Well here's another look at THE FACULTY, but I figured that I would place it up here to give you folks a look at what one lady thought of the whole FACULTY thingee. I know this weekend Robert and crew were in Press hell (aka Junket frenzy where you go through about 193 interviews an hour for two days), it seems that for some people the trailers and the poster are just not doing it for ya. Well I can tell ya that in the print I saw, the Tommy Hilfiger clothing label... well I just never really noticed it. Those commercials were shot on one weekend separately. And as for the trailers, well let's just say that from what I know Robert and crew at Dimension really don't want to do an ad campaign that let's you know exactly what you're getting into, there is ALOT more to the movie than just teenagers. USHER isn't really in the film much at all, technically my sister was on set more (though his part is larger). Just two more days till I see it, I'm dying. But then that's the problem with eating fatty foods. Oh, Rebecca... good luck on them finals ok? (sorry personal note there)
I, Lisa Fremont, am quite the crafty secret agent/literate film critic and I thought you could use the insights of a woman on your site. My latest caper involved an elaborate plan which enabled me to watch a little yet-to-be-released film called The Faculty. Here goes...
Before I say anything about The Faculty--about the suspense, the cute red-headed teacher--I have a few words to offer about its marketing campaign. Now I don't know who exactly is responsible for it, but I think someone forgot to tell them that they are trying, if anything, to make the movie look better than it actually is when they design the TV and radio spots. The ads these "suits" have put together somehow make a good movie look painfully bad. Between selecting shots that are not even in the film (at least the version I saw) and highlighting the worst lines in the entire script, these people couldn't have worked harder to push audiences away from the theater. I was made to dread seeing The Faculty, and had been highly anticipating it before I saw any ads. Hopefully word-of-mouth will take over and make this movie a success.
So, despite my apprehension, I mustered up the bravery to risk life and limb and steal a print to watch in my home theater. (Yes, I did it for you, darling Harry.) Granted, the movie could only be better than what I expected, but even after tempering my initial euphoria at finding that it was not as bad as it looked with some objectivity, I found that I truly liked The Faculty. Where some people might see a rip-off, I saw an enjoyable homage to such greats as The Thing, The Breakfast Club, and Scream. Robert Rodriguez somehow manages to avoid--although sometimes narrowly--the many pitfalls the script poses. The characters are neatly slotted in typical and overdone stereotypes, but it works here. There is some intangible undertone that makes you laugh instead of roll your eyes at the perfect head cheerleader, the star quarterback, the skinny geek, the outcast, the new girl, and the too-smart-for-his-own-good stoner. One thing is sure, this is the work of Rodriguez and not studio darling screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
You get the feeling that Williamson's heart was not in this project 100 percent, but since he was limited by constraints in George Huang's original, it probably wasn't. Unlike in his brilliant Scream, his references to pop culture in The Faculty are more often jarring than funny. My personal least favorite is "Would you blow it up Independence Day-style." Poor Elijah Wood, forced to try to make that and a one-liner straight from Batman & Robin work. (I won't spoil that one for everybody.)
Despite some forced hipness, The Faculty is a fun, well-done movie. I was worried that the whole thing would be ridiculous, but Rodriquez continually rescues it from doom. He balances the whims of fiction with the necessities of reality very well, keeping the audience invloved enough to overlook some questionable logic and ignore some of its weaker moments. I, usually a hyper-critical viewer, remained totally involved from start to finish. A huge factor of this was the opening few minutes. I don't want to ruin it so I won't go into detail, but it sucked me in right away.
Although The Faculty isn't a gore-happy horror movie, it has many moments of good suspense and some fun scares that make it an entertaining thriller. The latest addition to the ever-growing family of films produced to capitalize on Scream's formula, this is less bloody but much more interesting than I Know What You Did Last Summer, and--an added bonus--there is nobody from any of the teen angst dramas in it. Rodriguez may not deserve all the credit for pulling off what could have been a wretched film, but I give it to him anyway. He took a movie filled with unoriginal ideas and made it seem somewhat new. This idea borrowing is lighthearted and should not offend any diehard fans of The Thing or John Hughes. The most masterful aspect, to me, is that Rodriguez achieves a tone that allows the movie to survive its lowest points. A lesser director would lose the audience, particularly its smarter members like me, at these moments, but he doesn't.
The Faculty is, when it boils down to it, fun. This is what the ads should tell you. Yes, aliens sell, but the story takes some development to digest and cannot be bought by viewers in a 15- or 30-second TV ad. So, although I might have been glowing at the film's end partly because it was infinitely better than the marketing campaign lets on, my big smile was earned by Rodriguez primarily for one reason: he made a good flick. Well, that and I really liked the quiet red-head in the faculty lounge.
--Lisa Fremont
AND NOW FOR THE DUDE..........
I also saw The Faculty on Friday night in Westwood. I have to admit going into the film I wasn't overly excited. I love horror films and was really looking forward to this one, that is until I saw the trailer...
Well thankfully the film's great, it has several flaws but the film achieves what the I think the makers intended, just a funny, scary, good old monster movie. This is the perfect film to go with a large group of your buddies and just have a great time.
The main reason I'm writing this is because I really enjoyed the movie and think it could be a real big hit if only they were to change their ads. I don't know anybody who wants to see this movie, people have laughed at the trailer. Even tons of film geeks, and trust me I'm at the capital of filmgeekdom, don't want to see this movie. Please Harry, talk to somebody, this movie is going to bomb if they don't do something fast. The audience reaction was good (although some of the crowd thought they were in a rock concert) but the movie needs a good trailer to get people into theatre. Word of mouth won't save this movie on its own.
Now on the movie:
The sound mix was great but I've never been in a theatre where it has been that loud (I loved it though) so I'm guessing they cranked it up for the screening.
Mr. Hartnett and Mr. Wood are great. The character of Zeke has a terrible establishing scene in a classroom where he talks about Crusoe but from then on Hartnett makes the character his own. Wood thankfully gets his introduction by getting the shit pounded out of him.
Robert Patrick is hilarious, he dominates every scene he is in, but deserves a good 5 minutes at the climax because he is one of the best things in the film. He isn't really in the last third, but dammit he should be. If footage exists, put it back in. I know it's too late to recut the film but this seems like a travesty to me.
The pacing of the movie is fantastic and Rodriguez gets in some stylish, clean camerawork without everything going overboard.
There is a lame post modernist explanation about the aliens in a scene between Wood and the Stokely (sp?) character. Williamson must have shit this one out, it's terrible. But rest assured much of the script is smart and the number one reason this film gets you into it is that the writer nails a lot of the details of high school life. Not all of them are explored well, but Williamson definitely remembers how high school was like. Thanks to these details, and the way all the characters are vicious to each other in the beginning of the film, were are able to actually care about them. With well drawn characters the scenes where one of them might be an alien play great.
One major complaint (without giving too much away), though I forgave the film because I was having such a good time... The central teenagers handle the situations with a lot of intelligence until a key moment in the latter part of the movie where two must go out of the safety of the high school and grab more of something that lets them hurt the aliens. The problem is they only have a short supply so we think they run out of it all (yea, tension) but then the Zeke character says wait "there might be some more in my car." Since they knew they were going to battle the aliens they would have brought all the stuff with them, they are not this stupid. Oh well, lapses in logic happen.
Please make a better trailer for this film, stop making it look like a bad straight to video title. Show us the different characters and then perhaps a little action... the film desperately needs better marketing, I hope Dimension films realizes this.
-Carraway
