Lascivious blackmailers and inveterate immoralists, these characters behave despicably, but the movie affects a tone of urbane detachment which puts sex in its proper perspective.
Comment
06/24/06
Cruel Intentions (1999)
47
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:36
Rotten:40
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: Even in a slick package and an attractive cast, the movie succumbs to bad acting and a bad script.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Director Roger Kumble transfers the DANGEROUS LIASONS tale to Manhattan, where wealthy prep school student Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) bets her stepbrother Sebastian (Ryan Phillipe) that he... [More]
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair
Director: Roger Kumble
Reviews for Cruel Intentions
Top CriticNot quite as clever as it thinks it is, but still oozing more dark wit than most teen movies can dream of.
01/01/00
Top CriticA clever reworking of a literary classic.
03/05/02
Deliciously cunning.
01/01/00
Click to read the article
03/24/02
Top CriticClick to read the article
01/01/00
Starts off as a twisted, messed up mind game, but ends up a typically sappy love story that, strangely, isn't even about love.
01/01/00
As a serious study of vapid youth, Cruel Intentions vacillates between the cynically pretentious and the shallowly silly.
01/01/00
It is maliciously entertaining, up to a point.
06/18/02
Rent Dangerous Liaisons and save yourself the trouble.
01/01/00
The initial feel of Cruel Intentions is so audacious that the comedown is truly a letdown.
01/01/00
It's disappointing when movies made by adults treat kids -- as characters and viewers -- with disdain.
01/01/00
Every bit of the original's nastiness is retained but none of its wit or elegance.
01/09/07
[This] 'guilty pleasure' ends guilty of not living up to its potential.
03/30/05
Overbaked, overproduced, and overliterary!
01/01/00
The incest, drug use, and sex is there for all to see; unfortunately, the mean spirited characters become downright depressing to watch, especially when intended for a teenage audience.
01/01/00
Kumble's attempt to mine anguish of tragic proportions becomes no more than a display of sappy melodrama.
01/01/00
Roger Kumble gives Cruel Intentions a darkly glossy, upscale look, but he has mixed results with his young cast.
01/01/00
The likes of Glenn Close and John Malkovich have given way to unconvincing actors who can't grasp the concept that roles of this complexity require more than good looks.
01/01/00
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