Friday 13 January 2012

Wild Things 2 (2004)

Six years after the cool and sexy first movie, along comes this sequel to show how you can take almost exactly the same material (in some instances even the scene structure is almost EXACTLY the same as in the first movie) and turn a winning formula into complete sewage.

If you've seen the first movie then none of the twists and turns will surprise you. If you haven't seen the first movie then why the hell are you considering even watching this instalment?

Jack Perez directs and I can't help thinking that all he did was watch the first movie. Of course, this isn't the worst thing he could have done. After all, Perez is now the man perhaps best known for giving the world the supreme and jaw-dropping Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus. (best sold to anyone who has yet to see it with THIS clip). Ross Helford and Andy Hurst wrote the screenplay for this and the next outing in the series so no worries there. Of course, they also wrote the screenplay for Single White Female 2: The Psycho. Oh dear.

Which means that we have nothing but a rehash of the first movie from a group of untalented people behind the camera. Hopefully, a few good stars onscreen could pick things up a bit. Well, not really. There are some decent people in front of the camera (Susan Ward is just too cute for me to dislike and Isaiah Washington is a very good actor and certainly the best thing in this film) but there are also just as many folk you won't care about one little bit. Leila Arcieri as Maya King is just annoying, Joe Michael Burke is far too bland, Linden Ashby is okay and that's about it, nobody else really gets to make any impression.

Overall, Wild Things 2 is just like Wild Things (even the dvd cover is almost a carbon copy). Without the talented cast. Or smart script. Or style and sexiness. Or any trace of originality. Despite so many failings, however, it's still a bit of an entertaining watch thanks to the way it follows the structure of the original so closely. There are even a number of reveals during the end credits which end up being almost as much fun to watch as the revelations in the first movie. Almost.

4/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Things-DVD-Susan-Ward/dp/B0000WSTMY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326474094&sr=8-1


2 comments:

  1. The only good things I'd ever dare say about this one is that Leila Arcieri is a serious beauty, and the movie did originally have some seriously badass poster art, but--in a move symbolic of everything about this movie--it wasn't used (it was stuck on the insert in the DVD):
    http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/5700000/Wild-Things-2-promos-stills-susan-ward-5750025-452-674.jpg

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  2. That IS pretty badass. :-)
    Sadly, I didn't appreciate Arcieri as much as you did. Though I've always had a thing for Ward.

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