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| Wild Things |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 108 |
| Public Rating: 9.08 (105 votes) |
Director: John McNaughton |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Crime / Thriller |
Year: 1998 |
| Writer(s): Stephen Peters |
| Reviewed by: Beatnik |
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"What is a sex crime?"
Although the US title is Wild things, I got the Belgian release, with a different, more appropriate title... Sex Crimes.
The opening scene is classic, as it shows the main cast in their natural habitat. The camera follows Sam Lombardo (played by Matt Dillon; Singles, There?s something about Mary, One night at McCool's), a guidance counselor, into the lecture hall to announce the halfway point of the semester. Both Suzy Toller (Neve Campbell; Scream Trilogy, The Craft, Three to tango) and Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards; Starship troopers, The world is not enough) are cast as teens in the Blue Bay high school in the sunny Florida. Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon; Footloose, Flatliners, Hollow Man) is there to provide more information on the so-called Sex Crimes.
Kelly (a rich girl) has difficulties hiding her feelings for Mr. Lombardo and she gets raped by him, ofcourse purely coincidential a sex crime. Suzy (a trailer park girl) confesses as well and for a moment it seems Sam Lombardo can kiss his counselors job goodbye. This is where Ken Bowden (Bill Murray; Scrooged, Caddy shack, Ghostbusters) comes into the picture as Sam's lawyer. The obligatory court scene is about halfway through the movie and the real twist starts just there. Suzy spills her guts in the witness stand and Sam gets a fat check from Sandra Van Ryan (played by Theresa Russell). Officer Duquette doesn't really buy the whole story and further investigates what's behind the whole thing. The ending is a bit surprising altho some pieces of the puzzle fall rather quickly into place after the court scene.
This movie has it's share of skin, blood and guns but just enough not to fall into the cheap thriller rip-off genre. The story is quite obscure and it isn't until the last few minutes that you'll understand why everything went as it did. The short pieces pasted in between the credits can fill in the blanks.
Denise Richards is perfectly cast for the role of the sexy, spoiled kid, seeking for attention. With a little eye shadow Neve Campbell does an excellent job as the smart, poor girl. Bill Murray succeeds once again to bring his kind of humor into the plot and plays an important part in the ending (altho you'll have to wait until some of the end credits have scrolled by). Matt Dillon plays his part of the good guy versus bad guy pretty convincingly.
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