Cruel intentions is an intense story of a young man, with a very high sex drive, and his step sister. It is a modern version of ‘Dangerous Liasons’ and offers brilliant viewing for all. It centres around two characters who are the height of popularity in their exclusive private school, a fate achieved by sleeping with the majority of their opposite sex class mates. Sleeping your way to the top if you like!
The cast… Katherine – played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, sporting the brunette look rather than ‘Buffy’ blonde. She is a manipulative man-eater and will do anything to get one over on the male of the species. An underhanded character that you will love and hate at the same time.
Sebastian – Ryan Phillippe plays the male leader, who uses his looks and smooth talk to sleep his way through most of Manhattan. His reputation for getting the ladies into bed makes him a ‘legend’ at school. However he has become bored and seeks a challenge that he can get his teeth into.
Annette – the real life wife of Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, plays a determined young woman who is the new headmaster’s daughter. She is intent on remaining a virgin until marriage; she is ‘the bet’.
Cecile – Selma Blair is the young and naive new addition to ‘Manchester’ the school the teenagers attend. She is the girlfriend of Katherine’s ex-boyfriend, for which Katherine is bent on revenge.
Blaine – Joshua Jackson plays a gay friend of Sebastian, this is only a small part and the bleach blonde hair does him no favours!
The story… Sebastian is a good looking, smooth talking charmer who can get anyone into his bed. However having slept his way through most of the women he knows and meets he feels as if he is lacking a challenge and wants to seduce a more difficult object. When he reads an article by Annette, detailing how she will remain ‘pure’ until she finds the love of her life and marries him. She is the daughter of the new headmaster of the school and as Sebastian puts it ‘she shall be my greatest conquest’. Katherine insist that this is impossible and even his charms will not get the holy than tho Annette into bed. And so begins the bet…
The bet is simple, Sebastian has to get Annette to sleep with him and Katherine will give him something he wants desperately, sex with her. The ploy is that she is the only person Sebastian cannot have and it drives him crazy, especially as there is an obvious sexual chemistry between the two, teenage hormones! If he fails then Katherine gets his car, his pride and joy and we feel the only thing he loves as much as himself. They are both adamant that they will win and so the hunt and deception begins.
Meanwhile Katherine is having her own dilemma, she was dumped by a boyfriend she liked and she wants revenge. However like any woman scorned things are not that simple and instead of hurting the offender she goes for his new girlfriend, Cecile. Cecile is innocent and is caught up in their world of sex and drugs. Katherine’s intent is to turn Cecile into a slut and return her to Court (the bloke in question) as ‘damaged goods’ and so not the right material. She enlists the help of Sebastian to do this and he is only too willing to seduce her and pull her into his seedy world. However her sex drive grows and she becomes a nuisance to Sebastian and Katherine when their mission is complete and they have ruined her reputation.
There are numerous stories sprouting off from this main tale but the above is the gist of the story. Sebastian begins his bet and does all he can to persuade Annette to sleep with him. It proves to be a little harder than he anticipated and in all his attempts he gets more than he bargained for. She brings out a side to him he keeps hidden and Sebastian falls in love with the infamous Annette. Sweet really!
There are many twists and turns in this story and the ending is very unpredictable and you will be shocked. It is one of the best films I have had the pleasure to watch and is highly entertaining for both females and males. The other half was very pleased with the amount of scenes that referred to or included some sexual act, typical male.
I won’t spoil the rest of the film, or I might as well just tell you the whole thing, but the ending does see the tables turn on Sebastian and Katherine, as they say what goes around comes around!
The acting… The quality of acting on this film was high and although I am not a fan of Sarah Michelle Gellar I thought that she was excellent for the part of Katherine and played the role exceedingly well. Suited to the part of a manipulative and evil sexually liberated teenager it makes a change from her role as ‘Buffy’. I don’t is normally like her but this film made me warm to her a little and I will not be as sceptical of future films involving her.
Ryan Phillipe and Reese Witherspoon bring their off screen chemistry into the film to form an explosive on screen relationship. The acting is a little flawed in places but I am not really going to bring the film down. There are niggling things that annoyed me but nothing major.
Overall the actors suited their characters well (except for Joshua Jackson who seemed a little out of place) and they all are fitted to playing teenagers, as their roles in other films show.
The Soundtrack… The soundtrack of the film is up to date and combines all types of music to form a pumping and entertaining back drop to the film. The soundtrack boasts contributions from Placebo (‘every you and every me’), Skunk Anansie, Fatboy Slim, Faithless and The Verve (‘bitter sweet symphony’). An array of artists guaranteed to satisfy any taste in music.
Rating 15 - due to language and sex/sexual references
I would recommend this film to anyone, but don’t know what category it would be best suited to. I suppose it is a drama but that’s my opinion. This is an excellent tale of sex, drug abuse and manipulation with acting that matches up to the story. You don’t really have to be switched on to watch this film, it helps if you can keep up to the different stories and get what is going on but it is easy to watch it without engaging the brain. It will captivate you and keep you glued to the film, even if you don't normally go for this type of film try it! I liked it and will definately be watching it again, but maybe that’s just to look at Sebastian!
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Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
I absolutely loved this film too, and my boyfriend was the same, he ignored 99% of the film but instructed me to tell him when the bit with Cecile and Kathryn were kissing in the park was on...then he paid attention! However, I thought the whole film was brilliant...even though, as you said, Joshua Jackson should NOT bleach his hair!
jambo5678 12.06.2001 17:14
well written op, i keep meaning to see this film but never got round to it. cheers :)
leahslad 12.06.2001 15:02
An excellent opinion, I loved this film, although a certain main star who I had a crush on at the time (I was a young teen!!!!) might have altered my perception :) Steve
Advantages: How good the actors are and how class they make this movie to be.And how no special effects are needed to make this movie how good it is. Disadvantages: wasnt long enough lol
crazygeordie 28.06.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Cruel Intentions
Advantages: it was watchable in a funny sort of way Disadvantages: The quality of acting didn't compare to the original, Repeated quotes from the first film
jenni_a 29.04.2003 (29.04.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of CruelIntentions 2 (DVD)
Jun 12th, 2001
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helpful by (13%):
