Hollywood always loves to update classic and even not-to-so classic stories. Remakes of movies as vastly different as The Parent Trap and Psycho have all hit the big screen in the past year. Shakespeare and Dickens have even been updated to modern times in movies like West Side Story, 1996's Romeo + Juliet, and 1997's Great Epectations. In fact, later this year, a teenage version of Taming the Shrew is forthcoming with a name change to Ten Things I Hate About You. Maybe updating the classics for teens is way to make reading fun again? Heck, even Clueless was an updating of Jane Austen's Emma. Was it any real surprise then that Hollywood would attempt an update of the classic French novel Les Liasons Dangereuse? Previously filmed three times, Les Liasons Dangereuse is a sinister story of two manipulative French aristocrats. To update these two characters as two Manhattan prep school students might seem far fetched, but it's an premise to swallow before long.
Cruel Intentions is great campy fun. It doesn't really add anything new to the tale of Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) and Catherine Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar), but does it really need to?The story speaks for itself and despite a few additions (such as Valmont attempting to blackmail a closeted football star), it remains surprisingly true to the original.
True, the story is so sinister that at times it takes itself too seriously, but that's aprt of its fun. Like Valley of the Dolls and Mommie Dearest before it, Cruel Intentions is destined to become a camp classic. The story, the dialogue, and the acting are all so over the top, you can't help but resist the film.
As Valmont, Ryan Phillippe is a charmingly sinister pretty boy. You can't trust anything he says, but he's totally charismatic while saying it. Phillippe has the makings of a big star. He does a complete turnaround from his usually sweet, sensitive characters (White Squall, Playing By Heart, Little Boy Blue) and dumb (54, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Homegrown). His Valmont is calculating, intelligent, intensely charming, and utterly reprehensible all at once. With that face and that wardrobe, Phillippe can't fail.
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Catherine is equally good, matching Phillippe's insidiousness. She's given many of the movie's best lines. When giving advice to Cecile, the budding virgin Catherine says, "Sleep with as many people as people as you can." Gellar is cruel and calculating, a refreshing change from her role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar shines on TV but on the big screen she's never come across quite as well, until now.
As good as Phillippe and Gellar are, the movie is almost stolen from them by the talented young Selma Blair. As Cecile, the gawky virgin, Blair walks the thin line between funny and realistic and does a great job. She has great likability and could be the next Sandra Bullock. Too bad Reese Witherspoon isn't nearly as good. As Annette, who is saving herself until marriage, Ms. Witherspoon comes off the same as she does in every movie: annoying. Why Valmont falls in love with her is a mystery in this version.
A good cast, hysterical dialogue, and a classic story make Cruel Intentions an undeniable camps classic. Here's to more updates of classic stories that are as campy, as ridiculous, and as much fun as this one.
Grade: B+
Cruel Intentions is great campy fun. It doesn't really add anything new to the tale of Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) and Catherine Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar), but does it really need to?The story speaks for itself and despite a few additions (such as Valmont attempting to blackmail a closeted football star), it remains surprisingly true to the original.
True, the story is so sinister that at times it takes itself too seriously, but that's aprt of its fun. Like Valley of the Dolls and Mommie Dearest before it, Cruel Intentions is destined to become a camp classic. The story, the dialogue, and the acting are all so over the top, you can't help but resist the film.
As Valmont, Ryan Phillippe is a charmingly sinister pretty boy. You can't trust anything he says, but he's totally charismatic while saying it. Phillippe has the makings of a big star. He does a complete turnaround from his usually sweet, sensitive characters (White Squall, Playing By Heart, Little Boy Blue) and dumb (54, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Homegrown). His Valmont is calculating, intelligent, intensely charming, and utterly reprehensible all at once. With that face and that wardrobe, Phillippe can't fail.
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Catherine is equally good, matching Phillippe's insidiousness. She's given many of the movie's best lines. When giving advice to Cecile, the budding virgin Catherine says, "Sleep with as many people as people as you can." Gellar is cruel and calculating, a refreshing change from her role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar shines on TV but on the big screen she's never come across quite as well, until now.
As good as Phillippe and Gellar are, the movie is almost stolen from them by the talented young Selma Blair. As Cecile, the gawky virgin, Blair walks the thin line between funny and realistic and does a great job. She has great likability and could be the next Sandra Bullock. Too bad Reese Witherspoon isn't nearly as good. As Annette, who is saving herself until marriage, Ms. Witherspoon comes off the same as she does in every movie: annoying. Why Valmont falls in love with her is a mystery in this version.
A good cast, hysterical dialogue, and a classic story make Cruel Intentions an undeniable camps classic. Here's to more updates of classic stories that are as campy, as ridiculous, and as much fun as this one.
Grade: B+