Extras : Scene index, Filmographies, US Theatrical Trailer, Music Video
Director:
David Nutter
(TV: Millennium, The X-Files)
Producers:
Armyan Bernstein and Jon Shestack
Screenplay:
Scott Rosenberg
Music:
Mark Snow
(The X-Files)
Cast:
Steve Clark: James Marsden (Campfire Tales, Taken Away)
Rachel Wagner: Katie Holmes (Go!, The Ice Storm, Teaching Mrs Tingle, TV: Dawson's Creek)
Gavin Strick: Nick Stahl (Eye of God, The Man Without a Face, Safe Passage, The Thin Red Line)
Officer Cox: Steve Railsback (Alligator 2: The Mutation, Barb Wire, Deadly Intent, Final Mission, Lifeforce, Stranger in the House, Street Corner Justice)
Dorian Newberry: William Sadler (Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Bordello of Blood, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Hard To Kill, Solo, Trespass)
Disturbing Behaviour
is one of those teen-films where weird goings-on are afoot in a remote part
of the US that no-one seems to want to visit. The town in question here is
Cradle Bay and while most film schools get by as a combination of dysfunctional
characters stick to their own genres, the high-school here is only capable
of turning out well-educated kids of the 'jocks' and prom queen variety,
who, for the former, turn out in the form of Chug Roman (A.J. Buckley),
Andy Effkin (Tobias Mehler) and Trent Whalen (Derek Hamilton)
and in the latter, braindead bimbo Lorna Longley (Crystal Cass).
Newcomers Steve Clark (James Marsden) and Rachel Wagner (Katie Holmes)
take a while to catch on to the phenonemon occuring, which even the DVD's
back cover attributes to as "Stepford-like". Each of the kids who get the
treatment from Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), who makes Harold
Shipman seem like a very nice man, either comes out smelling of roses
and brimming with academic qualities, or it goes horribly wrong and they
end up in a nuthouse that makes the inmates of One Flew Over The
Cuckoo's Nest look A1-sane.
The battle begins for our intrepid heroes to put a stop to the shenanigans
when one of their kind, Gavin Strick (Nick Stahl) is brainwashed in
the same way, especially when Steve finds out he's next for the op. The police
are no help as corrupt cop Officer Cox (Steve Railsback) is on the side
of evil, but they may just find a friend in seemingly-demented janitor Dorian
Newberry (William Sadler) and his rat-trap machine.
While the plot may be full of holes, the picture certainly isn't. No complaints
here and it's presented in its original 1.85:1 ratio and enhanced for widescreen
televisions. The average bitrate is an above-average 5.59Mb/s, occasionally
peaking above 5.59Mb/s.
As the shocks are delivered to the cast, if not particularly to the viewer,
so are the musical cues, causing loud spots to impregnate the quiet moments.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English and French, but my only complaint
is that the whole thing sounds too quiet when my volume setting would normally
pack a punch. That said, I only have a surround sound setup, so perhaps
the 5.1 mix has one up on this?
Extras :
Chapters/Trailer :
Columbia have taken a leaf out of Warner's book for this film and given it
many many chapters - 36 over the 80-minute running time. The original US
theatrical trailer is also included.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and French, plus subtitles in FOURTEEN languages :
English, French, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Arabic,
Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian and Dutch.
And there's more... :
Very brief Filmographies and biographies are available for the last
four names mentioned in the cast list at the top of this review, but there's
not a single mention for its lead actor James Marsden. The music promo
for The Flys's Got You Where I Want You is emblazoned on the
front of the DVD cover, to which most UK residents will be wondering who they
are, but it's not a bad song and plays over the closing credits.
Menu :
The menu is a simple but unadventurous affair, with a snapshot of the key
cast members and options to start the film, select a scene, visit the extras
menu or set up the audio and subtitle options.
Overall, there's an idea here worth pursuing, but director David Nutter,
nutter by name, but is he a nutter by nature?, doesn't take it to its full
potential and employs a twist right at the end, but it seems obvious that
there's money to be found in leaving the door open for a sequel.
Fans of the X-Files will also want to view this film. It may
not behave like an episode of that, but the composer is by the same Mark
Snow and director Nutter has lent his hand to episodes of that show plus
the other Chris Carter TV experience, Millennium.
If there was a toss-up between this and the Region 1 disc, then the latter
has to win as it also includes extras for: 11 Deleted Scenes, a shocking
alternate ending, a 4-Page booklet with quotes and insight from the stars
and a director's commentary track.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
