Alrighty folks, I've got a ton of reviews for THE FACULTY here. All are positive, but each reviewer has some minor quips with the flick, though they seem to disregard them as being minor when held up to the amount of enjoyment the audience had with this flick. SOOOOOO.... this seems to be an 'audience' film, one to see with a lot of friends. And from what I know of the film that was exactly what they were aiming for. I love it that specific people loved then others hate the same things, but everyone seems to have a separate quip, but they really do sound like they had a ton of fun. Sounds alot like the reaction to FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, you either dug the living shit out of it, or well ya liked the first half but not the second or viceversa. DAMMIT, WEDNESDAY ISN'T HERE ALREADY!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!! Sigh.... Well our first review from JD here... well he takes the ol cleaver to me, and I say "You want some?" Here ya go....
Here's a review off the elijah wood mailing list, written by JD Ahmanson....just thought you'd like to read it...NOTE: it is NOT sent by him, I am NOT him:
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I just got back from the most bizarre screening of a film I've ever attended. I suppose I should have been tipped off when I learned that it was being held at a *bargain* theater in the Fairfax District. (We don't have 'dollar' theaters here; nothing in this town is that inexpensive!) My suspicions were confirmed when the film began and they hadn't pulled the curtain back yet. About two minutes into the film they decided to stop the projector and rewind to the beginning. Ten minutes later they started again. This time there was no picture!
The almost all young and mostly ethnic crowd was at the point of rioting when a tall young man walked up on stage (it's an old theater, so there's a stage in front of the screen). It was Josh Hartnett, who plays Zeke in the film. He decided to fill time while they were fixing the technical problems, asking if there were any questions about the making of the film. He was joined in short order by Selma Hayek, who plays Nurse Harper. The crowd started shouting questions and making a lot of noise, prompting Josh to yell "NO ONE IS LISTENING TO ME!!"
Meanwhile, a couple of rows behind us, sitting in the seventh row (I told you those were the best seats!) were director Robert Rodriguez and writer Kevin Williamson. I overheard a Dimension Films rep tell Rodriguez that "Sean [Hatosy] and Elijah are together". I guess that meant they were sitting together, but I didn't see anyone other than Josh and Selma from the cast, though a friend of mine told me Usher was sitting behind them. They delayed the start of the screening, even before the technical problems, so I wondered if they were waiting for Elijah to return from New York, where he taped "Rosie" this morning.
If you've never seen a film with a largely young and ethnic crowd, it's an experience. There was a lot of talk back to the characters on the screen. There was screaming and hooting when Josh and especially Usher came on screen. There was also some, but not much for Elijah. At least he didn't get booed like Harry Knowles did (okay, that was led by me...).
(HARRY NOTE: Yeah yeah, I have your picture buddy!)
Anyway, as for the film, I won't spoil it for you, though you can probably guess the plot. One scene in particular was practically a direct ripoff of "The Thing". All in all, though, I liked it. The writing was far less pretentious and precocious than I expected from a Kevin Williamson film. The direction was good though many scenes seemed slightly out of focus (there were no end credits, so I don't know who was DP). Robert Patrick was chilling, though not as scary as Harry Knowles, who is frightening just to look at (I didn't know they made pants that big...).
Josh Hartnett walked away with the film; he stole every scene he was in. I didn't see him in "H20", but this film should make him a star. He simply commanded the screen. Most characters weren't that well drawn, but Josh made Zeke complex and mysterious. Clea DuVall's Stokely was the second best character, mostly from her performance. No one else impressed me that much, except Chris McDonald in his two brief scenes and Jon Stewart as the science teacher. Usher's part was barely a cameo. Thank goodness Harry Knowles was barely in the film and didn't speak at all.
So what about Elijah? His performance was good, but uneven. Did he baseline? Just when I thought he would, he just sat back and kinda went through the motions. At least he had more to work with than in "Deep Impact". I'm not saying he was bad, just not great. He did have some great moments, though. Hence the description 'uneven'. :-)
One last thing: from Elijah's dialog alone it would be rated R -- one B-word, one S-word, three F-words, and some behavior that I wouldn't want anyone to emulate.
JD
Ok, from that review we get the word that JOSH HARTNETT is the best thing about the film, and that Elijah is a bit uneven. Hmmmmmm.... let us move on to the next review from a geek that just LOVED the film....
Just returned from a screening of "The Faculty" held in Westwood tonight. Also in attendance were Robert Rodriguez, Bob Weinstein, Robert Patrick and someone who resembled Kevin Williamson, (though I can't swear it was him, since said person looked similar to, though not exactly like pics I've seen of Williamson.)
