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The Happening Review
Review date: 29.10.2008
Our rating:
M Night Shyamalan’s latest movie is a departure for him - it’s a grisly 15 certificate rather than his usual 12, and he’s abandoned his trademark twist ending. Sadly, amidst the heaps of expositionary dialogue and embarrassingly staged scenes it becomes apparent that he’s abandoned his usually deft directorial touch as well.
The Blu-ray presentation itself is very generous. There are bags of interesting extras and featurettes, and a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack to get the most out of your speakers. Sadly, it’s not really the sort of film that exploits these audio visual opportunities: swaying grass and whistling breezes are reproduced with great detail, but it’s unlikely that anyone ever bought a 5.1 system in order to experience the sound of a faint breeze. There have been plenty of films in recent weeks that will extract a stunning performance from your system, but The Happening isn’t one of them.