Cruel Intentions

In these Dawson's Creek/Backstreet Boys days of pop culture obsession with youth, you can sell any idea in Hollywood by naming source material and tagging on the phrase "...but with teenagers." Hard on the heels of The Faculty ("The Thing, but with teenagers") and She's All That ("Pygmalion, but with teenagers") comes Cruel Intentions, a teen spin on Les Liaisons Dangereuses even worse in execution than in concept. Ryan Phillippe plays the icy seducer of women; Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the equally icy seducer of men--here Phillippe's step-sister--who wagers that Phillippe can't take the virtue of a self-proclaimed virgin (Reese Witherspoon). It's a considerably sleazier spin on previous versions of the tale, played by director Roger Kumble as soft-core porn for teenyboppers with pseudo-incestuous fondling and money-shot close-ups of Gellar tongue-kissing another woman. Phillippe spends virtually the entire film aping John Malkovich from the 1988 Dangerous Liaisons, and Gellar is only slightly better in her lip-curling villainy. Cruel Intentions is just another glossy flick for high-schoolers, but it's sad to see such compelling libretti repeatedly scavenged for spare parts. After this stupid, pandering film, it's only a matter of time before we'll see "Moby Dick, but with teenagers." Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)