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The Faculty

The Faculty

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun enough
Review: I don't watch teen flicks in particular (don't like them) or many movies in general (can't afford it). But I found myself sort-of-enjoying this particular movie (borrowed it from the library) despite the gaping plot holes, weird special effects, and occasional unintentionally deadpan actor. It's nice if you wish to flip off your brain function before you hit "play."

Herrington High is the ordinary high school, in all its grubby, cruel, clique-ridden glory. We are introduced (via little name scribbles during freeze-frame, just in case we forget who they are) to several characters: We have Casey (Elijah Wood), a picked-on geek with a heart of gold, who has a unspoken crush on Delilah (Jordana Brewster), an acid-tongued cheerleader who is dating Stan (Shawn Hatosy) who plans to quit the football team and focus on his grades, and who is secretly longed-after by the black-clad antisocial loner Stokely (Clea DuVall), whom perky blonde new girl Marybeth (Laura Harris) is trying to befriend. Then, rounding out the cast is Zeke (Josh Harnett) as a drug-and-porn-dealing bad boy with a brilliant streak. (Confused? Don't worry, not so befuddling when you actually watch it)

The actual plot kicks into gear when Casey finds a strange insectlike creature on the football field -- it becomes a vaguely fishlike creature that reproduces asexually in a tank of water -- and has nasty little teeth. Suddenly strange things begin to happen: one of the teachers becomes bizarrely ill. Students begin behaving angelically. The coach becomes less of a jerk. There are huge amounts of bottled water being brought to the faculty lounge, and the teachers are drinking enormous amounts of it. And then Casey and Delilah catch a glimpse of the coach forcibly infecting the nurse with a strange alien creature. As they scrabble to find out what is happening and how they can stop it, this group of geeks, popular kids, and loners must band together.

I didn't come in expecting much, and I was not disappointed. The best words to describe "Faculty" are "fun enough." Pretty much everything is done in moderation. There are streaks of brilliance and streaks of cheeze, with okay acting and okay writing. The exception to that last is the conclusion about the alien "queen" -- the teens come to this conclusion with nothing but SF movies to back them up. My eyes were rolling so far, I thought they were going to stick.

Much ado is made about Josh Harnett, but he hardly registers here. He doesn't possess the pizazz to play a convincing bad boy, and comes across as a person pretending to be a bad boy. Jordana Brewster does a pretty good job, especially when called upon to be sinister, as did Laura Harris, who seamlessly shifts from one kind of acting to another. Clea DuVall did what she could with what she was given, which wasn't much. Shawn Hatosy is okay, nothing more.

Elijah Wood is the sole really outstanding performance in this film. Fans of his performance in "Lord of the Rings" may want to check this out, as there are some similarities between his performance in that film and the physically unimpressive, smart, pleasant, scared witless, unlikely hero Casey. (Though admittedly, Frodo Baggins never got slammed crotch-first into a flagpole) He manages to pull off some real groaner lines like "Maybe they're simply preparing us for what's to come" and "I don't think a person should run unless he's being chased" that a lesser actor could not have. He projects his emotions more vividly than any of the other actors; when we see Casey huddled on the ground with a look of misery on his face, the heart bleeds. Yet he's also the most driven and enthusiastic. He's the little geek who could.

Special effects depend. Some of it is cheese incarnate, especially when some of the teachers are stabbed or sprinkled with scat. Their physical responses are unabashedly dumb. The morphing thing is well done, as are the alien "goldfish" and the scene in the swimming pool.

Directing is actually pretty good. With the exception of some later scenes, where all subtlety is abandoned, the first eighty percent of the movie is quite suspenseful. Among the good ones: The football players enthusiastically playing their game -- and infecting the opposing team as they go. Casey being approached by an infected character on one side and a horde of ravening football players on the other. The tense, suspicion-laden scene where they have to take Zeke's stash of drugs to determine who is an alien; the part where Casey starts giggling uncontrollably, with a gun pointed at his head, is too funny to miss.

This is not a kids' movie, and some older teens can probably handle it. There's loads of profanity, very little of it necessary to the script; it seems like the f-word was used an average of once per sentence. There is also a lot of violence, but very little of it is realistic. Neither are the beasties, which are very well-done, CGI-wise, especially the shots in the swimming pool, and of the alien creatures in the tank. The deteriorating teacher was the scariest thing I saw. There is no dirty content, though there are many references, and one of the characters goes wandering around in the nude near the end, but you can't see any details.

I don't particularly care that it rips off "Bodysnatchers" or "The Thing." It's a nice piece of fluff entertainment, and a pleasant enough way to pass an afternoon.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Killer Movie For The Last Day of School!
Review: My world history class watched this movie on the last day of school last year and found it perfect movie for that time of the year. It was so funny and incrediably funny that I am now so addicted to it, I rent it all the time. The student charcters are so real that I could name one student in my school that is just like the differnt characters....

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not that scary..
Review: This was indeed a great movie that you should see but, I wouldn't classify it as horror. It had a lot of good action in it and it was pretty funny in some parts. If you are looking for a good horror, then don't get this... I would recommend "Scream". This is a very good movie, though and if you're in the mood for teachers that are from another planet then, Go rent it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Neat little horror thriller
Review: The Faculty is another attempt to cash in on Teenage America's on again, off again love affair with horror movies. The temptation to make them is strong because their budgets are relatively low, mainly because they rarely need to employ one or two expensive stars for marquee value. Parents may well remember seeing Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, both of which came out around 1980, but almost none of them remember who starred in them. It is somewhat different now because so many actors in these movies are successful players on TV series or soap operas, but they are still young and inexpensive.

