Wild Things 1998

Critics score:
64 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Director John McNaughton has some sly fun with the noir genre in this sex-drenched tale of two young vixens (Neve Campbell and Denise Richards) who accuse their high school guidance counselor (Matt Dillon) of rape and begin unwinding plots within plots. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Lucky John McNaughton. Best known for the harder-edged Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Mad Dog and Glory," he hits the 90210 jackpot with a slick, steamy tale of nonstop treachery... Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: What I'm supposed to find 'satisfying' is predicated on the idea that almost everyone in the world is trash. Read more

Jack Mathews, Los Angeles Times: On its own terms, it works; that is, each ending is well thought-out and vaguely logical. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Call it gratuitous annoyance. Read more

David Denby, New York Magazine/Vulture: It is my dreary duty to report that Wild Things ... lacks fantasy and flamboyance, that it lacks, precisely, wild things, and that most of it is just flat. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I've seen more convincing drama (with nearly as much bare flesh) on that pinnacle of narrative quality, Baywatch. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's like a three-way collision between a softcore sex film, a soap opera and a B-grade noir. I liked it. Read more

Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com: Sure it's an exploitation movie, but this twisted Technicolor orgy is also a thriller in the original sense of that word. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Wild Things gets into trouble when it aspires to be more than a sex exploitation movie. Read more

Desson Thomson, TheWrap: Read more

Time Out: This is one of those puzzle movies that's quite intriguing while it's feigning superficiality -- and truly funny when Bill Murray is around -- but really dumb once it thinks it's being smart. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Read more

Leonard Klady, Variety: Sly, torrid and original, pic is certain to shake up an otherwise complacent marketplace. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: They're not calling it Wild Things for nothing. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The movie is as tawdry as someone else's lingerie, yet not without a certain prurient watchability. Read more