Pic seemed pretty much finished (it'd better be since it's supposed to open in two weeks) lacking only the opening and end credits.
Flick went over great with the crowd. Although there were so many screaming teenagers in the audience, you probably could've projected still pictures of the teen cast and elicited squeals of delight.
Personally, I thought the film was outstanding. Equal parts sci-fi, horror, action and teen angst. Plot is a combo of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and John Carpenter's version of "The Thing" set in high school. They even cribbed the "let's-do-a-test-to-see-who's-the-alien" scene from the latter. However, as with the Scream films which also flowed from Williamson's pen, the filmmakers are absolutely aware of their influences and the characters even go so far as to make reference to the films that are being alluded to. (Isn't postmodernism great?) I don't wanna give away any more of the plot, since a lot of the strength of the film relies on unexpected turns of the story.
The film wisely takes its time establishing the characters and sinister goings-on at Herrington High. The entire cast is fine, especially the lead teens, who, execpt for Elijah Wood and R&Ber Usher, are mostly unknowns. Recognizable faces dot the perimeter, however: Robert Patrick, Piper Laurie, Salma Hyeck, Bebe Newirth, Jon Stewart, and a strapping red-headed fellow who will be recognizable to netizens everywhere. (Someone even yelled, "Harry!!" when he appeared on screen. I'm sure the NRG folks were cringing.)
The true strength of the film, IMHO, was the excellent screenplay by Kevin Williamson. All the characters were unique and well-deliniated and were fluent in the self-aware, pop-culture referencing dialogue which has become his signature. Furthermore, the story takes several great turns that were really gutsy and totally out of left field. Rodriguez has always been great with the camera, and he gets to flex his muscles with several great action set-pieces. But, at the risk of offending some, his writing has never been that great, so it was great to see what he could do with Grade A material. A few minor complaints: some of the editing in the climax was a bit choppy and the sound fx around the beginning were laid on a little thick: these kids couldn't gently close a door without it reverberating through the theater in all its THX glory.
Rodriguez and Patrick were in the lobby afterward and spoke to several stragglers. They were both very gracious, shaking hands and accepting compliments with humility. Comments overheard among some of the suits and NRG monkeys were: "big hit" "gonna be huge" etc.
This should really connect with the "Scream" audience and do great business over the holidays.
Jasper Sitwell.
Ok, that last review was basically an "I LOVE THIS MOVIE" review, but he complains about the sound effects and the editting. Doesn't mention any falacies in the acting or script department. Says audience went crazy.... ok, let's go on to the next one....
I just got back from a screening of "the Faculty" and it was great - it was no "Scream" but it's a great movie perhaps even better than "From Dusk Till Dawn". I wouldn't have sent this in being that I signed a nondisclosure waiver but it was just too strange of a screening not to squeal. It was 25% public test audience and the rest were cast, crew, and reviewers? But the nutty thing was that when the film started the curtains were still down and they stayed down for about five minutes then they stopped the film and 5 guys went behind the curtain to figure out what went wrong and time just kept ticking away so then ??? what's-his-name from "Halloween H20" got up in front of the screen and started an impromptu Q&A session about what it was like to make the movie. The audience freaked and just made tons of prepubescent noise so he couldn't hear the few questions those of us in the audience over 13 were asking. Then Selma Hiak (who looks like she is 4'5") got up next top him and scream out that the projector and curtain problems were an alien conspiracy.
Finally the movie began, on the screen, and it was a great movie, it restored my faith in Kevin Willamson. I no longer will think of Scream as a fluke. My only problems with this cool flick are that Usher is in the commercial more than he is in the movie and the shape-shifting alien doesn't change shape to prevent itself from, well you'll see.
yoda's cousin herby
Ok, this guy thought it was 'no SCREAM but thinks the movie could in fact be better than FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. Fuck me, get me in the damn theater!!! NOW!!!! Ok, complains that there isn't more USHER. Next up we have AICN regular John Robie, the catburglar of film critics.... Good work my friend...
Pulled on my black body suit, tightened my sneakin' boots, grabbed a bag of suction cups and painted my face dark as night. Time to go out and do some creepin'. Not for diamonds. For flicks. Found a theater with a long line of people, most of them shouting about some guy named Usher. Surrounding the theater were a bunch of little boys in blue shirts with walkie-talkies tied to their heads.
