Cruel Intentions (1999)
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 77
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 40
Even in a slick package and an attractive cast, the movie succumbs to bad acting and a bad script.
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Critic Reviews: 25
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 15
Even in a slick package and an attractive cast, the movie succumbs to bad acting and a bad script.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 411,710
My Rating
Movie Info
In an adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) are step-brother and step-sister living in Manhattan. With their absent parents travelling in Europe, the wealthy pair have the family penthouse to themselves as they while away their summer break before beginning senior year at a private high school. Sebastian, bad-boy lothario, has apparently slept with all the girls in town and appears numb
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Cast
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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 -
Tara Reid
Marci Greenbaum -
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All Critics (81) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (42) | DVD (16)
What's both depressing and impressive about Cruel Intentions is the profound misanthropy of its meaning.
You won't be able to resist the film's ribaldry and cynicism. Kids these days!
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.
Top CriticYou sometimes have to giggle at this movie the way you do when you catch 4-year-olds playing dress-up in front of Mom's closet.
It is maliciously entertaining, up to a point.
This is the filmic answer to a pack of Spice Girl cards.
Dangerous Liaisons among rich NYC teens.
The film's cheat ending aside, this arch, ridiculous movie heaves, sweats and steams, and for the most part, it delivers what its title promises.
An earnest but overreaching kiddie version of Dangerous Liaisons.
Every bit of the original's nastiness is retained but none of its wit or elegance.
In the end, the whole shebang comes off like a bunch of snotty, rich white kids screwing each other and screwing each other over.
First-time helmer/writer Roger Kumble starts off on the right foot, but stumbles along the way.
[This] 'guilty pleasure' ends guilty of not living up to its potential.
The movie's cinematography, set design, and costume design are all extremely elegant, and the beautiful young actors are shown off to maximum effect, like expensively bred horses.
Egads.
Cruel Intentions is vapid and mean -- in a good way.
Kumble doesn't dumb down the themes of the novel too much, he just gives them a refreshing, flashy feel Dawson's Creek-style.
Despite its highly descriptive dialogue, Cruel Intentions features no nudity ... I doubt teenage boys will be satisfied just to hear Buffy talk dirty.
The movie never gets past a crucial structural flaw: Behavior that would have scandalized pre-Revolutionary France would scarcely raise an eyebrow among today's drug-dazed and sex-crazed Upper East Side crowd.
Audience Reviews for Cruel Intentions
Super Reviewer
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- Kathryn Merteuil: My advice is to sleep with as many people as possible.
- Cecile Caldwell: But that would make me a slut, wouldn't it?
- Kathryn Merteuil: Cecile, everybody does it; it's just that nobody talks about it.
- Cecile Caldwell: So, it's like a secret society?
- Kathryn Merteuil: That's one way looking at it.
- Kathryn Merteuil: [under her breath] Fucking idiot...
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- Sebastian Valmont: It's not like you have a husband - unless you're married to Jesus.
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- Kathryn Merteuil: Unfortunately, our Don Juan is moving with the speed of a Special Olympics hurdler.
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- Kathryn Merteuil: Who are you spying on? That her?
- Sebastian Valmont: Yeah
- Kathryn Merteuil: Aww, she's crying. Little baby upset about the big bad book.
- Sebastian Valmont: Shut up!
- Kathryn Merteuil: What's up your ass?
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- Kathryn Merteuil: Can I take my new car for a ride?
- Sebastian Valmont: Kathryn, the only thing you'll be riding is me.
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- Sebastian Valmont: You spend all your time preaching about waiting for love. Well here it is. Right in front of you, and you're going to turn your back on it. So I guess we're just f*ucked. I'll move on. But you are going to have to live the rest of your life knowing that you've turned your back on love. And that makes you a hypocrite. Have a nice life.
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Foreign Titles
- Eiskalte Engel (DE)

