Cruel Intentions: Amazon.ca: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Louise Fletcher, Joshua Jackson, Eric Mabius, Sean Patrick Thomas, Swoosie Kurtz, Christine Baranski, Alaina Reed-Hall, Deborah Offner, Roger Kumble, Bruce Mellon, Christopher Ball, Heather Zeegen, Michael Fottrell, Neal H. Moritz, Choderlos de Laclos: DVD

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This modern-day teen update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses suffered at the hands of both critics and moviegoers thanks to its sumptuous ad campaign, which hyped the film as an arch, highly sexual, faux-serious drama (not unlike the successful, Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons). In fact, this intermittently successful sudser plays like high comedy for its first two-thirds, as its two evil heroes, rich stepsiblings Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe), blithely ruin lives and reputations with hearts as black as coal. Kathryn wants revenge on a boyfriend who dumped her, so she befriends his new intended, the gawky Cecile (Selma Blair), and gets Sebastian to deflower the innocent virgin. The meat of the game, though, lies in Sebastian's seduction of good girl Annette (a down-to-earth Reese Witherspoon), who's written a nationally published essay entitled "Why I Choose to Wait." If he fails, Kathryn gets his precious vintage convertible; if he wins, he gets Kathryn-–in the sack. When the movie sticks to the merry ruination of Kathryn and Sebastian's pawns, it's highly enjoyable: Gellar in particular is a two-faced manipulator extraordinaire, and Phillippe, usually a black hole, manages some fun as a hipster Eurotrash stud. Most pleasantly surprising of all is Witherspoon, who puts a remarkably self-assured spin on a character usually considered vulnerable and tortured (see Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons). Unfortunately, writer-director Roger Kumble undermines everything he's built up with a false ending that's true to neither the reconceived characters nor the original story--revenge is a dish best served cold, not cooked up with unnecessary plot twists. --Mark Englehart

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Customer Reviews

355 Reviews

5 star:		(213)
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Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (355 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars In my opinion one of the best adaptation of the original novel that could be done, April 9 2012

By

Jo Blo - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Cruel Intentions [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I wanted to buy this movie because I had just heard about actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, I knew her by name before but never happened to see any of her movies or TV series before. I've read that the steamy scenes between her and actress Selma Blair made this something of a cult movie; I was also very curious to see the work of director/writer Roger Kumble. There is currently about a dozen movies made from the 18th Century novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", two of the most famous are Milos Forman's "Valmont" made in 1988 and Stephen Frear's "Dangerous Liaisons" made in 1989, who won 3 Oscars basically for the costumes and the writing. In my opinion there were problems who made these two movies doomed from the very beginning, no matter how good the costumes and sets are someone get bored very rapidly of seeing only aristocrats living their daily life, especially when the dialog is complicated and hard to follow. Some positive point could always be given for the excellent music. Personally I really think the story is confusing in all three versions, in "Cruel Intentions" it's probably the main flaw of the movie, but it's still much clearer than the other versions and the story is understandable, those who don't understand everything the first time could always watch it again. The idea who made the movie excellent is certainly to adapt the action to modern 20th century where it's easy to put sexual overtones among other things, and making it a rich teenagers story add something. I couldn't think of better persons to play in it than Ryan Phillippe, Selma Blair, Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Amazon.ca user "Murkey" from the UK wrote in another review exactly what I personally think: "The script is clever, the plot well structured and the production excellent, but over-riding this is the sheer quality of acting and the raw sexual overtones between the characters. Controversial subjects are addressed simply and directly, and all of this without any real nudity or explicit sex scenes." Overall the other two well-known movies made from the original novel are boring to death, I woudn't recommend them at all, but this one is really interesting and an eye-candy to watch.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Cruel Intentions, Feb 24 2000

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"murkey" (UK) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Cruel Intentions (DVD)

Cruel Intentions

This contemporary update of Les Liasons Dangerous (or something like that) sells itself as a teen movie but is in fact much more, and a hell of a lot better, than that. The basic premise is that spoilt teenager (Ryan Phillippe) makes a bet with his sister-in-law (Sarah Michelle Geller) to sleep with virgin Reese Witherspoon, but then he falls in love with her. But there is so much more to the film than this. The script is clever, the plot well structured and the production excellent, but over-riding this is the sheer quality of acting and the raw sexual overtones between the characters. All three of the leads are incredibly sexy, and the the sensual relationships between then (especially Phillippe and Gellar) are excellent. Controversial subjects (sexual awakening, homosexuality) are addressed simply and directly, and all of this without any real nudity or explicit sex scenes. But here is more to this than sex, as the romances play themselves out compellingly, with the actors creating realistic and emotive characters. A brilliant film all round.

8 out of 10.

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5.0 out of 5 stars this rocks, July 12 2004

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jj "Justin" (ny) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: Cruel Intentions (DVD)

i loved this movie and it's second best out of the trilogy.3 uis the best though no contest.

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