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See if you recognize this movie description:
The scene is a snooty community in Florida called
Blue Bay. The most popular girl in school comes from a very rich
family, but can't seem to break her inheritance free from the grasp
of her family. Meanwhile, a trashy brunette from the trailer park
near the swamp accuses an authority figure of rape. When the first
push comes to the first shove, and layer one of the onion is cleared
away, it is revealed that Miss Popular and Miss Trailer Trash are
actually in cahoots to fabricate the rape as a means to embezzle
funds from the former's family. Even though the two girls seem to
hate one another in public, it turns out that they are not only in
partnership, but are lesbian lovers as well. Oh, yeah, and they also
enjoy having three-way sex with an adult male who is in on the scam.
As the film progresses, we find that other people are
also in on the scam, including one of the investigating officers,
but as the layers continue to be peeled away, we find that various
members of the conspiracy have been keeping secrets from various
others, that still other secrets have been hidden from the audience,
and that many additional double crosses eventually ensue. The rich
girl will end up dead, as will the false rapist, as will a member of
the Blue Bay police force. At the end, a sleazy lawyer will turn out
to have a far more significant role than originally thought.
The veil is finally lifted during the closing
credits, when we get to see all of the off-camera plotting that we
were not aware of.
I suppose you movie buffs recognize that as the plot
of Wild Things. It is also the plot of Wild Things 3. You can't
really call this a sequel to the original for a few reasons: (1) It
doesn't use any of the same characters. (2) It may take place either
before or after the original. (3) It is basically the same plot told
again with new characters. A sequel, on the other hand, is a new
plot with the same characters.
How does it stack up against the original? Well ...
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The first film had some solid star power: Neve
Campbell and Denise Richards played the Wild Things, and they were
ably supported by Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Bill Murray, Kathleen
Turner and Robert Wagner. The second film basically consists of
unknowns and Dina Meyer. Even Dina, while always good, is nowhere
near the A-list.
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A gimmicky plot like this only works once. The first
one worked because it was original and the plot twists were at least
somewhat unexpected. What is the fun of watching it again with the
characters re-named? It's like watching a local dinner theater
presentation of Camelot after having already seen Burton, Andrews,
and Goulet on Broadway.
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Let's face it, the only thing that stayed the same
was the plot, and the first film had a hokey plot to begin with.
That was part of the point - it was a genre film gone wild. Besides
the originality, what really made Wild Things work was the complete
swamp ambience mixed with sleazy charm and a lot of humor. There
isn't really much of that in Wild Things 3.
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On the other side of the ledger, a summary of the the
conjunctive abbreviations reveals that this film has more T&A than
the original and more F&S. Like the original, it has no S&M and A&W.
I can forgive their failure to step up the root beer content, since
the filmmakers did gear up the nudity and the hot girl-on-girl
action. There is even a lesbian shower scene.
Summary: Basically a re-make of Wild Things without
the fun, the originality, and the stars, but with a bit more sex and nudity.
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