In this age when entertainment news is always at our fingertips, we often feel involved in artist's lives and careers. We read about their current projects and want to know what they will be up to next. And, being the "armchair quarterbacks" of show business that we are, we have the projects which we would love see our favorite writers and directors tackle. This can often include dream collaborations -- "Hey, would it be awesome if ____ worked with ___?!" This actually happened in 1998 when Director Robert Rodriguez and Writer Kevin Williamson teamed up for The Faculty. However, could this match made in heaven overcome the fact that it was part of a deal and an old script?

Herrington High is a fairly normal American high school. Jocks are jocks, nerds are nerds, and teachers are mean and uptight. Casey (Elijah Wood) is the photographer for the school paper and is constantly picked on. Delilah (Jordana Brewster) editor of the paper, but she's also a cheerleader. Stan (Shawn Hatosy) is a football star, but he wants to quit the team. Stokely (Clea Duvall) keeps to herself and it's rumored that she's gay. Marybeth (Laura Harris) is the new girl in school. Zeke (John Hartnett) is the burnout, drug-dealer who was held back, but is also brilliant. Everything seems status quo until the kids notice the adults acting weird -- the football coach (Robert Patrick) is suddenly nice and one of the teachers wanders into the boy's locker room. Then, Casey and Delilah witness two of the faculty members attacking the school nurse (Salma Hayek), but none of the adults believe them. Soon, they realize that something is taking over their school. Once they learn how to determine who has been taken over, they decide that it's up to them to stop the invasion.

If I remember correctly, the original script for The Faculty by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel had been floating around for several years (most of their other credits are from the 80s) when the Weinsteins decided that it was time to bring it to the screen. Kevin Williamson was hot off of the success of his original script for Scream and Rodriguez had showed his ability to shine with Desperado and From Dusk Til Dawn. Rumor has it that the Weinsteins made a deal with Rodriguez that he could make a dream project if he directed The Faculty for them. (One can presume that Spy Kids was that project.) So, Williamson was brought in to polish the script (Wechter and Kimmel are given "Story by" credits) and the ads weren't coy about announcing the film as being "From the Writer of Scream".

But The Faculty isn't exactly the dream-team project for which fans had been clamoring. It's a perfectly serviceable movie and, at times, it's an exciting movie, but it never measures up to the other works by those behind the camera. I've not been privy to the original story by Wechter and Kimmel, but Williamson's fingerprints are evident here, as The Faculty pays homage to many classics films, specifically Invasion of the Body Snatchers (which is name-checked several times during the movie) and John Carpenter's The Thing (in a scene which blurs the line between homage and rip-off). These nods to other movies can be seen as fun, but it also makes it evident that there aren't many original things happening in The Faculty. It's essentially taken a high-school clique film, such as The Breakfast Club and shoved it into a (small scale) alien invasion movie. The result is a film which feels very episodic and one which never truly finds its groove.

Having said that, The Faculty is still fun and it still holds up over a decade later. This is certainly not Rodriguez's best work, but as director and editor, he keeps things moving along at a nice clip. The movie never gets boring and it never gets bogged down in unnecessary scenes, save for the one which shows Casey at home -- a scene which simply doesn't work. The Faculty also never takes itself too seriously, which certainly helps. While the movie is violent and deals with high school hierarchies and discrimination, it never allows itself to go too dark and maintains a decidedly buoyant nature while never getting tongue-in-cheek. One of the more enduring elements of the movie is the parade of recognizable faces in the film. It's pretty amazing to look back at this movie and see the famous people who are in it, especially those who wouldn't normally appear in a movie like this. In addition to those listed above, the movie also features Jon Stewart, Famke Janssen, Bebe Neuwirth, and Usher.

For a period beginning in the late 90s, the Dimension arm of Miramax remained busy pumping out horror movies, some of which were very good. The Faculty pales in comparison to things like Scream and The Others, but it shows that Dimension wasn't afraid to mix genres. The movie offers an all-star cast, a good mixture of jump scares, and humor, and a nice twist ending. The movie won't take control of you ala the aliens in the story, but it is worth seeing.

The Faculty probably influence a lot of drug dealers to misuse ball-point pens on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Echo Bridge Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1, which is a minor adjustment from the 1.85: aspect ratio found on the previous DVD release. The Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 24 Mbps. Given the fact that this is a budget Blu-ray Disc release, the image is sharp and clear, showing no overt grain or defects from the source material. Close inspection of the image reveals some artifacting and mild grain, but at a normal viewing distance, there are few distractions. Despite the change in framing, the image doesn't feel squeezed and there's no pan-and-scan. The colors look very good, most notably reds, and the image is never too dark or bright. The picture does get a bit soft at times. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.2 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The surround sound effects are well done and are often nicely detailed. The same goes for the stereo effects which show off sounds from the right and left of the screen. The subwoofer effects are present, but never overwhelming. In all, good sound and a step up from some of Echo Bridge's early Blu-ray Disc releases.

The Faculty Blu-ray Disc contains no extra features.