Disturbing Behavior

It's hard to remember a recent movie that wore its influences so heavily on its sleeve as "Disturbing Behavior" does.

From its "X-Files" opening credits and spooky music to bits obviously inspired by "The Stepford Wives," "Village of the Damned" and "A Clockwork Orange," this teen sci-fi/thriller doesn't exactly try to hide which movies and TV shows "inspired" it. But that's not necessarily a good thing, because the film is doomed to pale in comparison to them.

Actually, "Disturbing Behavior" would have to be a lot better just to be called a rip-off. For one thing, the movie isn't the slightest bit scary — it's just dumb. And to make matters worse, this howler is poorly acted, executed and written.

It also suffers from woeful miscasting, such as having a bunch of 20-something actors playing high-schoolers. Perhaps the worst is having James Marsden (TV's "Bella Mafia") star as Steve Clark, a troubled teen whose family has recently moved to the seemingly idyllic community of Cradle Bay.

But on his first day in the local high school, Steve notices something a little strange, mainly that the goody-two-shoes "Blue Ribbon" students aren't as nice as they seem. And when his seemingly paranoid new pal Gavin (Nick Stahl) suddenly joins the Blue Ribbons and snubs his old friends, he decides to investigate further.

With help from bad girl Rachel (Katie Holmes, from TV's "Dawson Creek") and Mr. Newberry (William Sadler), the creepy janitor who is smarter than he lets on, Steve discovers the man responsible for Gavin's conversion: school counselor Mr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), who has implanted mind-control chips in the unfortunate teens.

Contrary to what director David Nutter (a TV veteran with many "X-Files" episodes under his belt) and screenwriter Scott Rosenberg ("Con Air") might believe, students who are eager to get good grades aren't inherently evil, nor are they terrifying. In fact, the film's version of high school displays a sort of public school "realism" on par with 1982's "Footloose."

And the silly concept is only one of several major problems.

As mentioned, Marsden looks way too old to play a high-school student, while Holmes looks like she's dressed up for Halloween. Sadler's spot-on William Hickey impression is an interesting diversion, though.

"Disturbing Behavior" is rated R for violent fist fighting, profanity, gory makeup effects, drug use, use of vulgar slang terms, simulated sex and brief female nudity.