Cruel Intentions 2

This one, like the teeny-bop remake of DANGEROUS LIAISONS, is populated by fragile, pasty teens whose sex scenes are vapid and unimpressive, unless you're an easily turned-on adolescent. Utterly cute in the worst sense of the word and, sadly, lacking any prurient interest.

They had such potential for this movie and they completely fall flat. In the first Cruel Intentions, we are left wondering what motivated the lead characters to become the way they are and act the way they do. There is almost NO character development whatsoever in this prequel. It's actually a very sad story but this film did nothing for me. It was as if they left out good writing in place of unneeded f-words. And the end makes absolutely no sense and doesn't explain anything. The writing was just terrible. Another thing that bothered me was that they used at lease 3 of the EXACT SAME lines that were in the original. Such as "down boy", or the kissing scene, and a few others I can't remember. I was not impressed at all by Robin's acting, but Amy did a great job. That's about the only thing that reconciled this movie.

Synopsis: A remake. That's all it is. Just a simple remake of the first one only with a different cast.

The Review: Pointless. It's a remake. The elements are all here. Sister wants to screw brother. Brother wants to screw someone else. Sister manipulates stereotype bimbo, who in a fit of originality, orgasms from riding a horse saddle, the only laugh and pretty much the only entertaining thing in this remake of the first "Cruel Intentions". Don't rent, if you've seen the first "Cruel Intentions", then you'll have already seen the second one.

This is another one of those "Why bother?" sequels, or should say prequel? The film opens with a scene that mirrors the opening scene in the original "Cruel Intentions." And we also have a few other scenes that were mimicked straight from the original. We're introduced to some new characters, which were supposed to purposely bear similarities to ones in the original, like the nerdy blonde chick who was a mimic of Selma Blair's character.

This movie was originally going to become a TV show, "Manchester Prep." But with all the controversy, it never made it to air. I think it might've worked out quite well as a TV program, and I probably would've watched it--but if you're going to coarsen it up a bit and transform it into a direct-to-video prequel to "Cruel Intentions"...once again, I say "Why bother?"

The actors, in general, were a notch below the ones in the original. The one who played Sebastian in this installment doesn't have the charm or looks of Ryan Phillippe. In fact, he looks pretty geeky. You can't imagine this guy seducing an old lady, much less his beautiful love interest in the movie. The actress who takes over the role of Catherine has that "b**ch" quality that almost measures up Sarah Michelle's, so I can't really complain about her performance.

If anything, this movie has more of a sense of humor. There are some sitcom-like gags--again showing us this was more suited for TV--that I got a chuckle out of.

The plot goes through the formulaic motions, and concludes with a preposterous plot twist that--I guess--served as an eye-opener for an otherwise mediocre tale. Speaking of eye-openers, there's a shower scene that the guys will fully appreciate. *wink wink* If you have the DVD, it's much more convenient. You can just go straight to that scene. God bless the makers of DVD!!!

OK, that was a shallow comment, but I'm not criticizing "Casablanca" over here. This is a direct-to-video prequel, and you pretty much get what you expect. I loved the original "Cruel Intentions," but I can't say I'm going to keep high expectations for anything that heads straight to the video racks. But I have to say my expectations were slightly heightened when I found out Roger Kumble, the writer/director of the original, wrote and directed this movie, too.

My score: 5 (out of 10)

To understand how this film came to be, you first should know the backstory. In 1999, Fox bought a pilot TV show called Manchester Prep, a "reimagined" prequel to the film Cruel Intentions. It had all the same characters as the film and spread a fairly similar plot over the 22 episode arc. The film's producing and directing team oversaw creation of the TV show and production began. '99 was a decent year for TV and one of the gems was a show called Popular. Popular turned out to be....well, popular and Manchester Prep was canceled before it ever aired it's pilot. The first few episodes were already shot, so it was repackaged with a few re-shoots and rewrites (and some gratuitous nudity) into the form of Cruel Intentions 2.

The tonal changes throughout the film and different stylistic changes that plague the film are due to the segments of the TV episodes having been shot by different directors and then roughly tied together with reshoots by another director for the movie version. The film takes on a "pulp" feel as it plays on the inside jokes from the original film (which was designed to set up a connection between the show and the film as time progressed) and panders to the innuendos of the film in the lowest exploitative ways possible.

If you look hard enough you will find its connection to the first film, however viewing Cruel Intentions 2 before the original will likely dissuade you from viewing the original as this one lacks the sophistication and charisma of the original.