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- Cat.no: CDR 98039
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 94 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 28 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: 17 different languages available
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, US Theatrical trailer, Filmographies,Director/Producer Commentary, 5 Deleted Scenes, 2 Music Videos,Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
Director:
- Roger Kumble
Producers:
- Neal H. Moritz
Screenplay:
- Roger Kumble
Music:
- Edward Shearmur
Cast:
- Kathryn Merteuil: Sarah Michelle Gellar (High Stakes, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, Simply Irresistible, TV: All My Children, Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Sebastian Valmont: Ryan Phillippe (54, Homegrown, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Little Boy Blue, Nowhere, Playing By Heart, White Squall)
Annette Hargrove: Reese Witherspoon (Best Laid Plans, Election, A Far Off Place, Fear, Freeway, Jack the Bear, The Man in the Moon, Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville, SFW, Solomon’s Choice, Twilight)
Marci Greenbaum: Tara Reid (American Pie, The Big Lebowski)
Helen Rosemond: Louise Fletcher (Blue Steel, Brainstorm, Breast Men, Exorcist 2: The Heretic, Firestarter, Flowers in the Attic, High School High, Love Kills, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Stepford Husbands, Virtuosity)
Cruel Intentionsis a film set in the world of the rich and the beautiful… and there’s few more rich andbeautiful in the world of film than Sarah Michelle Gellar, who plays Kathryn Merteuil.She has a serial womaniser of a step-brother, Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) whois looking for a new challenge instead of a continuous stream of “insipid Manhattan debutantes”
At the same time, Kathryn is having a different dilemma of the heart. Her last boyfriendwas a “Flash Harry” who fell for a dowdy friend of hers, Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair)and to get her own back, she wants to set her stepsibling on her. She can’t attack her ex,Court Reynolds (Charlie O’Connell), directly as that’ll gain her negative publicity and“Everybody loves me and I intend to keep it that way”. However, he has a reputation touphold and is far more interested in the conquest to pop the cherry of his headmaster’s daughter,Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), before she even starts school.
Kathryn makes a bet which Sebastian accepts: If she wins and he is unable to find the keyto Annette’s chastity belt, she gets to keep his 1956 vintage Jaguar Roadster. If he succeeds,his prize is the one thing she claims he’s been after since their parents got married, whichshe coolly describes,
Cruel Intentions is an update on Dangerous Liaisons for the brat-packmarket. The two leads have an excellent chemistry between them, Phillippe coming acrossas America’s answer to Jude Law, but the rest of the actors could be interchangedwith just about anyone and there’s too short an appearance for American Piebabe Tara Reid as the daughter of Sebastian’s shrink, played by Swoosie Kurtz.
Basically instinctive.The picture is artifact-free, but has a slight level of grain that seems to mara number of Columbia DVDs. It doesn’t make it completely unwatchable, but a little moreeffort could have improved matters greatly. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1ratio and is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions – thus allowing for 33% higherresolution. The average bitrate is a very good 7.25Mb/s, often peaking above 9Mb/s.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and won’t blow your speakers, but mixes a pleasantand subtle score with pop tunes from The Cardigans, Fatboy Slim, The Verve, SkunkAnansie, Craig Armstrong & Elizabeth Fraser, plus Marcy Playground‘s Comin’Up From Behind and Placebo‘s Every You Every Me, for which the musicpromos are included in the extras section.
Extras : Chapters/Trailer :There are 28 chapters, like most Columbia releases, spread throughout the 94-minuterunning time, which covers most of the major scenes, the last one bringingtogether finale and the end credits. The original US theatrical trailer is also included. Languages/Subtitles :Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and French, plus subtitles in SEVENTEEN languages :English, French, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic,Turkish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Greek, Norwegian and Dutch. And there’s more… :Filmographies and biographies are available for the director Roger Kumble andthe four young principal cast members, a Behind-the-scenes six-minute featurette ismore like an extended trailer narrated by a man with a deep voice, but not THAT man andthere’s an audio commentary track from the director and producer Neal H. Moritz aswell as several other members of the crew.
5 Deleted scenes are included, most of which are worth a look but Kathrynmanipulates Ronald is a short one that should have been left in as he doesn’t get thatmuch to do. Finally there are the two aforementioned pop videos. Subtitles are available forthese extras, but, bizarrely, only in French and Dutch (!)
Menu :The menu is static and silent with a snapshot of the younger members of the cast, but ithas a classy and elegant look that captures the feel of the film.
“No, no, NO! Learn your lines OFF-camera!”Overall, this film starts off with promise and it’s interesting to watch the twists andturns of the script as the truth is told once too often, everyone sleeps with everyoneelse and certain characters get their comeuppance, but the overall result is unsatisfying.
There are a lot of extras to the disc as well, but there aren’t that many that you’llgo back to time and again and in comparison to the US release, it’s missingan extra deleted scene, production notes and another featurette, “CreativeIntentions: Finding a Visual Style”. Definitely a case of rent-before-you-buy,particularly if you haven’t seen the film before.
FILM : ***PICTURE QUALITY: ****SOUND QUALITY: ****EXTRAS: ***½——————————-OVERALL: ***½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.