Disturbing behavior

Year of release : 1998

Run time : 1h24m

Genre : Sci Fi / Psychological Thriller / Teen

Cast : James Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, Bruce Greenwood

The movie was seemingly inspired by the 1975 movie "The Stepford wives".

The movie opens with a member of the Blue Ribbons, who is out on a date, one evening, by a waterfall. He is being spied on by Gavin, who used to be his friend.

Because his date is arousing him, he snaps her neck. The sheriff appears, and instead of taking him in, when the teenager k1lls his officer, he tells him to leave, as he figures what story to come up with for the 2 bodies.

Steve and his family move to Cradle Bay from Chicago, after his elder brother k1lled himself. His parents don't allow him and his sister to talk about their d3ad brother.

At school, he befriends Gavin and U.V. , and their female friend, Rachel, that Steve seems to be mesmerized by. When Gavin tells Steve about the school groups, he hints at how the Blue Ribbons are lobotomized and brainwashed.

The brainwashed Blue Ribbons hunt students at night, students who were accepted in the brainwashing program, this time being a teenager obsessed with cars (that one of them fought with in school that day), that they catch ,and the next day is one of them, with the look and all.

At school Steve is being told by the school board that he could be part of the Blue Ribbons.

Going out with his new friends, he sees how a member of the Blue Ribbons group who is attracted to Rachel goes into a fit of rage (destroying property and b3ating random men who happened to be around him, to a pulp), after looking at her and finding her attractive.

One evening, spying on the school board meetings, Gavin sees his own parents there, and is afraid to go home, as he knows he is next, but he goes anyway, instead of running away.

The next day he is a changed man, who wants nothing to do with Steve, and who even b3ats him up with his new friends, the Blue Ribbons!

 

Trying to find out what is happening, Steve is being hunted now by the Blue Ribbons, and finds out his own parents signed him on the program, although I didn't see anything wrong with him, Steve is not a problem child, he is not depressed, doesn't hate the world, doesn't drink alcohol (he drinks milk!), doesn't do drugs, doesn't seem to fail at school.. so why are his parents doing this, it makes no sense!? Because he talks about his dead brother every once in a while?!

The movie is somewhat enjoyable, but it has a lot of violence, mostly from the Blue Ribbons, who although are supposed to be the perfect students, are anti-social, and don't like anyone who is not part of their group.

All the adults around them are pampering them, although they are violent to the point of k1lling people, excusing their outbursts and even murd3rs!

The movie didn't age well, as in, the characters weren't fleshed out, thing maybe wasn't obvious in the past, and didn't bother the viewer, but it bothers me now.

Apparently, a lot of the movie was cut out (11 scenes), like the original ending, with Gavin dying, the d3ad brother, and a love scene between Steve and Rachel. It turns out so much of the movie was changed that the original director, David Nutter,who worked on The X-Files previously, considered having his name removed from the credits! He said he wanted to make a movie more in The X-Files vibe, while the studio wanted another teen Scream.

The movie has a boring intro credits,in which nothing happens, of 3 minutes.

The actors were good.

The soundtrack started well but eventually lost itself, I really felt it didn't match what was on the screen, it reminded me of the '80's soundtracks.

The movie received negative reviews, and was graded a C- by the Cinema Score audiences.

It grossed only 17.5 million dollars against a budget of 15 million, being a flop.

The movie was filmed from January to March (it says 1998, but if the movie was released in July 1998,it can't be 1998!) in Vancouver, and it shows how cold it was, when you see the steam going out of their breaths when they speak, but they are in skimpy outfits, and short sleeves!

Rating : Could have been a contender !