WILD THINGS (1998) A "Turkey of the Week" film review by Justin Felix. Copyright 1998 Justin Felix.
Rating: *** (out of five)
Written by Stephen Peters. Directed by John McNaughton. Starring Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Bill Murray, Robert Wagner. Rated R (contains nudity, profanity, and violence) 116 mins.
Synopsis: A wild teen-aged girl with an IQ around 200 manipulates a beefy guidance counselor, a determined police detective, two trial lawyers, the U.S. judicial system, the news media, a millionaire playgirl, and her supersexy teen-aged daughter in an elaborate scheme to swindle millions of dollars.
Comments: For this week, I have decided to review a movie currently playing in theaters rather than an almost forgotten video collecting dust in the far corner of a rental outlet. This may become a trend as SPECIES 2, a sequel to one of the best bad sci-fi films of the decade, is set to be released this Friday (April 10, 1998).
Anyway, this week's turkey is the sleazy, exploitative WILD THINGS, a film which shares quite a number of conventions with many of the B-level, direct-to-video-or-cable thrillers I have reviewed in the past. The movie, in fact, only possesses one noticeable difference: it has an all-star cast.
Let's be blunt for a moment. Veteran film actors Kevin Bacon and Matt Dillon are technically the main stars here; they are listed first in the credits and the majority of the film's running time favors them. WILD THINGS' producers, however, heavily advertised this movie as an erotic exercise between rising stars Neve Campbell and Denise Richards. The movie posters prominently feature the two rising out of a pool of water and staring at the viewer with sultry gazes. I suspect the target audience for this film was predominantly younger males; though, surprisingly, the matinee showing I attended with my friend had an audience with far more women than men. If one's only reason to see WILD THINGS is to see Ms. Campbell and Ms. Richards get it on, then one will be remarkedly disappointed. A menage a trois does occur between the two ladies and Matt Dillon, but it is a poorly-lit, seemingly superfluous scene. The two also kiss a couple of times, but it feels mechanic and obligatory rather than racy as it was intended. Neve Campbell, by the way, does not strip naked at all. Sorry, guys.
WILD THINGS' advertised sexual fireworks fizzle here, but the movie itself, as bad movies go, is quite entertaining. The actors turn in hammy performances (more on this in a bit), and the surprisingly complex script keeps the viewer guessing while the laughable dialogue is full of cheesy lines undercutting the seriousness of the subject matter. My friend and I chuckled throughout the movie, but the rest of the audience didn't seem to be in on it. Don't go see WILD THINGS expecting a run-of-the-mill suspense film. (It's an amusing exercise in sleaze populated with comically self-absorbed, greedy characters who all get what they deserve in the end.)
Part of the film's qualified success comes from its cast. A number of fine, first-rate actors have fun with their characters. The attractive, young actress Denise Richards, of last year's megabudget STARSHIP TROOPERS, nearly steals the show here as the pouty high-school student with a supermodel body who catches everyone's eyes. Neve Campbell, the scream queen of SCREAM and SCREAM 2, drops her innocent, damsel-in-distress routine and turns 180 degrees in her role as the trailer trash girl who secretly instigates everything. The best supporting nods go to Bill Murray and Robert Wagner, both making surprise appearances in this, an atypical film for either of them. Bill Murray, in particular, is great as the fraud-obsessed lawyer who can sniff a lawsuit from a mile away. Robert Wagner is hilarious in his wooden portrayal of another lawyer. He seems to be doing a self-parody of himself which reminds me of his brief role in the John Candy vehicle DELIRIOUS.
Despite its humorous dialogue and delightfully smarmy actors, WILD THINGS cannot be excused for some of its shortcomings. While the first two-thirds of the movie moves at a breakneck pace, the last third becomes tired. Without revealing too much, one character will kill another only to be killed by someone else. It becomes a cycle which tries the audience's patience. Also, though this film is designed to be unexpectedly funny, a subplot deals with an affair that a guidance counselor has with two of his students. This seems inexcusably unethical and borders on pedophilia (the students, to give WILD THINGS the benefit of the doubt, may be 18). The audience should feel uneasy when they realize they are viewing what is supposed to be a sexual affair between a high school teacher and his students.
WILD THINGS ends on a somewhat unique note. Important background flashbacks are interspersed throughout the closing credits, and they are rather fun to watch. So, don't get up and walk out the theater as soon as you see the closing credits start to roll at the end.
All in all, WILD THINGS is a pretty good and humorous turkey. It's certainly not for everyone, but for those who are into exploitative thrillers like BASIC INSTINCT or SLIVER, you could find a lot worse than this.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews