Disturbing Behavior

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: Do Not Disturb
Review: Disturbing Behavior had a lot going for it, trying to ride the wave of the hip, teen horror flick, started by Scream. It's cast is made up of likable young stars, rocketing to startdom, and a director known for his work helming episodes of The X-Files television show. It's too bad, the final product, doesn't really live up to the promise of the talent involved.

When the esteemed Blue Ribbon club of Cradle Bay High take their slogans too far, things in the small coastal town begin to go wrong. Dead wrong. Newcomer Steve Clark (James Marsden) finds fast friends in Gavin (Nick Stahl), who is an overly imaginative paranoid person and Rachel (Katie Holmes), a "bad girl" with a razor-sharp tongue and a body to match. But when some "dark sinister force" begins turning the school's curricularly challenged into the soulless, academic elite, these three outsiders join in a desperate race to avoid becoming insiders -- and losing their individuality forever.

Director David Nutter makes a valiant effort, although, I doubt anyone would able to make writer Scott Rosenberg's script make sense. What is clearly an allogory to the real life trials of high school, is complicated by contrived dialogue, and standard horror shocks. Some bad editing causes even more dire problems. It's almost as if they thought they were in trouble and tried anything to fix it. The problem is--if they left it alone-it may have worked The cast puts up a good front--but it's not enough.

Having been disappointed in the movie, I wasn't really expecting much from the DVD extras, but forged ahead anyway. The best extras are the audio commentary from Nutter--you can almost here his disappointment in his voice about how things ended up--and 11 deleted scences. Had these sequences been a part of the 84 minute theatrical cut, the film would have at least made more sense. The "shocking" alternate ending is ok and may have worked in concert with a longer version. You also get the music video for the Flys song "Got You (Where I Want You)" from the film's soundtrack. The theatrical trailer tops of the disc material. Lest I forget to mention, the staple for most MGM releases, a 4-page trivia booklet with quotes and insights from the film's "hot young stars". Viewers can watch the movie in either the full-screen or widescreen formats.

If you want to see a film with wasted potential and missed chances, this fits the bill. The film is Disturbing...but not in the way the filmmakers intended

Rating:
Summary: Is this the....
Review: Is this the movie in which a teenager suspects his too perfect classmates are possesed by a demon???
Please email me if you know the ANSWER!!!!
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THANKS

Rating:
Summary: MGM's Behavior Was Bad, Wrong, Wrong, Bad
Review: DISTURBING BEHAVIOR got lost in the shuffle of teen horror movies and failed at the box office, but this one is actually very different from I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, URBAN LEGEND, and other entries into the genre. BEHAVIOR has more of a sci-fi than a horror edge, which is not surprising because it was made by writers and directors of several "The X-Files" episodes. The teens in the movie have been scientifically reprogrammed to be on their best behavior. Of course, these same teens occasionally snap and go on homicidal rampages...but nobody's perfect, right? However, the behavior I found to be most disturbing was that of the people at MGM, who significantly trimmed down the movie in spite of what was obviously David Nutter's intent. Luckily these scenes have been added on the DVD, which provide a lot of back story and motivation for character's actions that is missing from the final film. Apparently MGM thought that teens were too dumb and restless to sit through actual characterization and cut out quite a bit of this. But the film suffers quite a bit from these missing scenes (except for an alternate ending that was wisely replaced by the one in the film). You can almost hear Nutter weeping over each one in his commentary on those deleted scenes. The doctor played by Bruce Greenwood has a scene at a meeting describing his daughter's success with his program (which it later turns out is a bit exaggerated). This certainly adds depth to a character who is otherwise just An Evil Doctor with no real reason to perform experiments on kids (another scene also reveals these motivations). A tense little scene between Steve and the police is also cut that explained a lot about the town's secrecy, and an explanation of Steve's brother's suicide is also cut. (The story was a bit too Romeo and Juliet for my taste and seemed quite out of place, but at least it explains what everybody is so upset about throughout the film.) And a scene between Steve and his father and another where Steve's mom finds the gun should also have been left in the final cut, which humanizes the parents and gives them reason for enlisting Steve in the program. The film as it is has no explanation for why the characters do what they do: why do Steve's parents sign him up for the program? Why does Caldicott do what he does? Why do the police cover up for him? There are a lot of actions in this movie that don't make sense without some sort of back story. That being said, there are a couple of entertaining sequences, including a trip to Caldicott's former place of employment (it really doesn't serve any purpose to the plot but is worth it to see Caldicott's daughter screaming "Meet the musical people who hide among the flowers!") and the seduction by Lorna, who, upon coming on to Steve and then attacking him with a piece of glass, jumps up and states that she has to go home for a "big physics tests." I wish MGM or David Nutter had at least included a bit of an explanation as to why the kids go psycho or a bit more depth to it (the best scene depicting this is Lorna's "bad, wrong wrong, bad"). A study of how teenagers often struggle with being "good" and their natural desire to be "bad" could have been interesting, but here it is no more than an afterthought. With a little extra work, DISTURBING BEHAVIOR could have been one of the better teen movies, but as it is is only so-so. The DVD gets 3 stars for at least including the deleted scenes and commentary, the movie alone gets 2.

