 · 10 June 2008]

I had such high hopes for this one since I like those Stephen King like horror-mystery-sci fi-pieces. Unfortunately Shyamalan hasn't learned from his previous super-flop "Girl in the water" and again delivers us a mildly suspenseful thriller about something attacking people on the US east coast, turning them into suicide candidates all around. Mark Wahlberg plays a teacher in the middle of it all fleeing the town to the countryside in the hope that the evil something has not reached the boonies yet. So far so good, the plot is nothing super impressive but promising enough to entertain genre-fans like me. And the trailer looked promising, too. But Shyamalan still is in preaching mode, something he took up with "Signs". He loads up his picture up with meaningful nonsense dialogue (unfortunately he again wrote the thing as well as directing and producing it). That is something which takes you out of the suspense again and again. And that is NOT good since one realizes the major shocking scenes already were in the trailers... In the second act he not only loads "The Happening" up with more meaningful, clunky dialogue but even more weird, meaningful characters who simple DO NOT work. As the movie goes on and on it becomes more and more ridiculous with sloppy mistakes in simple logic: Everybody is infected and dies, but TV stations and radio keep broadcasting, Wahlberg asks his female companion if she has cellphone service in the middle of it all - surprise! The world is in chaos, or so I thought! No wonder the cells don't work! DAAA! With the third act introducing a granny from hell in some remote farmhouse "The Happening" finally collapses. It's a true shame since we so far could accept it as a b-level horror-thriller with little blood but at least some honest attempts for suspense. But granny doesn't make sense, the way our heroes behave towards her makes even less sense and is totally unbelievable... And by that time one just wants to grab the director by the throat and scream into his face: "Leave me alone with your somewhat strange and condescending philosophy of life and the world! You're the only one who believes in it! Spare your audience!" One last thing about the score by James Newton Howard, a great talent in terms of movie scores. This time he's so over the top with his music it's just annoying. He pumps emotions into every scene maybe because he knew the movie itself couldn't deliver them...it's just unbearable. "The Happening" unfortunately could end Shyamalans career. After this one couldn't blame any studio for rejecting working with him.

This Revolution (2005)

A powerful and important movie that grows and grows and grows after seeing it!

[8/10 · 1 July 2005]

I saw this movie at the Munich film-festival. Due to the nature of film-festivals I did not know very much about what I was going to see since the info on all the movies shown is very limited. From the first moments on the rapid and rough style of Marshall's picture grabbed me by the throat and held my interest until the end. THIS REVOLUTION has a feel of a modern reality show like the ones we see on MTV. Like it or not this is current and pretty "Zeitgeist"! This should appeal especially to younger audiences. It certainly would be a great thing if younger people watched this film. Marshall has a lot to address and delivers something that regular Hollywood fails to accomplish: He really changes your perspective on things. His film gets you thinking, especially after leaving the theater. Since Marshall wrote, shot, edited and produced the whole thing in the very short period of 100 days I am even more astonished how well it came out. Marshall delivers a clear and classic 3 act structure! That works well of course but Marshall - coming from a documentary background - also succeeds in filling in a lot of documentary like bits and pieces which launch a lot of social background at the viewer. Furthermore everybody gets a good idea of how divided America really is at the moment. If you take nothing at all from this film this still won't escape you. To me as a German this is particularly interesting. OK, the love story sometimes slows the movie down, the main character is not always sympathetic. But considering all the achievements Marshall made in this film and how big the impact of the movie was on me, I consider this minor flaws. This is a modern, controversial, exiting, stylish and very original movie that grows and grows and grows on me after seeing it. And that is certainly a good thing to say about a movie. Go see it. Especially when you don't share the same political view...it could be very inspiring! And if it annoys you...even better! Controversy means movement, and movement means change! For me as a German I can say that I am very happy to see a controversial film like this coming out of America these days. We all can look forward to more feature films from Marshall!

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Promising at first, but collapsing after 45 minutes

[4/10 · 18 June 2004]

This remake offers a good cast, a promising team and first and foremost a very intriguing plot. Unfortunately the filmmakers could not entirely decide whether to make a sci fi thriller like the movie from the seventies or a comedy. It has a wonderful opening-credit sequence which hails the fifties with their nightmarish perfect-housewife-commercials and groundbreaking kitchen inventions. Then the movie sets his tone introducing Nicole Kidman as a superpopular TV-host (Mr. Kidman was never colder as a character)who bathes herself in the success of her cruel real-time TV shows. After getting fired for basically ruining peoples lives with inhumanly disgusting shows she finds herself in the superclean and somewhat unreal little town of Stepford. While Kidman's character is very well developed, her husband's is not. Matthew Broderick fails to persuade us that he is a true heartbreaker and a great companion for a career-woman such as Kidman. You don't believe that she actually fell in love with him, he is just to weak and boring.The couple just does not seem to belong together, the same problem we found in COLD MOUNTAIN with Kidman and Jude Law. Later we do not want to buy that Broderick's character is turned around by the macho-attitudes of the Stepford-husbands, he is too nice for that.

In the third act the whole thing collapses because the filmmakers do not succeed in turning this comedy into a really frightening thriller. This story is interesting because of the horrible truth being discovered at the end. Instead of leaving us with an open end which would make us moan the characters we fell in love with before (Kidman, Bette Midler) this movie delivers us a poor explanation that takes away the horror - and the horror is the most attractive part of this story in the first place. THE STEPFORD WIVES wants to be a comedy and a thriller, wants to be sarcastic, full of secrets, exiting, a little heart worming and shocking - and is nothing of the above completely. A straight thriller with this cast and crew would have made a great film. OK, I also had some laughs...only to bow my head during the last 15 minutes!