Varsity Blues (1999)

Starring – James Van Der Beek; Jon Voight; Paul Walker; Ron Lester & Scott Caan

Director – Brian Robbins

MPAA – Rated R for strong language throughout, sexuality and nudity, and some substance abuse.

I didn’t go into Varsity Blues expecting a whole lot. I’ll have to admit that I’m not the biggest football fan in the world, so the whole premise of the movie wasn’t at the top of my list as far as appealing story lines go. Having said that, I am a fan of Jon Voight, and I think James Van Der Beek is one of the more talented actors on television on one of the best shows on television (Dawson’s Creek). So I wasn’t real surprised that I enjoyed the performances of Voight and Van Der Beek, although Van Der Beek could use some serious practice on his southern accent. The part that did surprise me was that I actually enjoyed the rest of the movie. The fact that it included a scene in a strip bar and another scene with a girl wearing nothing other than whip cream probably didn’t hurt. But the supporting cast was good, and the story line, while revolving around football, had enough extras to keep even those of us who avoid football telecasts at all costs something to enjoy.

The basic premise goes something like this. The movie is set in typical small town Midwest America. The town is crazy over the high school football team, and even crazier over the local coach (Jon Voight), who the townsfolk consider to be a legend, even though he is the meanest S.O.B. to ever put a whistle around his neck. Van Der Beek plays a second string quarterback who never gets playing time and who takes the brunt of the coach’s abuse. Like all good formula sports movies, the all-star quarterback suffers a season ending injury and Van Der Beek is called upon to lead the team into the state finals. Coach and new starting quarterback still don’t like each other, which is where most of the conflict in this movie arises from. Thrown in for good measure are the teams off the field antics in what comes off as a rip off of Porky’s with a higher budget.

As I already alluded to, Voight and Van Der Beek do a good job in their roles. Voight is perfectly cast as the coach who only cares about winning no matter what the personal cost to his players. Van Der Beek, aside from the lousy accent, shows that his great performances on Dawson’s Creek are not just a result of working with a talented cast and creative genius Kevin Williamson. Van Der Beek really stands out in this movie. It is a credit as much to his performance as to the decent supporting cast surrounding him. If Van Der Beek’s performance in this film is any indication, he may be well on his way to a very successful career as a leading man in Hollywood. Let’s face it Kevin Costner’s missing in action English accent in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves certainly never hurt his career. As long as Van Der Beek can avoid roles in movies involving post-apocalyptic postal carriers, or post-apocalyptic flooded continents, he should do OK. The supporting cast does their job fairly solidly, but none leap out as being overly outstanding.

The interaction between Voight and his players and Van Der Beek’s rise to become the town VIP and the problems that that cause him more than give the non-sports minded something to latch on to, even with all of the football. Add to that the performances of Van Der Beek and Voight, and you have a fairly entertaining couple of hours.

7/10

Disturbing Behavior (1998)

Starring – James Marsden; Katie Holmes; Nick Stahl; Steve Railsback & Bruce Greenwood

Director – David Nutter

MPAA – Rated R for strong violence, sexuality, language, and drug content.

Disturbing Behavior is your typical teen oriented horror flick. It’s certainly not going down as one of the classics in the genre. To be perfectly honest, probably the only reason it will be remembered is because of the presence of Katie Holmes. While her performance isn’t quite as good as fans of her TV show Dawson’s Creek might have come to expect from her, she does make the most of the material that she has to work with. As do the rest of the fairly talented, if not exceptional, young cast.

Steve Clark (James Marsden) and his family move to a small Pacific Northwest community where something seems just a little too good to be true about some of the local high school students. They are high over achievers and very community oriented. They also have the tendency to become homicidal on occasion (nobody’s perfect). Like every school, this one also has its less than perfect students. They are the leather clad, drinking and smoking (not necessarily cigarettes) bunch, who aren’t exactly on the honor role. Their numbers seem to be diminishing slowly as many of them are joining the ranks of the preppy elite in the school. This is all due to the influence of the school guidance counselor who is doing a little experimenting on his students. The basis of this movie is how Marsden and his new friend the leather-clad Katie Holmes run head on into the preppies.

