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Category | Science Fiction/Horror | Theatrical Trailer(s) | Yes, 1 - 1.78:1. 16x9 Enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | Yes, 2 - Dolby Digital Rain; Deep Blue Sea Teaser Trailer (1.78:1, 16x9 Enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0) | |
Year Released | 1998 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 100::21 Minutes
(Not 104 Minutes as per packaging) |
Other Extras | Featurette - On The Set (2:01)
Cast & Crew Interviews |
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Robert Rodriguez |
Distributor |
Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring | Jordana Brewster
Clea DuVall Laura Harris Josh Hartnett Shawn Hatosy Famke Janssen Piper Laurie Bebe Neuwirth Robert Patrick Usher Raymond Jon Stewart Elijah Wood |
Case | Brackley | ||
RRP | $34.95 | Music | Marco Beltrami |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement |
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Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s)
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | No |
Subtitles | None | Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
Anyway, the story begins with a football coach by the name of Willis (Robert Patrick, and boy, has his career gone downhill) being accosted by an unspecified person who, as we are expected to assume, is hosting an alien parasite. This alien parasite is rather nasty, and basically wants to control humans so that it can drain them of all the fluid in their body, which leads to another wide plot hole which I won't get into for fear of spoiling the film too much. The next thing you know, the entire faculty of the local high school has been taken over by the alien parasite, and it is up to a bunch of ragtag students comprised of a bunch of unknown actors to stop them from spreading outside the school's boundaries. Okay, so the plot is a very thin one, and the character development is very minimal, which makes me wonder exactly where that magic Robert Rodriguez touch disappeared to once the act of introducing the principal characters was over. In case you're curious, the reason why I haven't launched into a running description of the characters in this film is because they are completely unmemorable, much like the story. The saving grace of the film is quite definitely the special effects, which appeared to take the biggest slice out of the budget. There's very little I can say to spoil this film if you have seen Invasion Of The Body Snatchers or one of its many clones. Suffice it to say that the film has that typical happy ending and everyone walks off into the sunset feeling much happier. This, more than anything, is what left me cold about the plot.
In case you haven't got the point of my confused and nonplussed rantings yet, it is this: The Faculty is a very ordinary film. If my curious inability to quantify the words to describe the plot doesn't make anything else clear, it should make it perfectly clear that this is a rather ordinary film from start to finish. Not a particularly bad film, just not a particularly good one, either. If you turn off your brain and turn down your expectations, this film will be perfectly enjoyable. For some parts of the film, there is a show of promise, but this is quickly extinguished by a lack of originality on writer Kevin Williamson's part. One relative of mine walked in on the caffeine-sniffing sequence and thought I was watching The Thing for a second there. The director puts up a brave fight, but eventually the film falls under the weight of having nothing new to offer the viewer.
Colour saturation was vivid and bright, although there were some points early in the film where oversaturation became apparent, especially the first shots of Robert Patrick that occur in the film. His skin tones were way off-balance, especially given that there basically is no variation in his normal skin tone if you look at various shots of him in other films. From looking at the skin tones of other actors such as Salma Hayek throughout the film, I have come to the conclusion that the red level was set too high during this film, although whether this is a result of the transfer or part of the original photography is not clear. In contrast, the skin tones of other actors whom I do not recognize seem somewhat undersaturated. The contrast of having some actors appear pallid while others appeared to have a perpetual blush was somewhat rattling.
No MPEG artefacts were present in the transfer, which is strange when you consider how hard the total amount of graphic-accompanied information and video on the disc would have pushed the compression. The absence of a second layer on the disc is barely noticed, which is a credit to whomever was in charge of the DVD authoring process. Film-to-video artefacts were more or less non-existent, although were moments here and there when they made their presence known, such as the moiré effect on a panning shot of a computer. If any aliasing took place during the main feature, it was not noticed. Film artefacts consisted of very occasional, but noticeable black flecks in the picture. Their presence is highlighted mainly by the fact that they are very occasional, and occur less than half a dozen times in the film.
The subtitles are completely non-existent. While this might save a minimal amount of space on the disc, it is an omission that I found somewhat sad because of the absence of novelties such as seeing how the dialogue might be rendered in Chinese. Still, given that this disc is Region 4 only, I guess the only people who will notice the absence of subtitles on this disc would be Mexicans, and I doubt that Roadshow Home Entertainment would distribute the disc to them.
The dialogue sounds as if it has been mixed a few decibels above the rest of the soundtrack, which improves clarity quite a lot. This is an excellent move on the part of the filmmakers, or whomever else was responsible for the sound on this film. This leads me to a new theory about the quality of audio transfers that could be described as the idea that the quality of the dialogue in a film is inversely proportional to the ease with which it can all be heard. The WaterBoy is solid proof that this theory is sound because the dialogue that one has the most difficulty understanding is often the funniest. In The Faculty, every single word can be heard with ease. Audio sync was a minor problem at times, with a very occasional loss in the correlation between sound and movement. However, this was very occasional, and so minor as to only be noticeable when I played the sound through the television and the amplifier at the same time. The usual message of caution about playing Roadshow Home Entertainment discs with Pioneer players still applies, unfortunately.
The contemporary music on this DVD was unremarkable except for an absolute butchery of Pink Floyd's signature song The Wall. I have never thought very much of this song, so any rendering of it that makes me like it less is bound to get a slamming from me. As I said, the music of this film mostly consists of some of the usual MTV-sanctioned crud, but some score music by Marco Beltrami accompanied the more dramatic moments of the film. Overall, I'd say the music of the film suited the visuals when the score music was out in force, but the contemporary music is certainly not the best collection ever assembled to accompany a film by Robert Rodriguez. If you're looking for soundtracks, stick with From Dusk Till Dawn or Desperado.
The surround presence was fairly immersive for most of the film, with ambient sounds being poured throughout the sound channels. The rear and centre channels basically supported the sounds that were put into the left and right channels, with a fair amount of division between each channel. The most obvious sound effects to be placed in the rear channels were announcements over the school's PA system, splashes in a pool, and some sneak attacks. The full Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is certainly very supportive of the visuals, and adds quite a lot to the experience of this particular film. The subwoofer was used occasionally to support bass-heavy effects in the overall soundfield and some of the music. Overall, it was well-integrated into the sound mix, although the rarity of its use meant that it became fairly conspicuous at times.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The video quality is just short of reference material.
The audio quality is excellent, bordering on reference material.
The extras are average.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
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DVD | Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output |
Display | Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using S-video input |
Audio Decoder | Built In (Amplifier) |
Amplification | Sony STR-DE835 |
Speakers | Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Sharp CP-303A Back Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer |