The Sixth Sense

WORST! M. Night Shyamalan: M. Night was, for a brief moment, cinema's biggest star director. With his much-heralded "The Sixth Sense," his underrated "Unbreakable" and his popular "Signs" (ah, remember how much everyone used to love Mel Gibson?), the filmmaker fond of twists ... morewas proclaimed some kind of Ben Kenobi -- filmdom's only hope. But perhaps gracing that cover of Time magazine on which he was proclaimed the next Spielberg got to the guy's head, because his movies, though beautifully shot, have become increasingly preposterous with each release. While watching this year's "The Happening," I, and just about everyone else, flirted with the idea that Shyamalan might actually be joking. With its "Day of the Triffids"-like story of attack plants, and it's Al Gore-inspired message of environmental catastrophe, and its deadly serious science teacher performance by Mark Wahlberg ("You're not interested in what happened to the bees?!), "The Happening" turned out to be one of the funniest movies of the year. But, hey, at least he's still entertaining. Now please, M. Night, work with another screenwriter on your next project or (and this might be the best move), embrace your clearly comedic talent. (20th Century Fox)