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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1990s
    Movies - 1990s Movies - W 3 Mins Read

    Wild Things (1998)

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    Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is a popular high school guidance counsellor in the affluent Miami suburb of Blue Bay who has attracted the interest of good-looking nubile socialite Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards). Kelly is the daughter of wealth – in fact, the gold-digging Sam has slept with her mother, Sandra (Theresa Russell).

    That doesn’t keep Kelly from coming on to him in a big way. When she and a friend show up at Sam’s place on a weekend to wash his car for a school fund-raiser, Kelly sends her friend away and heads into Sam’s house with seduction on her mind.

    But she leaves dishevelled and upset – and goes home to tell her mother that Sam has raped her.

    Sam becomes the object of a police investigation by detectives Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon, who also served as executive producer) and Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega), who in turn find trailer-dwelling Suzie Toller (scream queen Neve Campbell), a drug-addled punkish classmate of Kelly’s from the wrong side of the tracks (her dad wrestles alligators for tourists) who tells them that a year earlier, Sam had pulled the same thing on her, right down to his parting line.

    Sam loses his job, house, girlfriend and yacht club privileges and winds up in jail.

    The only attorney he can afford is terminally low-rent shyster Ken Bowden (Bill Murray), who seems barely a step up from a court-appointed lawyer.

    However, when the case comes to trial, a surprising reversal leads to Sam’s release and an $8.5 million cash settlement with Kelly’s seething mother.

    At this point, Wild Things should get interesting as characters begin to reveal their true colours and motives, and the settlement cheque becomes the object of much contention. When one character speaks of tidying up loose ends, it’s obviously a reference to eliminating all partners in the scheme.

    The only question is, who will survive the deadly attrition?

    But Stephen Peters’s script is filled with the kind of howlingly bad dialogue found in the worst TV potboilers and once director John McNaughton starts flipping over cards and showing his hand, the remaining moves quickly become obvious.

    It’s not hard to figure out who is screwing whom here. It’s more a question of who will get to make the last play.

    During the final credits, Wild Things offers scenes from the story that were not shown during the film, but McNaughton and Peters bring in two characters as masterminds who seem the least able to orchestrate the whole fandango.

    The film made $56 million at the box office – nearly triple its budget – and spawned three direct-to-DVD sequels (they’re all garbage!)

    Sergeant Ray Duquette
    Kevin Bacon
    Sam Lombardo
    Matt Dillon
    Suzie Toller
    Neve Campbell
    Sandra Van Ryan
    Theresa Russell
    Kelly Van Ryan
    Denise Richards
    Detective Gloria Perez
    Daphne Rubin-Vega
    Tom Baxter
    Robert Wagner
    Ken Bowden
    Bill Murray
    Ruby
    Carrie Snodgress
    Bryce Hunter
    Jeff Perry
    Jimmy Leach
    Cory Pendergast
    Walter
    Marc Macaulay
    Nicole 
    Toi Svane Stepp
    Art Maddox
    Dennis Neal
    School Secretary
    Diane Adams
    Kirk
    Paulo Benedeti
    Frankie Condo
    Eduardo Yáñez
    Barbara Baxter
    Jennifer Taylor
    Judge
    Victoria Bass
    Ken’s Secretary
    Leonor Anthony
    Police Chief
    Antoni Corone
    Dave 
    Anthony Giaimo
    Georgie 
    Manny Suárez

    Director
    John McNaughton

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