Starring - Kevin Bacon; Matt Dillon; Neve Campbell; Theresa Russell & Denise Richards Director - John McNaughton MPAA - Rated R for strong sexuality, nudity, language and some violence. If you were to judge Wild Things based on the advertising alone, it may be reasonable for someone to conclude that it is nothing more than Hollywood's version of a soft core porn flick. Considering most clips feature the very well endowed Denise Richards walking around in very skimpy clothing. Of course by now, most people have heard about the ménage a trois involving Kevin Bacon, Neve Campbell and the afore-mentioned Ms. Richards. If that wasn't enough you have also no doubt heard about Kevin Bacon's full frontal nude scene. So with all this T&A being hyped and talked about, does the movie have anything else besides sex and nudity? Much to my surprise, Wild Things is a really good movie. Now I have to admit up front that the main reason I went to this film, other than to review it, was for the over hyped lesbian scenes. (Judging by the large proportion of males in the theater, I'm not the only one who went because of that.) Now Wild Things is sort of difficult to write a synopsis on. Not that it's confusing; it's just one of those movies that you can't say too much about before you start giving things away. Wild Things revolves around a spoiled rich girl, Kelly Van Ryan, (Denise Richards) and her claim that one of her high school teachers, Sam Lombardo, (Matt Dillon) raped her. Kevin Bacon plays the police detective assigned to the case, and Neve Campbell is the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who comes forward with a similar charge against the teacher. Obviously not everything is as it appears in Wild Things, but to say too much would ruin the film. Let's just say that it is worth your time to go find out for yourself. By the end of the movie nothing will surprise you anymore. This is one well thought out movie. As to performances -- having never been a big Matt Dillon fan I was pleasantly surprised at how good he was in this film. Kevin Bacon also gave one of his better performances in a while. Denise Richards who's only other claim to fame was Starship Troopers does a good job here. She has a great deal of potential, hopefully she will get recognized for her talent and not just she looks. Too often talented actresses who happen to be well-endowed fall into the trap of taking roles that involve nudity over substance. (Natasha Henstridge is a good example.) But I digress… Neve Campbell does a fair job, but seems to be taking roles that are becoming more and more annoying. Theresa Russell also is in the film as Denise Richard's over sexed mother. My question was, why? The woman is in her 40's and they have her prancing around in a bikini. It was just embarrassing. Robert Wagner has a cameo as Denise Richard's lawyer, while he overacts in a way that would make William Shatner proud; it is good to see him again in a film. The one to watch is Bill Murray as Matt Dillon's attorney. Murray, as always is great, and unlike some of the films that he has done in recent years, this time the writing backs up his talent. Murray steals every scene he is in. One other point about the movie that is interesting to note, is the end credits. In recent years directors have taken to showing out takes and bloopers during the end credits. Wild Things goes a step further. During the credits they show how the events of the movie came to be. It's kind of like a mini prequel. It's worth the extra few minutes that you have to stay in your seat. So if you want lots of sex and shots of Denise Richards topless, then Wild Things is the movie for you. If you are interested in a movie with a great story and good overall acting, Wild Things fits the bill there too. It's certainly going to rank as one of the most fun movies of the year. 8/10 - I'd even rate it that high if Denise Richards wasn't naked.

¶ 3/31/1998 04:35:00 PM //

Starring - Jean-Claude Van Damme; Natasha Henstridge; Jean-Hugues Anglade; Zach Grenier & Paul Ben-Victor Director - Ringo Lam MPAA - Rated R for strong violence, and for some sexuality and language. Here's a concept -- Jean-Claude Van Damme gets killed within the first ten minutes of the movie. Now if that isn't enough to get you to finally see a Van Damme movie, I don't know what is. All sarcasm aside, it is certainly a different way to start a movie; of course a few minutes later we find out that the newly deceased had a twin brother -- so lucky us, we get to see more of Jean-Claude. Van Damme #1 works for the Russian Mafia in the United States and is killed by some of their operatives. Van Damme #2 is a police officer in France who finds out that he had a twin brother he never knew about after #1 gets killed in France. The remaining twin (the French cop) goes to the United States to find out who killed his brother and avenge his death. Once there, he hooks up with his deceased brother's girlfriend, played by Natasha Henstridge, and the two of them set out to discover who the murderers are. Jean-Claude's acting abilities don't seem to be up to the usual lackluster standards in this movie. In other words, just in case you missed the sarcasm, his acting is worse than normal. On the upside, Natasha Henstridge is in this film, and she does what she did best in Species -- she gets naked. Sadly, this is probably the high point in the movie. She is actually a decent actress, but didn't improve as much as I thought she would after Species. This is the typical Van Damme movie, with Jean-Claude doing a variety of high end martial arts moves on his opponents. Nothing new here; and certainly nothing we haven't seen in every other Van Damme movie. Simply put, there is absolutely nothing new about this movie. It has a retread plot -- this isn't the first time Jean-Claude has played twins. He still can't act. We all saw Natasha's breasts in Species (although this is one repeat performance I'm not complaining about). This is pretty much like every movie that Van Damme has ever been involved in -- sub par. 4/10

¶ 3/29/1998 04:26:00 PM //