First, I should start by saying that Katie Holmes in leather is more than an adequate reason for me to recommend this movie. If that isn’t enough for you (and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be), I’ll give the movie a couple of more points in the win column. As I’ve already alluded to, the acting is solid, and is certainly better than most films of this genre, although not quite up to films such as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. This is a good looking film, very well photographed, and the Pacific Northwest scenery is used to full advantage. At least to the extent that it looks god in the daylight shots. Which, as horror fans know, are few and far between in horror flicks.

The basic premise of the movie is a pretty tired one. The population slowly being converted into something else has been done more times than I care to imagine. There are really not a great deal of new twists that make it considerably different from other films of this type. Even though it’s not particularly original, it does add enough twists to keep your interest through the whole movie. Not exactly ringing endorsements, but considering the horror films of just a few years ago (pre Scream), this could almost be considered a masterpiece.

If taken for what it is, a formula horror flick, Disturbing Behavior isn’t half bad. My guess is 10 years from now the only reason that anyone will remember this is for the fact that it was one of the very talented Katie Holmes’ first starring roles.

7/10

The Faculty (1998)

Starring – Elijah Wood; Jordana Brewster; Clea Duvall; Laura Harris & Josh Hartnett

Director – Robert Rodriguez

MPAA – Rated R for violence/gore, strong language, drug use and some nudity.

When I went into The Faculty I was expecting a typical teen horror flick. I figured it may be a bit above average considering that Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2) had written the screenplay. My theory was that if Williamson was involved, at the very least this movie was going to be entertaining. Not only was the movie entertaining, but Williamson has proven once again that he is one of the most gifted writers in Hollywood. Add to that Robert Rodriguez’ great job in the director’s chair and you have the makings of a pretty good film. When you throw in a great young cast, you have a winner.

Elijah Wood plays the school whipping post, who works at the school newspaper with the head cheerleader (Jordana Brewster). In the course of looking for leads for a new story, they discover an even bigger one. Their teachers have been taken over by aliens, which are rapidly taking over the rest of the school. It then falls to them and four of their classmates, the only six people left in the school unaffected, to find a way to stop the aliens before they can take over the world. OK, it sounds a little corny, but it actually comes off pretty well. There is never any real point at which you start saying to yourself “As if that would happen”. Of course, you have to get by the whole alien invasion thing. After getting passed that, you are home free.

In terms of casting, The Faculty is fairly impressive. To make up for the relatively unknown, but extremely talented cast of high school students, the producers decided to cast some familiar faces in the roles of the faculty. They include Robert Patrick (the liquid terminator in Terminator 2), the high school principal is Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers), and the school nurse is Salma Hayek. (I’m betting every guy in that school gets sick at least once a week.) If Salma weren’t enough, adding to the babe factor is Famke Janssen (Goldeneye). Among the young cast of students is only a couple of recognizable names, they are Josh Hartnett (who played Jamie Lee Curtis’ son in Halloween: H20) and Elijah Wood (Deep Impact). Singer Usher also makes a brief appearance in a small role. Adding some heat to the younger generation are up a coming hotties Jordana Brewster and Laura Harris. I enjoyed the performances of the whole cast. Of course, this is a horror movie and not Shakespeare, so nobody was really stretching their acting talents to the limit. As horror movie casts go, this one was fun to watch.

Unlike the early slasher type films of the late seventies and eighties, The Faculty actually had a production budget and it shows. This film wasn’t shot on any shoestring budget, nor where the special effects cooked up in somebody’s garage. The Faculty lives up to the high production values that were set by Scream a few years ago. So it’s no coincidence that Kevin Williamson was involved in both films. Maybe it even raises the bar a bit. Considering that this was a movie about aliens, visual effects are a little more important.

It’s a great movie. Although, parents should be warned — The Faculty is not for the kids, even though it seems to be marketed towards them.

8/10

Friday The 13th (1980)

Starring – Betsy Palmer; Adrienne King; Jeannine Taylor; Robbi Morgan & Kevin Bacon

Director – Sean S. Cunningham

MPAA – R

This is the first film in what would become the most successful series of horror films of all time. Right up front, here’s a fair warning to those of you who might be inclined to watch this movie for the first appearance of everyone’s favorite goalie-mask-wearing homicidal maniac. Jason, the guy who single handedly controlled the overpopulation problem around the Crystal Lake area, doesn’t start his quest to find the most interesting household item with which to kill someone until the first sequel. While he does have a small role in this film, we the audience have to depend on another blood thirsty maniac to rack up the body count. The plot, like every other Friday The 13th movie goes something like this — crazed killer murders as many unsuspecting teenagers as he/she/it possibly can in the space of a 90 minute movie. The reasons that the aforementioned unsuspecting teenagers come into contact with the bloodthirsty killer are usually of little importance to the story. But for those of you out there that might actually care about such trivial matters in a movie such as a plot, here are the basics. A bunch of unsuspecting teens get a summer job at a long closed summer camp. They are days away from the arrival of the kids and they are spending their time fixing the place up and making sure it is ready for the kids. Sadly, they start being butchered one by one by the bloodthirsty killer.