Rating:
Summary: OK movie, but has much greater potential.
Review: Great movie. The first half anyway. Nick Stahl does a really good job as the paranoid Gavin who thinks that the whole town is becoming evil and bad (he's not all wrong!). Katie Holmes does a good job too. But one of the coolest things about this movie is the ALBINO. YES there is an ALBINO in this movie. He is so stoned that he is actually fun to watch. But... The movie misses something on the story side. The first half of the movie is OK, but then it turns into a run and hide kind of movie that fails to thrill and scare as it tries to do. I have the DVD and in the special fetures section there are 11 deleted scenes. I don't understand why they deleted them since a lot of them really fill out some of the holes in the story. You also get the original ending to the movie. Very cool and very different from the ending shown in theaters and on video. The soundtrack is really cool and this is one of the reasons that the movie gets star number four. I recommend this movie to fans of the X-Files.

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.

Rating:
Summary: not much of a thriller
Review: This is a very tired worn out theme. I had hoped for much more from David Nutter. There are no surprises in this film. There is also no acting in spite of the fact that Marsden and Holmes are in the movie and presumably could have been given real parts. Instead, there's just a lot of running around. If I recall correctly, Marsden and Holmes do kiss each other two times, but we're never really sure why (beyond the fact that they are both attractive) because the movie does not develop their relationship at all.

Rating:
Summary: Quite 'Disturbing'
Review: William Sadler plays the janitor, not Dan Zudovic. The 'professional' review was wrong. I didn't know that Carly Pope was in this movie, interesting... "Disturbing Behavior" definitely has its flaws but it's still entertaining. High school students are paranoid about the preppy kids who seem to be out of place. Are they aliens? Is somebody controlling them? Well, it's up to James Marsden and Katie Holmes to save the world! Or town. The movie has an X-Files touch to it since it was directed by David Nutter (a director for the show). Too bad Mulder and Scully didn't come down to teach these kids a lesson. It had potential that never delivered, but it was entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Carly Pope in Disturbing Behavior
Review: Known for playing Sam Mcpherson on the teen tv show "Popular", Carly Pope made her big screen debut in this movie. She was Abbey in the suicide scene that was left on the cutting room floor (see the dvd). She also has a second (uncredited) role as the girl who walks into the classroom (and later turns off the radio)in the final scene (inner city classroom). That second part stayed in the movie, but most people are unaware of it. It's not much of a role, but she puts gusto and a sense of humor into it, nonetheless. On the big screen, she's often made the most of small parts, such as in "Orange County" and "The Glass House".

Rating:
Summary: great movie destroyed by editing
Review: I actually got ahold of a version of Disturbing Behavior with the additional footage edited in, and wound up nearly throwing my remote at the screen out of pure frustration: they edited out the PLOT in the theater release version! If you haven't seen this movie yet, see it on DVD; the deleted scenes are essential for all the apparent plot holes, for characterization, and for basic explanation. As far as I can tell, someone --probably the same someone who decided to cut and paste Flagpole Sita to suit their nonsensical whims-- went through with a pair of scissors and cut these scenes out, because they aren't just fun extras, they're important. Admittedly, the final confrontation is still a bit cheesy, even with the additional footage, but overall the movie is well worth watching. On DVD.