Saturday, September 14, 2013

DISTURBING BEHAVIOR (1998)

Twenty-five year old teenager James Marsden's family moves to the beautiful town of Cradle Bay, Washington.  At first, things seem perfect.  His house is awesome, he has a new nerd friend (Nick Stahl), the school janitor reads Kurt Vonnegut and Katie Holmes is givin' him the stinkeye...but then he finds out about the Blue Ribbons.  The Blue Ribbons are the cool clique of preppy kids that are part of a "special program" lead by a local doctor.  Soon, James begins to notice that the Blue Ribbons are pretty goddamn creepy in a "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"-kind of way and they seem to be above the law.  Violently assault multiple people in a grocery store?  No big deal.  Murder a fellow student and a local cop?  Go on home, we'll clean this mess up.
 
I love high school horror films and although DISTURBING BEHAVIOR is low on the horror element, it's still a fun ride.  Even if just for the high school scenes and the 90's-as-fook student body.  Good pace, an absolutely legendary drive-by scene that left me in stitches, Katie Holmes looking cute as fook, silly dialogue, a Garbage poster, that one girl from GINGER SNAPS, 90's soundtrack (including that song by The Flys), very little violence, superfast half topless scene, goofy ending.
 
Recommended for fans of cheesy 90's high school horror.  Would make an okay double-feature with THE FACULTY.

Friday, September 13, 2013

FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)

Michael Douglas is a lawyer in NYC who doesn't like home security systems.  He loves his wife and little daughter, but one weekend when his family goes out of town he lets his balls get the better of him and he hooks up with a Dee Snider impersonator.  If that wasn't already bad enough it turns out that she's also completely insane.  Whoops.  Things quickly turn from bad to holy fucking shit bad when this psycho decides show him the true meaning of "not gonna take it".

I've never seen FATAL ATTRACTION before and I was kinda shocked at how shocking his film was.  I can only imagine that back in 1987 it had people tripping out!  Things start out innocently enough and I thought Douglas was an idiot for hooking up with Close.  I would have felt a little more sympathy for him if he'd been drunk or something, but whatever, he does what he does thinking that both parties involved are responsible adults....but ohhhhh no this chick starts stalking him the very next morning!

Lackluster nudity, 80's fashions, strong direction, cute dog, cute rabbit, NYC street scenes, good pace, I really enjoyed FATAL ATTRACTION.  The story is pretty much timeless.  Even nearly 30 years later this shit still happens everyday.  Recommended.