Plot
Kathryn makes a bet that her step-brother, Sebastian, won't be able to bed Annette (a virgin, who wants to wait until love). If he loses, Kathryn gets his Jaguar, if he wins, he gets Kathryn.
Release Year: 1999
Rating: 6.7/10 (86,491 voted)
Critic's Score: 56/100
Director:
Roger Kumble
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon
Storyline Kathryn makes a bet that her step-brother, Sebastian, won't be able to bed Annette (a virgin, who wants to wait until marriage) before the start of the school year. If he loses, Kathryn gets his Roadster, if he wins, he gets Kathryn
Writers: Choderlos de Laclos, Roger Kumble
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar
-
Kathryn Merteuil
Ryan Phillippe
-
Sebastian Valmont
Reese Witherspoon
-
Annette Hargrove
Selma Blair
-
Cecile Caldwell
Louise Fletcher
-
Helen Rosemond
Joshua Jackson
-
Blaine Tuttle
Eric Mabius
-
Greg McConnell
Sean Patrick Thomas
-
Ronald Clifford
Swoosie Kurtz
-
Dr. Greenbaum
Christine Baranski
-
Bunny Caldwell
Alaina Reed-Hall
-
Nurse
Deborah Offner
-
Mrs. Michalak
Tara Reid
-
Marci Greenbaum
Herta Ware
-
Mrs. Sugarman
Hiep Thi Le
-
Mai-Lee
Taglines:
In the game of seduction, There is only one rule: Never fall in love
Filming Locations: 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
Box Office Details
Budget: $11,000,000
(estimated)
Opening Weekend: $13,020,565
(USA)
(7 March 1999)
(2312 Screens)
Gross: $75,902,208
(Worldwide)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Fred Norris, head writer and cast member of The
The Howard Stern Show, has a small part, credited as the Meter Maid - Ryan Phillippe is a huge Howard Stern fan.
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
Sebastian's Journal has the word "friendship" spelled as "freindship".
Quotes: Greg McConnell:
What am I? Grandma with the birthday present. Suck it ya dumb bitch!
User Review
They're old enough to know better and too young to care!
Rating:
I have recently been seeing a psychiatrist about a few troubles. In one of
his sessions, he bought up about the movie Cruel Intentions, which I
absolutely loved. He said he loved the start of the movie where the evil
Sebastian says to the Psychologist `You have beautiful legs, I would love to
photograph them'. This then sets the tone for one of the best teen films
that the world has seen. Based on the movie Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel
Intentions goes down as one of my top five favourite films of
all-time.
A sex-obsessed rich boy Sebastian sets out to win his greatest "conquest" -
a girl who has proclaimed in a Teen magazine that she will wait until
marriage to lose her virginity. The teen is egged on by his sister,
Catherine, an evil scheming girl in her own right. The two have a wager on
whether Sebastian can achieve his conquest. If he wins, he gets a night of
bliss with his stepsister, if she wins, she keeps his most prided
possession, his Jaguar convertible!
Well this is a brilliant backstabbing, bitchy, love and hate war movie. I
cannot remember a movie like it in my time. The theme of the movie was
priceless. Having two rich hobnob kids toying with various people's emotions
in their neighborhood was just great. In fact it is not at all silly to
think that this does not happen in real life, because if you don't believe
that then you are very naïve.
There are many people who need to be praised for this classic movie.
Director Roger Kumble did a great job in bringing this movie to our screens.
He added so many little `steamy' pieces to this movie that it was never
going to fail. Then you have the producer Neal H. Moritz who also allowed
this film to shine. He gave this film all the right production touches,
which I can only praise.
Then you have the wonderful cast that was assembled for Cruel Intentions.
The main star for this film would have to be the gorgeous Sarah Michelle
Gellar. She was outstanding as the horrible Catherine. Her character while
at times was extremely hard to like, she was almost too hard to not want to
like. I mean she was every guy's fantasy. Sexually liberated (and not afraid
to admit it), then all she wanted to do is screw up all her enemies at the
same time. Then you have the patronising and ‘stud man' Sebastian, played by
Hollywood hunk Ryan Philippe. His performance in this film was also first
class. I thought his character was a lot more likable then Catherine's, but
you could sometimes want to strangle him for the way he screws with people,
just like his stepsister does, and then still seemingly gets more women
dying to be with him.
Other cast members just help to make this film an extraordinary viewing
experience. Reese Witherspoon is fantastic as the pure and innocent,
Annette. She helps to balance the sour bitchy side of the cast, with her
friendly almost sickening goody goody side. I am looking forward to seeing
Witherspoon in the comedy, Legally Blonde, directed by new Australian
director Robert Luketic. Selma Blair was also very good in her role as the
dumb and very naïve Cecil. The kissing scene that she has with Gellar was
one of the highlights of the film, with the kiss being voted the best
onscreen kiss a few years ago.
Then this film has another great side to it, that of the soundtrack. It has
so many great songs on it. Placebos tune `Every me, Every you' helps start
this movie off, then you get songs such as Colorblind by Counting Crows and
the classy, Bitter Sweet Symphony, by the Verve. This would have to be one
of the world's most popular soundtracks from where I view
it.
In conclusion, Cruel Intentions is a film I can say I love and that I can
learn from. People in real life do use people and do hurt them. I know this
because I was involved in such a scenario not so long ago. Nothing was ever
happy until it was a fight and scrag. I will go as far to admit that I was
confronted with a real life Catherine, a person who was such a goody goody
on the outside, but the real person on the inside is a person that loves to
cause trouble and will go out of her way to do it. Anyone who is like that
is a real low-life in my view. Get swept up in the nasty love triangle,
‘Cruel Intentions'!
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