As usual, Greenwood (Sweet Hereafter) is better than his material and makes the most of an underwritten role.
Toronto Star 7/24/98

Leave it to an Atom Egoyan regular to be at the crux of small-town America's mental health problems: Greenwood (The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica) is on board as school shrink Dr. Caldicott, whose radical experiments in teen-behavior modification have resulted in this cadre of hot-wired, kill-happy zombies who go in for such buoyant after-school specials as murder, rape, and grocery-store defenestrations.
Austin Chronicle 7/24/98

Greenwood, slumming here after his last appearance in the exquisite "Sweet Hereafter," goes the whole foam-flecked, mucus-spewing route ("Today high school, tomorrow the world!") as Dr. Caldicott, a screwball who plants some kind of chip (computer, not potato) in the eyes of bad kids, and turns them into models of dreary rectitude, except when they get turned on, when they like to break a few heads.
Washington Post 7/24/98

And how to explain the participation of Bruce Greenwood, who helped make last year's "The Sweet Hereafter" such a memorable cinematic achievement?
NY Post 7/24/98

Considering how many times a day your normal high-schooler has erotic thoughts (approximately 23.5 hours a day), this would put a rather big kibosh on the whole parent-supported experiment, led by the school shrink (Bruce Greenwood, a long way from The Sweet Hereafter) .
USA Today 7/24/98

A couple of decent actors appear here in minor roles: Bruce Greenwood plays the evil mastermind of the town, while Steve Railsback (of The Stunt Man) plays a bad cop.
Vancouver Sun 7/24/98

The teens have been brainwashed and programmed by a new guidance counsellor who is a contemporary Doctor Frankenstein named Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood). He plans to absorb the most intelligent members of the student-body into his robot army and then send them out to create similar robots in schools across America.... The adult actors on the other hand are simply required to turn in cardboard caricatures which they do with scenery-chewing aplomb.
Calgary Sun 7/24/98

It's not hard to figure out that the Blue Ribbons have been "scientifically altered" to change them from normal teens to psychotic superstars, and it is up to Steve, Gavin and Rachel (Katie Holmes, from TV's "Dawson Creek"), along with the mysterious rat-hunting school janitor, to stop the evil Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood from "The Sweet Hereafter") and his diabolical experiments before it's too late, in this updated version of "The Stepford Wives Meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers." ..... The acting is solid across the board
Chicago Tribune 7/24/98

Among the spooky adults the kids have to cope with are Bruce Greenwood as a too-smooth counselor, William Sadler as a too-nutty janitor and Steve Railsback as a too-compliant cop. That's a lot of talent attached to roles that could easily have been empty throw-aways.
Cincinnati Enquirer 7/24/98

School psychologist Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood) is turning the kids of Cradle Bay into zombies, but he does obtain parental consent first. Trouble is, his teen zombies are short-circuiting.... Greenwood and Railsback provide some wry menace...
Journal Now 7/98

Inspired by school psychiatrist Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), they're model suburban youth-except when they go on murderous rampages. "Adolescence is a minefield," the creepy shrink warns the parents of potential recruits to his motivational workshops. He should know: His spécialité is tinkering with grenade-like teenage brains.
Entertainment Weekly 7/24/98

Through well-timed eavesdropping and handy coincidences, Steve and Rachel figure out that the school "counselor" (persuasive Bruce Greenwood) has been subjecting their "troubled" classmates to behavioral conditioning treatments. Guess who's next on his agenda.
New Jersey Star Ledger 7/24/98

At the heart of the plot is that greatest of all human enemies, a high-school counselor (Bruce Greenwood). This sickeningly sincere fellow -- actually a rogue psychiatrist -- tries to reach out to troubled teens.
San Jose Mercury News 7/24/98

But there's a lot of other funny stuff to get through first, including a scene in which the school psychiatrist (Bruce Greenwood) is operating on a student in the school basement, trying to fix her computer chip circuitry. ``What about her parents?'' asks his assistant. ``Just tell them,'' he replies, ``that she'll be missing cheerleading practice this week.''
The Providence Journal-Bulletin 7/2498

Instead, Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), the psychiatrist at Cradle Bay High, is secretly implanting chips in the kids' brains that radically alter their behavior. Once the bad doctor is done with them, even the surliest teens emerge with an irresistible urge to cut their hair, listen to Barry Manilow songs, organize bake sales and -- gasp! -- do their homework.
Miami Herald 7/24/98

Which doesn't seem to bother their mentor and school psychologist, Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood). In fact, the Doc has a waiting list of parents who want their sullen, uncooperative teens to join the Blue Ribbons. With the help of drugs, implants and lots of electricity, Caldicott can turn a malcontent into a model citizen overnight. But Caldicott's brainwashing technique still has a few bugs.
Philadelphia Daily News 7/24/98

....the best this movie can offer is some beautiful, misty scenery (the picture was shot around Vancouver), a nutball janitor who reads Kurt Vonnegut, Bruce Greenwood as a deranged practitioner of neuropharmacology (a.k.a. "mind control," as a student generously explains for us louts), and a clutch of keeper catchphrases.
Philadelphia Inquirer 7/24/98

The school psychiatrist (Bruce Greenwood) has convinced the parents that the best way to bring adolescents under control is to perform something like a lobotomy on their kids. Suddenly they're not involved in drunk driving or drug busts and their grades have improved. But something goes wrong with the brain rewiring. One teen dubs it "toxic jock syndrome." Steve Railsback, who was a memorable Charles Manson in the TV movie "Helter Skelter," turns up as a menacing cop who's in on the school plan, but the movie wastes him. The same goes for Greenwood, who can be so wonderful in Atom Egoyan's films (Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter), and William Sadler, the villain of Die Hard II.
Film.com 7/98

Meanwhile, Dr. Caldicott (Atom Egoyan regular Bruce Greenwood), speaks persuasively about the advantages of becoming a Blue Ribbon. ... Finally, established actors William Sadler and Bruce Greenwood are wasted in uninteresting, supporting roles.
ReelViews 7/98

They were formerly troubled teens whose parents turned them over to a guidance counselor (Bruce Greenwood in a rare villainous role) for "conditioning."
Wichita (Eagle) Online 7/24/98

Toss in a mad scientist and a flock of gullible parents stocking a seemingly bucolic shoreline community lapping up to the waters of the Puget Sound. ... In our idyllic town resides a school system filled with motor jocks, micro-geeks, skaters, space cadets, and the Blue Ribbons, this last a broodish coterie of super achieving teenagers that hang out at the local yogurt shoppe and seem to be particularly influenced by one Dr. Caldicott (a mustachioed Bruce Greenwood), a neuro-pharmacologist who has extracurricular reasons to be the school counselor.
Nitrate Online 7/98

The cast features identifiable Canadians, like thrilled-to-be-in-a-movie Terry David Mulligan and I-hope-no-one-recognizes-me Bruce Greenwood.....
(Toronto) Eye Weekly 7/30/98