This the latest release form horror box-office brothers Weinstein.. Have successfully remade a storyline that you may think you have seen someplace before.. Inspired by Bodysnatchers and Puppetmasters.. This newbie sci-fi slice of horror offers nothing new for an old audience and tries to educate a new audience.. Rodriguez has thrown in some cute little name captions that the audience can use to identify with the High School stereotypes that they are about to encounter.. What is new in this film.. There was no new noticeable story telling techniques.. In fact the plot twists could be seen from the que I waited in to buy my ticket.. But the film has a charm to it that will attract an audience back again..It opened at the Aussie box-office at #4 and dropped one spot the following week to 5.. Which is abnormal for a horror film.. Usually they have a 68% drop off in attendance pushing them to the rear of the top 10 if not completely out of it..
The Charm.. lies within the effect by Kurtzmann.. although they use the devils initials "CGI".. Kurtzmann does not in anyway abuse them.. The cast is the second draw.. Robert Patrick and Famke Jenson put in some great performances.. Piper Laurie (aka Carrie's Mum) puts in another haunting performance.. But perhaps the inevitable draw card is Josh Hartnett (H20) SKAT MAN.. The film is a bit of a popcorn "No Brainer".. But it is fun to feel superior to a film-maker.. (well this is shory becasue miramax knew I was coming an shut down there major site.. and source of extra dull info and pic's.. I'll get back to it..)
If you want to submit a SPOILER for this film send it to [email protected] ...
SPOILER room entry..
THE WEBPAGE 3 stars ***
The web-page came back online for this film.. hooray.. Well this page is pretty standard.. It is broken down into 8 sections.. I will go through each, one by one.. I'll start at the section called "SOUNDTRACK".. If you go to this section first and click on some music.. Then it will increase the enjoyment a little.. The soundtrack section consists of vid clip segments of the main song "Brick in the Wall Part 2" by Class of '99.. Also included are several grabs of music from the soundtrack.. What I would like to see.. seeing they have Real Audio segments, is to have the music start automaticly in the background. As the midi does on this page.. Not only would that hepl to sell the film but it would also make the soundtrack fall of the shelves.. The song samples are also available on a .wav basis..
Okay next section "Homeroom".. Well this section is the only section that even gives mention of the films director and writer.. It also gives a short synosis of the film.
The Next 2 sections are, "STUDENTS" and "FACULTY".. This is a major cast list.. It list the actors and career achievements in each section along with a photo.. The one thing I didn't get was the fact that "Casey's Dad" (Christopher MacDonald) was listed in the "FACULTY" section.. I guess they really wanted to give credit to this particular aacting performance..
The next section I found humorous.. It's called "DRESS CODE" and is just mainly an advert for T@#$%y jeans.. Fair enough that the company provided the clothing.... But I'm sure if you read the captions under the pictures.. You to will think.. It can't be that EASY.. or can it?? This is kind of like having a CATERER's section.. with pictures of the actors eating and captions under neathe reading... "Well today Josh would be running from aliens.. so we thought it best to feed him pasta.. To put back some of the carbs his body uses up during the shoot.".
Downloads is the next section.. nothing to interesting here.. Just a bunch of pictures.. more than anything.. AV-LAB is a section that more or less goes with it.. It has a bunch of .mov's to watch.. Unfrotunately the loading time of these can be annoying.. The only alternative is Real player stuff and then unless registered that can proove to be a little jerky..
Fun and Games is the next section.. Well low and behold by the time that this film reached Australia the competitions had closed.. Well they were probably only for residents of the USA and Canada.. The best chance of ever getting in on that kinf of promotion is to frequently check some sell out boring site like village.com or pray that the Studios realize the potential for opening competitions all the world around and accepting feedback on the film.. Unfortunately dimension has not left an area for film feedback.. in fact there is no way the viewer of this page can interact with the studio.. The viewer can only be told what the studio wants it to know.. The only feedback really is available at the miramax cafe.. which is an annoying need to get a password kind of site.. To protect you from being ripped off... Then again you will not win anything because you are not a resident of the USA.Canada.. so why bother giving feedback if you can get no rewards.. There is no need or want to do it really.. This is where this and many other official pages fail..
, 1998-1999.