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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, Czech, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Turkish, Croatian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hindi, Romanian, Slovenian
  Extras
  • Teaser trailer - Ride or Die
  • Theatrical trailer - Wild Things 2
  • Featurette - Making the Glades
Wild Things 2 (Rental)
Columbia Pictures/Columbia Pictures . R4 . COLOR . 91 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

This simply has to be a joke?

This isn’t a sequel to Wild Things at all – it’s a remake.

So you’ve seen Wild Things before? Congratulations, top notch cinema with enough twists in the plot to keep you glued to the screen. Oh and for the straight guys out there, there are two sex scenes – one a threesome and the other a lesbian tryst, but that’s beside the point. So save yourself 90 odd minutes of your life and stay well clear from this film. We have literally the same story rehashed to give characters an unnecessary facelift, with them replaced by no-name, non-blockbuster actors. OK, that isn’t always a bad thing, but combined with a only rewording of the original script, it totally blows and there is no nice way to say that.

While the film plods along, you can virtually hear the screenwriters thinking, building dialogue around a series of twists which are so obviously placed, simply for the point of having twists rather than for creating a thrilling plot. Dialogue is cheesy and corny, such as Bridge’s character saying:

the plot thickens...

Urggh, get me a bucket and quick! This constant string of points illustrating that the plot “thickens” (which is debatable) is terribly insulting to the audience. Why not hold just up a sign saying “you’re stupid”? You may think this is being harsh, but oh boy, believe me, this is being too kind. Oh and now the sex scenes to keep you straight guys out there happy. Eww! Bordering on soft porn, rumoured to be ‘body doubles’ too, the threesome sex scene unfolds with nearly an exact replica of the original Wild Things scene, including seeing only one young lady's breast, and the other taking her top off as the scene concludes. Now not only is this an insult to our intelligence but also an insult to the original filmmakers. The script is so poorly written, the action so cruddily carried out and this reviewer has seen more twists in a French fry. Yessiree bob, it’s that straight. It even goes as far to duplicate the “revealing” credits, filling in the ‘how did they do that’ scenes in between the cast screens. That’s just sad.

Anyway, Brittney (Susan Ward) is a spoilt yuppie 17 year old who lives with her stepfather, until he tragically dies in a plane accident. But dum dum dum, was it an accident? Anyway, her stepfather left practically nothing to her, and a true-blood heir is sought for inheritance. Along comes Maya (Leila Arcieri), a real bitch, and it is quite clear that Brittney and Maya are not friends. That relationship sounds very similar to that of Suzie and Kelly in the original film. Anyway, in a court of law, it is discovered that Maya is actually the daughter of the deceased, and inherits 70 million dollars. But then the fun starts, with sex, violence, murder, deception and “twists”. Yawn and sigh. Do yourself a favour and snap this disc in half. Get the original Wild Things any day.

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

Presented in an anamorphically enhanced widescreen aspect of 1.85:1, Wild Things 2 actually looks pretty good. This is its intended widescreen aspect, yet this is one film that we can’t say a “theatrical aspect” as this has made it's way directly to video, and even that is a joke in itself. Colours are natural and lifelike, maybe just a hint over-saturated but without jumping in your face. Edges are clearly defined, with clean shadow detail and a sharp image throughout the film. Technically this is a pretty neat transfer, free from many nasties. Grain is limited to a clean wash over the image, with film artefacts not a distraction at all. There’s a hint of aliasing and digital noise reduction but nothing overly disturbing, and compression related artefacts are nearly free from existence.

Presented with four 5.1 audio tracks, there is only one English track amongst the selections. Dialogue is clear throughout, with a decent 5.1 mix yet one that features nothing to write home about. Effects do come from all channels with their own discrete goodness, with dialogue clearly from the centre channel, building a fairly strong 5.1 soundstage. The subwoofer even gets the odd good snap in, giving a few jumpy moments that little bit of extra oomph.

Extras-wise, apart from the static 16:9 menus, we have a featurette and two trailers. The featurette is your standard promo “we’re-so-good” thing running for 22:22 in an unenhanced format. Admittedly, this is a pretty interesting featurette with regards to specific scenes of the film, but all in all it's nothing terribly innovative. The two trailers are for Wild Things 2 running for 1:05, and Ride or Die running for 1:23. Both are presented in unanamorphically enhanced aspects, the first full frame and the second letterboxed at 1.85:1. And doesn’t the title of the second one just entice you to see it? Wow, sarcasm really doesn’t pick up well in text.

OK I think I’ve said enough. The choice of hiring this piece of plastic rubbish is totally up to you, but I'd suggest not wasting your money. Get a cool new release DVD and use the money you would have spent on this to get yourself a 2L bottle of Vanilla Coke or something. Hmm... now I’m thirsty... Opening a fresh, tightly-capped bottle though is less painful than watching this film. Enough said.


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  •   And I quote...
    "This film is an insult to my intellygents."
    - Martin Friedel
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-NS530
    • TV:
          Sharp SX76NF8 76cm Widescreen
    • Receiver:
          Sony HT-SL5
    • Speakers:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SS-CNP2
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SA-WMSP3
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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