Trashy Entertainment Alive And Well

by Jason R. Hewlett

Movie theatres are beginning to feel more and more like a throwback to the cinemas of the 80s. We're seeing more and more movies remaniscent of the kind I grew up with fifteen odd years ago. Teen slasher flicks a la "Scream" or high school romances a la "She's All That." That isn't exactly bad when the movies are good like in the above two films but if they're not, like in the case of the new film "Cruel Intentions," then we hope moviedom gets some new fad to latch on too...like Australian talking pig movies.

The film is a high gloss, "Melrose Place"ish take on the "Dangerous Liasons" formula but instead of top-flight talent like Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Michelle Pfeiffer we get the pretty faces of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Philippe, and Reese Witherspoon. None of these fresh faces are bad, mind you, but they just can't compare to their elders. It has to be expected that new talent will filter into cinema and it's welcome. Actually, the problem doesn't lie with them. Philippe and Gellar make for highly convincing deceptive rich brats. They dive into their roles with relish and sleezy charm, spitting out erotic dialogue with glee. We buy their performances...we just don't particularely like them. Actually, the only character we can root for is Reese Witherspoon's virginal Annette. She's about the nicest person in the piece and Witherspoon has a kind of glowing charm about her. The problem is that we get to see Philippe worm his way into her life and we'd rather see her kick his butt all over the place.

The plot, for the uninitiated, is a bet between stepsiblings Sabastian (Philippe) and Katherine (Gellar). Both are from rich parents who married and both find great pleasure in sleeping with and screwing over as many people as they can. Along comes the moral and virginal Annette and Sabastian decides he has to have sex her. The bet: if Kathrine wins, and she doesn't want him to succeed, she gets his car. If he wins: he gets to have sex with her (the two circle each other like dogs in heat the whole show which is amusing for awhile then gets very dull). Of course Sabastian falls for Annette and we get to sit through a bazillion possible ending before we give up on the film too long before it ends.

Obviously from my previous statement you know that Roger Kumbel's script is a bit long winded. The film doesn't know when to quit which wouldn't have been so bad if there were some likable elements too it. Instead we get bad people doing a bad thing to a nice person and none of it is any fun. Even in "Payback" all the nastiness amounted to a good time. Even the soundtrack, which fills the screen just like the movies of the 80s, is pretty flat and boring. Kumbel's direction is even enough. He knows the technical aspects of his craft in terms of shots and camera angles. However the film still comes out as just a big piece of glitzy, boring garbage. However, it is still a step up from his previous film, "National Lampoon's Senior Trip." Hopefully his next film will be another step in the right direction.

3 out of 10!