Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 22 Ratings

  • Starring: Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell
  • Summary: A mystery of deceit, sex and greed as unpredictable as a hungry gator, this is the swamp-steamy thriller about two high school students, the guidance counselor they accuse of rape and the detective who knows there's more to the story.  (Sony)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 20
  2. Negative: 5 out of 20
  1. Reviewed by: Michelle Goldberg
    80
    One reason Wild Things works so well is that director John McNaughton sustains a darkly comic tone throughout the film without letting it degenerate into farce.
  2. Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    80
    The movie has more twists than Chubby Checker, and as soon as you think Stephen Peters' script has used up every conceivable opportunity, it twists again.
  3. 60
    A sleazy, seamy, flashy, steamy, vulgar exploitation thriller that revels in every minute of its own trashiness and delivers some pretty solid -- if prurient -- entertainment before strangling in a one-twist-too-many ending.
  4. 38
    This is film noir for the MTV generation: fast-paced, slick, flashy, gleefully mindless, and hollow to the core.

See all 20 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 1 out of 8
  1. One Of The Best Films Ever Made! Denise Richards Did A Great A+ Job As Well As The Rest Of The Cast.. The Writing Is Very Good.. There Is Really Noting Negative About This Movie @ All! Collapse
  2. Actually This Is A Pretty Good Movie..
    The Plot Is Very Well Writen And The Acting By Denise Richards Is Good..
    I'm Not Sure Users Are Sayin
    g "One Of The Best Movies Of All Time" Because It's Not.. It's A Good Movie.. Expand
  3. Wild Things is a fun twisty, turny piece of semi-erotic film noir.. It's good but it isn't a masterwork or anything. Bill Murray's inclusion, however, is delightful. Expand
  4. For years, people have been talking to me about this smart, sexy thriller, that spawned three sequels. There is also something to be said for mysteries, with twists and turns, that make you think, but a half hour into this thing, it was easy to figure out why none of the stars came back for the sequels. This movie certainly plays up the eye candy angle, with two of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, and at first glance, it seems like it's going to be a pretty good film, but then the twists and turns kick in. Throwing in a twist can make an ordinary film spectacular, but when you do it every five minutes, it just confuses the hell out of the audience, and that's what happened here. By the end of Wild Things, I didn't know what the hell was going on anymore. As for the performances, they range from the brilliant Neve Campbell to the horrid Matt Dillon, and feature a ton of cameos in-between. I wanted to like this movie, there are some very good looking people, who like to take their cloths off, and that does tend to help you focus more, but the question is what are we focusing on? I concluded that there really isn't a reason to watch two hours of pure when you can find all the naked celebrity pictures you could ever want, in five minutes online. Expand

See all 8 User Reviews

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