They were reeeeaal hard to get by. I think the NRG has stooped to new lows in protecting the whole shrine of the test film. It looked like they picked a junkie up off the street, gave him a headset, and told him to bust some heads if things got out of hand. Sure guys...there's already at least thirty little peons running around asking if everyone has their blue ticket. Ol' Track-mark isn't gonna do ya' much good.
The movie they were showing was none other than The Faculty by super-cool hombre Robert Rodriguez. I friggin' love his movies, I have so much fun at 'em. Gosh, I almost busted a nut when the guy started shooting rockets out of the guitar case in Desperado. Now The Faculty is a fun as hell flick and better than most any teen horror shtick you're gonna see anytime soon. In fact I can't imagine that there are going to be any other teen-horror movies that do it better than The Faulty. Thank God because more than most anyone I am sick of the Kevin Williamson horror movie; the cuddly, none-too-offensive vacant teens, the non-gore, the stupid teens, the stupid, stupid teens. The teens. Please stop. This is a Williamson scripted movie. He did a rewrite on it. The script isn't very good. The director is very, very good. It ends up being a fun as hell movie with a couple big problems.
Aliens invade the school. Yeah, it's parts Invaders from Mars (Menzies or Hooper, take your pick), major parts Carpenter's Thing, it's even small parts Khan (?...!, you'll know the scene when you see it) and Lifeforce. Thank God it's a lot of the good parts (and that these are loving homages to the movies rather than rip-offs) and the part from Lifeforce that's the same is the naked bad chick. 'Ho yah. I've purposely left a ton about major plot points and characters out because, well, why ruin the fun? And there is a lot, A LOT, that's fun here. But there's something that's been killing me ever since a couple minutes into the movie...ah, the pain of having to say it, but here we go...
Zeke, one of the main main characters, absolutely sucks. He was the one thing that really hurt the movie for me. Here's the reason why. Now the best horror movies start out showing little if no respect for the characters. They slog them through some pretty nasty shit to test them, to prove their worth. Look at Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Look at Friday the 13th, the first one. Look at Carpenter flicks. Geez, wanna go back? Look at Nosferatu man. The characters gotta earn the respect, gotta become something very different than they were the beginning of the film, but something that they've always had the possibility of being. That's the fun part, to see a character in a horror movie really top himself and kick some ass. Elijah Wood's character is cool because we get to see him at his best AND his worst. We only see Zeke at his best. Thank you, Mr. Williamson, I guess that's to show us that he's the tough guy. Man, I don't get it. You did it well with Campell's character in Scream, how did you screw this one up? Zeke starts out like a lame riff on a bad boy and stays that way. No growth, nothing. Don't bitch that this is a horror flick and that isn't a valid complaint; why did Russel kick so much ass in The Thing? Because he starts out as simply as a guy working at a research station, no sign of any ass-kicking qualities, and he has to deal with a nasty-as-hell alien. Ripley was nothing more than the pilot of a space ship at the outset of Alien, and look what she went on to do. Zeke, the fifth year senior, the boy genius who's coolly quiet except when he's spouting scientific knowledge like he's Einstein, the boy wonder with a Dr. Frankenstein like chem set in his garage that makes drugs. If you're so fucking smart Zeke why didn't you just skim by on bad grades, graduate and be done with school so you could really start kicking some ass? Who wants to be caught up in school all day? Zeke, the fucking lame ass moron with bad hair who, to prove he's smart, can answer real tough biology questions with answers that stump the teachers and...aw, fuck it. Zeke is horrible. He really hurt the movie for me. Maybe if a different actor played the part, imbued it with a little humanity, a little sense that this is just a cool guy and not some uber-teen. This is a group of TEENS, not hardcore adult action heroes. You can have a Dirty Harry or an Arnie character be a force of nature and it'll fly. Why? Because they're older, you know that they went through a lot to get that way. The only thing cool about the kid is his rockin' car. Zeke is a little tike. I'm not gonna say a little punk because that's a compliment. God just have the guy screw up, just a little, just once. Have him accidentally spill a glass of water, have him trip, something to show that beyond all the babble about being a science genius and cool character he's a normal kid. Don't go and try to make him El Stud Boy because he's not. You've already got one of those in the flick. His name is Elijah Wood.
