Wild Things

Yes, it's lurid. Yes, it's trashy. Yes, it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. And yes, if you're the sort of person who specialises in spotting plot twists, then you're probably going to do well here.

But if you haven't seen this film before, and you're prepared for something a bit on the lurid and trashy side, and you can manage to steer clear of the many spoilers among the reviews here, then you just might find that Wild Things is a fun ride.

Because there are, it's true, a number of twists and turns, and not everyone sees them coming. And if you aren't a twist-spotter, but you enjoy movies with twists, then you are going to enjoy this one.

I thought it was great fun. And, let's be fair, who's watching Denise Richards' acting?

In Blue Bay's elite beach communities and into the murky waters of the Everglades, you would expect nothing beyond this venture until a guidance counselor (Matt Dillon) is accused of raping two high school students (Neve Campbell and Denise Richards). While they are two detectives on the cast (Kevin Bacon and Daphne Rubin-Vega), they find out there's more than meets the eye in the mystery of deceit, sex and greed.

Directed by John Mc Naughton (Herny:Portrait of a Serial Killer, Lansky, Normal Life) made an entertaining trashy noir that has an unique blend of sex, suspense, comedy and a twisted story. An terrific cast makes things enjoyable, which included:Theresa Russell, Robert Wagner and Bill Murray. This film wasn't much of a hit, when it was first released in the spring of 1998. But it turned into a cult hit on video.

The Unrated DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. The Unrated DVD adds seven minutes of additional footage, which it has some good moments...especially during the end credits and the characters are more fleshed-out in the Unrated DVD. "Wild Things" has an good moody music score by George S. Clinton (Austin Powers Trilogy) and striking camera work by Jeffery L. Kimball (Jacob's Ladder, Stigmata, True Romance) are one of the highlights of this guilty pleasure film. Bacon is also the film's executive producer. Murray is a hoot in his minor role as Dillon's lawyer. Written by Stephen Peters. Panavision. (****/*****).

Good picture and sound quality, well cast, colours are strong and clear and the outdoor scenes are bathed in sunlight, skin tones look natural and not too bright. A playfully piano score and some pop music makes up the soundtrack.

Denise Richards & Neve Cambell did a good job in their roles. Richards plays a shallow split beauty, a good character for her, she's not convicting anyone as a nuclear scientist. Bill Murray adds a touch of comic relief. The film is a bit of a deconstruction of a fictional rich shallow community in the USA. A web of greed, corruption, conspiracy and lies quickly unravels. Neve Cambell was great playing a totally different character to Scream a year before. However comparing her figure to Denise Richards, Cambell does look a bit short and squat when they're both next to each other but I suppose the cinematographer couldn't do much about that. The ending is a bit dumb too, and the overuse of twists starts to make it feel very one note.

Much has been said about the sexual content of this movie for which I can only say it was nice to get such mice views, clothed and unclothed of Denise Richards. But overall the sexuality of this film is moderate at best.

Why i really liked it is because all of the twists in the plots actually come together. At the end of the film, integrated with the end credits, are previously unseen events that kept the full tale slightly hidden from the viewer. By inserting them at the end, the full story was told without inhibiting the ride. If you missed the hints and clues along the way, u can see what you failed to figure out.

Certainly this is not a tale that fails to stretch credibility, but its is a film for amusement. But unlike so many, the mystery is solvable and does not rely on contrivances created at the end to make you feel stupid. If you miss them you are not stupid, but if foresee any of the conclusion, and the can be foreseen, hats off to you.

During the very limited theatrical run that Wild Things recieved here (I think it was gone in about three weeks), a lot of the reviews and publicity created the impression that this was a soap opera sex thriller. I guess that's an easy approach to take when summing this film up, since its two female leads featured in Party Of Five and episodes of Doogie Howser (man what an awful show that was), not to mention that one of the male leads would be doing well to act his way out of a wet paper bag. The problem with that is that it is just too easy, and easy answer is exactly the sort of thing that this film goes out of its way to avoid. It is not trying to be a modern Hitchcock, it is not trying to be another Basic Instinct, it is just trying to tell a story.

The story, such as it is, seems to revolve around Blue Bay High School, the town it is located in, and its snobby, high-income elite, at least in the first reel. We are introduced to all four of the characters who will figure prominently in the story to come during a lecture to the students in their senior year. There's Sam the guidance counsellor, Ray the corrupt policeman, Kelly the daughter of the wealthiest real estate mogul in town, and Suzie the girl from the caravan park across town. All four of these characters have secrets they'd rather not share with any other inhabitant of the town, but that all comes apart when Kelly accuses Sam of raping her. Suzie corroborates her story at first, but then we get our first inkling that things are not all they seem, through the efforts of Bill Murray in one of his best cameos ever. The whole thing is seemingly a conspiracy between Sam, Suzie, and Kelly, but we are never shown whose idea it is until the very end.

This next passage will ruin a key surprise the film has in store, so don't read it if you haven't seen it. Unless things have radically changed in this regard during the last ten years, psychologists and other such professionals do not tell test subjects exactly what their IQ is. Even if Suzie or her mother did know exactly, this whole point is delivered with such sledgehammer force that it almost utterly ruins the subtle, slow buildup that the rest of the film exhibited. Were they just running out of money when it came time to film this spot and just decided to go with the quickest, simplest thing they could do? It would have been much more effective and satisfying if the ugly cop (I forget the name) had just spent five or ten minutes going through whatever Suzie had left behind on her run to the Carribean. Summing up this plot point in fifteen seconds was an exceptionally bad move.

Overall, however, you can't really go wrong with this film for an evening's entertainment. It doesn't feel the need to talk down at its audience, it doesn't resort to excess simplicity to make itself understood (except for the aforementioned ending), it just tells a story and tells it reasonably well. It is also another great example of DVD's utter superiority, especially during the threesome scene. When this part of the film is shown in its proper aspect ratio, you can make out every character and certain little details I'm sure that Denise Richards would appreciate not having available to horny teenage boys in a freezable and zoomable format. When was the last time you zoomed in on an actress' boobs with a VHS cassette, assuming they were left in frame after some jerk with an editing console chopped it down to fit those garbage 4:3 screens?