Plot: What’s it about?
Cruel Intentions is based on the French novel which also was made into a movie, “Dangerous Liasons”. This version is however updated to give it a nineties tone and mood. This movie is about a rich girl (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her stepbrother (Ryan Philleppe) who conspire together to make up a bad image on an innocent girl (Selma Blair) who is now with Sarah’s ex-boyfriend and a virgin (Reese Witherspoon) who said she is saving herself until she falls in love.
The bet is that Ryan will have sex with Reese before school starts in a few weeks. If so he will get to have sex with his stepsister Sarah, whom she thinks he wants her only because he can’t have her. (make sense?) If he loses then Sarah will get his ’67 Jaguar. Along the way Ryan agrees to help Sarah ruin the image of her new so called friend Selma. Along the way people are hurt and friendships are made, among other things.
The movie has a certain style to it with its old car and old style furniture. It has a tendency to confuse you with the date of the movie. Is it the 60’s or is it the 90’s? I had a tendency to get irritated with the naive and innocence of some of the characters. I guess you can blame that on good acting. The movie is loaded with extras and if you are a fan of any of the actors then you may enjoy this enough to own. Other wise if you are interested it should be worth a rent.
Video: How does it look?
This has the 16:9 enhanced 1.85:1 widescreen format and the full frame feature on a single sided dual layered DVD. The picture quality is very good. This movie has a dim setting to it and it seems that they wanted to add to the dark tone by having a small amount of light used while filming. A good picture and nothing negative stood out, but the picture just didn’t make you say WOW, like a excellent transfer would have. A very good one though.
Audio: How does it sound?
This is mostly a dialogue driven movie and it does its purpose to make it clear and true. The music brings your system to work at times, but nothing overwhelming. Just the right mix for the film with occasional sound from the surrounds.
Supplements: What are the extras?
I was pleasantly surprised with all of the extras on this disc. It has a running commentary with the filmakers, a making of featurette, documentary on the visual style of the movie, two musci videos from Marcy Playground and Placebo, deleted scenes with introduction from the director Roger Kumble, a theatrical trailer and the talent and filmographies section. The deleted scenes are good to look at and the explanations make sense as to why there were cut from the film. Although there are two that stood out in my mind that should have made it in the original movie.