Yep, that boy is pretty damn terriffic in The Faculty. I don't even think Wood's character was written all that well (his final line with the monster certainly isn't, oh why oh WHY does he have to have a final line with the monster, God, it's dumb...Robert, please man, grab all the prints and cut that crappy line out). Elijah just really, really looks exactly like he should. He's got the body movements down, got the voice down. It ain't just him being himself. The kid is getting chased by ALIENS, man. Wood is good in this, he really is. It's a ton of fun to watch him. See, we get emotional involvement with him. He's the dork that gets picked on so so so bad and he deals with it like a dork would. Give Rodriguez an award for realizing the implications of a teenager drinking out of a juice box. And another award for Wood's cool as hell room, repelete with a hidden stash of nudie books.
The other characters, well, they're fine, although typical Williamson bullshit teen dialogue hits some new lame lows here. "The social order is that the head cheerleader dates the captain of the football team," says Delilah (super, super, super hotty) at one point. SHUT THE FUCK UP! I hate, HATE crap like that. Williamson you're good at making us freak out, but stop it with gutter junk dialogue like that. It just reeks so bad. It ain't cute and it ain't witty. And Hollywood can we please, please put the kibosh on the idea that all the hottest girls in school work on the newspaper? I worked on the paper for three years, I was an editor of the paper, and not once, not once, did any girl looking remotely like Delilah walk through the doors asking me to help her with a story. The kid who plays the ex-captain of the football team is actually very good. Unfortunately his real nice scene (not sarcastic) with Stokley is ruined by brining up the lame third-eye-bullshit sounding music. The music...it's bad. Aside from one good Offspring song that isn't played nearly enough, the music is really hurting, all weak top forty wussy crap. It's a major surprise considering that Rodriquez has had such great stuff in his other movies.
The sound itself, though, is an entirely different matter. Rodriquez really outdid himself this time. This movie has better sound fx than most anything I've seen all year (yeah, yeah, SPR, I know). It's just awesome. Not to give too much away, but the setup of the flick (which is great, what an awesome beginning)has a scene where Robert Patrick is running and blowing a whistle. That whistle, shreaking and piercing and growing louder and louder, is just so ominous and freaky that I was jumping up and down in my seat. Now add in the fact that there was countless other echos and cries and little ticks going on in the soundtrack at the same time, and man, Rodriquez really must have done his work on this one. It paid off.
The adults in the movie are all real good. Robert Patrick is awesome. Damn, he's so cool. Unfortunately he hardly even appears in the last half of the thing. Ya see all the complaints so far point right at a script that needed help. There's a lot of characters in this story so of course it isn't really possible to explore all of them as much as one would like in a running time of a little over an hour and forty-five minutes. All things considered, though, Patrick gets robbed here. Nothing comes of him. He gets great build up, one cool as hell scene on a football field, and then...nothing. Master Knowles (without sounding like I'm kissing too much patoot) really does look cool up there as a flickering image, but he doesn't get enough screen time. Salma, who does a great immitation of Chekov from Khan in one scene, is hardly even in it. Bebe Neuwirth is the one teacher who does have enough meat to her. She's good. Damn, she looks hot, too. John Stewart has two big scenes, not really enough but both of them are great. Famke Jenson has enought guts to her, I suppose, but she looks so good up on the screen I want more. I suppose it isn't really fair to complain that the teachers don't have enough time on-screen since this is a flick about how a bunch of teenagers deal with evil aliens, but when you've got Salma Hayek as a nurse...well, it's like Jason Robbards in the end of Beloved. Huh, why is such a big name actor in such a small role? That kind of feeling.
The last criticism concerns the ending. It's anti-climatic. Elijah's line is terrible. There's not enough tension to the hero/big monster(who's cool but looks exactly like a giant catfish in one underwater scene) final showdown. That isn't the big problem, though. The big problem is the epilogue. It sucks. It basically goes against the theme of the rest of the movie. It's not fair to give it away, but note to Mr. Williamson; it's never a good thing when someone stops questioning things and being skeptical and decideds to be dumb and complacent just like everyone else. I've known plenty of girls like Stokely. Instead of making her a girl who simply doesn't want to be like the peole around her, you went and made her a girl who's afraid of fitting in. Bullshit man. That girl had some problems, but at least she had balls. The epilogue makes her look like a dumb chick who was going through "a phase."
I hope it doesn't sound like this thing is any kind of disaster because it certainly, certainly is not. I had a ton of fun watching it and so did the audience I was with. Gosh, it's a monster movie done by Robert Rodriguez, that just rocks. The monster is neat, the action is cool, the thing is shot well, the sound is outstanding, a few people die in great ways and no one is ever gonna forget John Stewart's second big scene. I only wish that the script had been tighter. And I wish that Zeke had died like a little bitch.