At this point I would usually say something about the quality of acting, directing or maybe something about the high quality of the production. Since I’m not going to do that, feel free to assume that if I did, it wouldn’t be positive. I will say that this movie looks as if it was made for about a hundred bucks, and that includes the actors’ salaries. If you are used to recent horror films like Scream, you are in for a bit of a surprise. The only saving grace for Friday The 13th is that it was really the first of its kind, with the killer taking real pride in his work; and using as many methods of murder as they could. None of this single murder weapon stuff like that unimaginative Leatherface in Chainsaw Massacre, or the creatively stifled imagination of Halloween’s Michael Myers who just used brute force or a really big kitchen knife. Nope, in the Friday The 13th movies, you can always count on the killer taking great pride in his work.

One fun fact about this movie is that the cast includes a very young Kevin Bacon, although after this movie it is a wonder he ever worked again. The main reason to see Friday The 13th is if you want to watch all of the series from the beginning. If not, stick with the later films with Jason, everyone’s favorite hockey fan. Friday The 13th is the sort of movie that is fun to sit down and get a couple of scares from. Just don’t sit down expecting a whole lot.

4/10

Halloween (1978)

Starring – Donald Pleasence; Jamie Lee Curtis; Nancy Kyes; P.J. Soles & Charles Cyphers

Director – John Carpenter

MPAA – R

I first saw Halloween when I was in junior high, which was more than a decade ago. To this day the theme song still gives me chills. By far, Halloween has the best soundtrack of any horror film ever made, with the possible exception of Psycho. Much like the other early slasher films such as Friday The 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween wasn’t made on what you would call a big budget. Unlike the other films of that era, Halloween had one extra thing going for it, director John Carpenter. Carpenter makes use of what limited money he had, down to the last penny. That is not to say that Halloween always looks great, but in the places where the shoestring budget shows itself it only adds to the charm. Carpenter probably also saved money in other areas — not only did he direct the movie, but he wrote it, and composed all of the music. Fortunately for we the audience, Carpenter excels in all three areas. The other leg up that Halloween has on the other early slashers is its cast. Sure it has its share of acting class failures, but they aren’t bad enough to detract from Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence.

Young Michael Myers, at the age of nine, decided to give new meaning to trick or treat on Halloween night by killing his sister with a butcher knife. He is confined to a mental hospital where he is placed in the care of Doctor Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). 15 years to the day that he killed his sister, Michael escapes from the institution to return to his hometown of Haddonfield and resume his killing. He is pursued by Dr. Loomis and the local police, but before they can catch him he resumes his love for large cutlery by using it on some of the local teen population. One of the locals who run into big Mike on Halloween is Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) who happen to be baby sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time. It should come as no surprise that mayhem and carnage ensue.

As I said, the budget wasn’t big, so don’t expect Star Wars quality production values in this film. With most of the cast (or if you prefer, victims in waiting) the acting is passable. Pleasence does a great job at being creepy, and Jamie Lee Curtis, even with the bad seventies hair and the bell bottoms is a hottie. She also does a pretty good job in the acting department, considering that this was her first role. The story is pretty good considering this is a slasher flick. It is even more interesting if you also watch the sequel that gives a bit more of the back story.

No review of Halloween would be complete without the requisite fun fact about this movie. Take a good look at Michael Myers white mask that he wears throughout his killing spree. You may just notice that it is actually a William Shatner (that’s right Trekkies, good old Captain Kirk himself) Halloween mask painted white. Other fun bloopers include the fact that the film is supposed to be set in Illinois but all of the cars have California license plates. I would recommend Halloween to anyone who wants a good scare, despite the fact that it looks very dated in places. One other recommendation that I would make is that if at all possible watch Halloween and its sequel at the same time as they take place within hours of each other.

7/10 – I’d rank it higher if the production values had been better.