The Faculty is a modestly imaginative entry, even though it admits it owes much of its story to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The story is basic. Students at an Ohio high school have always been alienated from their teachers, but this year the teachers really are aliens. A parasite from someplace has taken over their bodies.

The lead players are the usual stereotypes. There is Casey [Elijah Wood], the nerdy smart kid. Jordana Brewster plays Delilah, the school's beautiful Queen of Mean. Stan, the Jock, is played by Shawn Hatosey. Then we have Zeke the Rebel [Josh Harnett], Stokely the Outcast [Clea DuVall] and Marybeth the Good Girl [Laura Harris]. The teachers and parents are also straight out of the Stereotype's Handbook. They range from mildly neurotic to dangerously psychotic, and this is before the aliens get them.

What saves the movie are the directing style of Robert Rodriguez, who elicits strong performances from the cast, and the fairly intelligent dialog. Everything is propelled by the type of humor that is best appreciated by people under the age of 21. While the horror is predictable, it fits the satirical nature of the picture. In one scene, one character says to another, "Don't you ever just want to be yourself? I know I do." She then transforms into a hideous monster. Similar scenes are too risque to describe here.

Another plus is that the young cast is full of actors who are a cut above those usually found in such fare. I expect to see a lot more of them, especially Josh Harnett, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris and Elijah Wood, who has proved his talent in a number of other movies. Of the older actors, it was great to see Piper Laurie, though she deserves better material. Miss Laurie made her first movie when she was eighteen. I wonder what she thought of these youngsters, who are about the same age as she was when she started a half a century ago.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Keeps you glued to the screen!!!
Review: This is an excellent teen sci-fi film. I love the way the story unfolds. The movie is about aliens that are taking over both the students and teachers bodies, hoping to eventually take over the world. I like the explanation given for the alien parasite having to drink lots of water and the reason for trying to take control the human race. I watched this whole movie one night on USA. When it was over, I wanted to see it again. I liked the way the kids from different cliches come together. Josh Hartnett as Zeke the drug dealer and Elijah Wood as the geeky kid really stood out in the movie. Clea DuVall wasn't bad either. Overall, this is a good movie to sit down and watch by yourself or even better, with your friends.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Boo! It stinks! Bad plot! Bad acting!
Review: I caught this on USA one night and I truly thought it was one of the worst movies viewed in a long time. It just really stunk. The plot was terrible and this is just another lousy teen movie that most likely bombed at the box office and these script writers and directors think people are going to the theater to watch a dumb movie like this. I do not know about anyone else but this movie put me a bad mood because of high stupitity and the actors were not funny nor appealing. I call this a dork flick!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great acting/bad plot
Review: The Faculty has an excellent cast. Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett are two of the insanely talented young actors. The movie brings together six kids from different high school cliques: Casey the geek, Zeek the drug dealer (rebel), Stockly the goth, Stan the jock, Delilah the cheerleader, and Marybeth the new girl. The movie's plot is kinda bad but it pokes fun at itself, which, in a way, makes up for it. There's kinda a "breakfast club" theme in the end when they all become friends and all that. I loved this movie. Again, Wood and Hartnett really stand out as excellent young actors. Definatly a movie worth checkin out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I LOVED this movie!!!
Review: This was a really good movie!! I didn't find it very scary, but my friend flipped out when she saw it, and my mom got scared so u might find it scary I don't know. Some ppl might think some things in it are gross, like when Zeke (Josh Hartnett) cuts off a teachers fingers, then shoves a pen in his eye. I didn't think that was gross either but my mom and friend did so I don't know about u. I had absolutely no idea who the alien queen type person thing was gonna b, but my mom geussed it. I rented it 4 a sleep over and me and one other friend were the only ppl who liked it but againI don't know about u...even if ur not really into the whole sci-fi thing u should still check it out, cause it rocks!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sharp, edgy horror
Review: This teen horror is scripted by Kevin 'Scream' Williamson, and it shows. This movie is full to the brim with knowing nods and winks to sci-fi and horror that true fans of the genre will appreciate. The plot is basic enough, group of teens battle against their teachers and peers as they gradually become a set of mute, apparently perfect clones. Yet this version of 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' is both original and clever in that it pits its kids not only against the clones but against each other as the slowly-decreasing inner group is riven by suspicion and paranoia. 'The Faculty' also manages to allude to 'The Breakfast Club' with the group of teens basically being a geek (Wood), a prom queen, a jock, a goth and the new girl. This witty device manages to increase the tension, which is edged up very effectively and old set pieces such as the almost obligatory 'chase through the school corridors' scene is fresh and exciting.

Rodriguez has also managed to assemble a smart young cast, many of who are now rapidly rising in the industry. Wood proves that he is more than able to carry a movie with his likeably geeky hero whilst Hartnett (giving evidence of his later stellar performance in 'The Virgin Suicides') and Duvall (last seen in TV's 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' as the invisible girl, as well as indie flick 'But I'm A Cheerleader') give able support.

Some of the central ideas are also very clever, such as that the government planned conspiracy thrillers such as 'Men In Black' in order to cover up the real conspiracy. Whilst 'The Faculty' can't really be labled a true classic, it is an interesting piece that is more than a cut above others in its genre.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Head-over-heels in love!
Review: I didn't see this movie until after I saw the recent Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. After seeing Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, I couldn't wait to see all of his other movies. The Faculty is excellent, with a great cast and plot. Although some scenes might gross out the weak-stomached people, I couldn't find anything wrong with this movie. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves horrer, or who just wants to see some great acting!


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