shankar

"The Faculty" was actually pretty good. A lot of what I liked about it was because of what it wasn't. It wasn't terribly full of pop culture "coolness" like many young films like this are. It wasn't full of sickeningly likeable characters - they all had flaws (one sold fake drugs and porn, one was mean to her boyfriend, one hated everybody, etc.). That was a nice difference. I also thought the story was relatively interesting and told in a nice, fun-to-watch way. The effects were appropriately creepy and quite good. My rating was brought down a point by the stupid, tacked-on, "One Month Later" scene at the very end.

I quite enjoyed this movie. Sure, my mind wandered a lot because the story is hardly gripping. I'm also positive I won't remember much about it next week, except that Minnie Driver's talent and beauty is stunning. STUNNING. I did also feel that the leading man was poorly cast. He did not seem to me a person that a young, vibrant woman would fall for. I'm sure the script called for a older man, but age wasn't the problem. He just didn't seem to fit in with Minnie Driver. Nonetheless, the whole movie was excellently shot and wonderfully acted and extremely high quality, but conversely it's regrettably forgettable. (That's a nice phrase, no?)

From what I understand, Studio 54 was a place of excitement, sex, music, drugs, money, crime, celebrity, and high energy. Amazingly, this movie misses EVERY ONE of those things. Sure, there's some sex and drugs, but it's extremely tame. The energy of this film is completely nonexistent - as is the humor and the sleaze. Imagine if a good director told this tale (like Martin Scorsese or someone)! There's a killer movie here. Also let me say that Breckin Meyer and Salma Hayek are NOT a believable couple, in no way imaginable. I gave it a 3, but only because Neve Campbell is beautiful, Salma Hayek is sexy, and Sela Ward is hot. I added a point because Mike Meyers rules. It's kind of nice not seeing him be so happily goofy as in Austin Powers or Waynes World.