"Wild"ly Surprising...

In an attempt to get back to raunchier mainstream movies filled with porn-like sex scenes and nakedness at every turn, I asked my boyfriend’s roommates for this week’s pick and after much deliberation, they suggested Wild Things. What a fabulously trashy choice, boys. Good Work.

Synopsis: Sam Lombardo is a well-respected Florida high school guidance councilor who gets his life turned upside down when two students, spoiled rich-girl Kelly Van Ryan (Denise), and trailer-trash bad-girl Suzie Toller (Neve), bring rape charges against him in which local police detective Ray Duquette investigates the allegations. But not everything is what it appears to be and the big question arises: Who is deceiving who?

Instead of reviewing the movie, however, I thought it would fun to review someone else’s critique on the movie, since many movie reviews found they had something to say about this lovely piece of fiction. First, Rob Blackwelder of Spicedonline.com was pleasantly surprised regarding his own enjoyment of this film.

He describes it “A whodunit with a ‘90s mentality, it has back stabbing conspirators, a bi-sexual love triangle and teenage temptresses claiming rape. It’s moderately entertaining trash that turns crafty in the last reel when it is finally called on to explain itself. But until then, the only (cheap) thrill comes courtesy of Denise Richards, … and the wet T-shirt she sports while coming on to her high school guidance counselor”. It is true, this movie relentlessly tries to throw in a sexy car wash scene, tight and exposing clothing and shower scenes (ahh the infamous shower scene..) wherever and whenever possible. Blackwelder feels that “With more explicit sex scenes and smaller stars it could be a feature on the Playboy Channel.” I totally agree. This is definitely not something you want to get catch watching by your mom at three in the morning. File this under “guilty pleasure”.

He also says that it is unnecessarily complex, but not clever, and is more sex than mystery. “Richards’ body is on display throughout, Campbell’s contract had a no-nudity clause, but she comes awful close, and even [Kevin] Bacon goes full frontal in a late scene that leads the audience to momentarily expect some boy-boy hanky-panky to balance Richards-Campbell saphic pow-wow earlier in the movie.” The famous bitch-fight sex scene in the pool (featured below thanks to YouTube) is idealized in the film industry as one of the best girl-on-girl sex scene, complete with bitch slap after bitch slap, and ending with both of them topless in the pool (with a peeping tom recording it from the bushes). The blatant attempt at sexuality (watch this scene) makes this movie only earn 2 ½ stars, however, it does do one ingenious thing that makes it worth a rental—the closing credits are accompanied with out-takes that fill in the story’s holes. “This flash of creativity made me decide at the last minute that I liked the picture in spite of myself.”

Reviewer James Brundage (article) of ContactMusic.com wraps up this movie perfectly:
“Hands down, Wild Things is the most guilt-inducing guilty pleasure movie that I have ever watched… until you get to the end. When you do get to the end, you realize that, as sleazy of a film as Wild Things is, it is actually a brilliantly concocted, Hitchcock-with-a-hard-on, mystery thriller.” Hitchcock-with-a-hard-on… I couldn’t have put it better myself.