Rating: 
Summary: Decent plot and acting meet poor writing
Review: This film starts out well enough, with a family moving to the odd little town of Cradle Bay seeking a fresh start, and an escape from the haunting memory of a son and brother who committed suicide. When the family arrives, the town seems eerily too-good-to-be-true. The "kitschy" small town flare, complete with that "everybody knows everybody else" sentimentality, is almost nauseating. How very cliché (can we say "Stephen King?").
When the family's two remaining children (one of them being James Marsden's character, Steve Clark) head out for their first day of school, it becomes easy to discern, to the viewer at least, that something is horribly awry. Sure, the usual high school cliques are present. However, they seem far too exaggerated. For example, the omnipotent "Blue Ribbons" (a.k.a. "jocks") are the school's best athletes, as well as the school's most academically inclined students. Few exceptions aside, is this generally the case? I think not. Furthermore, these students hang out at a yogurt shoppe. It's no longer the 50's, and most high schoolers have other various hang-outs. Yet another clue that should give the new arrivals some insight as to the odd goings-on in Cradle Bay. However, when Nick Stahl's character (Gavin) attempts to inform Steve Clark of the evil plot that is behind the Blue Ribbons and their oddly uniform characters, Steve remains clueless. It takes Gavin becoming a Blue Ribbon himself to spark the light bulb in Steve's head, and he then decides to discover the root of the evil.
With the help of a fellow student, Rachel (Katie Holmes), and a very cheesily written but well acted school janitor (Dan Zudovic), Steve uncovers the extremely "Stepford Wives-esque" plot. The mad scientist behind it all is unveiled just before Rachel and Steve are themselves to become Blue Ribbons. Together they must find a way out of their predicament before it's too late. Thus, the movie comes to it's extremely harried "grand" finale.
This film seems well-conceived, and probably could have been much better than it was in actuality. It would have been interesting to see more of the teenage angst, rebellion, and struggle for individuality yet desire to fit in developed in some of these characters. Perhaps then they would not have seemed so soulless and one-dimensional. The plot, though cheesy and cliched, began with some decent build up. However, the ending was a bit of a let down. Furthermore, some of the plot elements never quite seem to come to fruition, and the deleted scenes included on the DVD extras only partially solve this problem. Many of the scenes were also far too unrealistic. For example, the creepy, dank atmosphere at the asylum and the completely incoherent nature of every patient there seemed far too over-the-top. Not all of those institutionalized mumble, drool, and traipse around like zombies.
Overall, this film is decent for a rental, but not worth the money to purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Thriller or Comedy?
Review: OMIFG! This was one of THE worst movies ever made! Me and my cousin watched it last night, and were crackinig up, the script is hilarious! Who actually talks like that?! We watched it for a half hour only because we wanted to see if it would get any better, uhhh...sadly, no. We watched "American Beauty" instead *brilliant.* I really loved James Marsden in "Gossip"-which was an excellent movie, but the only thing 'disturbing' about this was the writing. Like James, l also liked his weird friend in "Wasted" but not at all in this. I love Katie Holmes, but even she couldn't help this project, talk about a WASTE OF FILM MONEY AND TIME!
Rating:
Summary: Blecchh (warning - spoiler ahead)
Review: This was an awful movie. The premise was an obvious rip off an Outer Limits episode (Straight and Narrow), but I was curious to see what could be done with the topic in a feature-length format. I was sadly disappointed. The film eliminated everything that was interesting about the Outer Limits episode, and instead filled itself with...nothing. In the end the viewer is left with no real reason not to believe the "bad guys" about the hormonally induced killing being a temporary and soon to be remedied side effect. By the time the credits rolled, I was not convinced that the microchips were a bad idea, when properly executed, and I don't think leaving the audience with that ambiguity was the intention of the filmmakers. To sum up: don't watch this movie. It's bad. Watch the 1990's uter Limits episode, "Straight and Narrow," starring Ryan Philippe, instead.
Rating:
Summary: One star for my favorite star
Review: Nope my favorite star isn't holmes or nutter. I saw this movie in the theatre because the story has potential [incidentally it doesn't live up to it at all!!!]. It's boring. The plot is swiss cheese. The acting is...well Katie Holmes is the star so it's banal at best.Who is my favorite star you ask? The Boom Mike that appears in so many scenes in this film. My favorite scene with boomy in it is the one that takes place at the end when he is wearing that nice fuzzy grey number to keep the wind from making noise on the soundtrack!
Rating: 
Summary: I'll wait for the Director's Cut.
Review: A family moves from Chicago to the Washington Island town of Cradle Bay to start a new life after the suicide death of their eldest son (Ethan Embry). Steve (James Marsden) makes a friend out of a bright, but unambitioned stoner who witnesses a double murder of a girl and a cop that is oddly covered up by another police officer. Gavin (Nick Stahl) belives that there is a conspiracy, that students once only interested in drugs, sex, and cars are now being changed against their will to the become straight laced and academically proud pillars of the community. However, members of the Blue Ribbons are sometimes involved in violent attacks that go conviently ignored. When Gavin becomes one of the Blue Ribbons, Steve's only other friend is Rachel (Katie Holms), a fellow outsider and UV, an albino friend of Gavin's (Chad Donella). Only Steve and Rachel can beat the system, if only they don't become part of it. I have seen this film on the Sci-Fi channel and cannot fathom why perfectly needed footage was cut out in the first place. I rented the disk but the footage was only part of the special features and not in the movie. If you don't have this movie, but want it, wait until the film owners wake up and release this film whole and complete, though they can leave the ending as it is. *Strange film fact: It's ironic that Ethan Embry is playing Steve's deceased older brother, when James Marsden is about 6 years older than him, not to mention how typical it is to cast a 20 something as a highschool student in thrillers/horror movies.
That and nearly every film/television show that takes place in Washington State is filmed in British Columbia.
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