Quick Movie Review: The Faculty (1998)

Think of The Faculty as an adaptation of sorts. A movie where aliens somehow take over the humans' bodies, one by one, until all of them are infected. The film recognizes that the premise is a lot like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Puppet Masters, but this particular rendition is both scary and cool. And perfectly captures the spirit of teen America in 1998.

Teachers at an Ohio high school start acting weirder than normal. And a hodgepodge Breakfast Club-like group of kids discover that their behavior might be due to some weird alien parasite. They work together to solve the mystery, where they figure out they must hunt down the alien queen and kill it so the school will go back to normal.

The Faculty goes deeper than just a basic invasion. There's an obvious motive for the aliens, and the psyches of the students are discovered as well. It's not the first late-90s film to be obsessed with the self-destruction of teen America, but this time that theme coincides with an alien invasion. 

For the most part the characters walk the fine line of realistic and what we've been convinced is realistic by movies and TV. But there's one scene with Elijah Wood's character, Casey, where his parents act so unbelievably unrealistic that, for a second, it takes you out of the movie. But only because its own standards for realism within the film universe have already been established by this point.

The twist at the end may be a little predictable for anyone paying attention, but along the way the story gives you a couple smaller twists that you really don't see coming.

The Faculty is a really fun and exciting experience that you can rewatch over and over again. The cast is charismatic and the pace never slows down for you to over-think things too much. For a movie that has something to say about the teen psyche, it just as easily knows how to grab their attention and distract them for a little while. And us, too, in the process.

Twizard Rating: 95

Quick Movie Review: Furious 7 (2015)

What bad things can you say about these movies? Looking at the corniness that it started from, you can't expect anything more. You go into it knowing what you're gonna get. You've known for 6 movies already.

Furious 7 picks up a little bit after where Fast & Furious 6 left off--but also subsequent to the events of Tokyo Drift. Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) is trying to pick off members of Dominic Toretto's (Vin Diesel) crew one by one. He wants revenge for the critical state they left his brother, Owen (Luke Evans). His methods seem a little extreme, given that his brother wasn't actually killed. But nonetheless, that's the catalyst for our story.

With the huge hype behind this film we all want something big. It definitely serves us well in that respect. The actions sequences are impressive and the story is intricate. While the gang isn't helping save the world or anything, the personal repercussions will be catastrophic if they don't end Shaw before he ends them. That's the major theme in this movie--protecting family.

You don't find out anything new about the characters' depths besides their individual reactions to the impending fate of Paul Walker's character.

From start to finish this film has tons of energy. It's long, but never drags. And being a big fan of the franchise, I didn't want it to end. There are a lot of subplots going on at once, but the narrative doesn't make it confusing at all.

These films aim to entertain. That's what they've always been about and that's why we love them so much. And as long as they continue to do this we'll be coming back for more.

Walker's face is seen as computer generated in several scenes of the film. CGI versions of an actual human have never been perfect, but this is perhaps the best attempt I have seen to date. The first time it happened, it took me a second to realize that it wasn't really him.

The film deals with the death of Walker in a very emotional way. Many wished to see his character die as a proper closure, but I think that may hit too close to home for the people involved with the movie.  But we get a nice tribute to everyone's favorite street racer.

Twizard Rating: 95

Quick Movie Review: The Fast and the Furious (2001)

This movie gets better with age and it grows on you the more you watch it. It’s also a case of the follow ups making you appreciate the early films even more. The dialogue is corny but laughable, and the storyline is very good.


There is a surprising amount of depth with the leads. The series–and this film in particular–is about Brian (Paul Walker) and Dom’s (Vin Diesel) growing relationship. It won’t be the same without Walker because he and Diesel’s chemistry is what made these films so charming when we first started watching them.
 
The director, Rob Cohen, is not very good at bringing the best performances out of his actors, but does an excellent job directing the action and racing scenes. The cuts might be a little jarring, but it makes even the slower parts of the story more engaging.
 
The action is distributed perfectly among the film and you never go too long without a good adrenaline rush.
 
This movie isn’t great to everyone at first, but watch it again after you’ve finished the rest of the series and you’ll see that it’s a fun watch.

Twizard Rating: 90