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• 1080p High Definition

• 5.1 PCM and Dolby Surround Sound

• Audio Commentary with Film Maker

• Deleted Scenes 

• Interactive Menus

• Music Videos

Special Feature Rating:

A  loose adaptation of the famous novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos, 'Cruel Intentions' re-works the classic story with all the intelligence and insight of a smutty prep school play. I found it just plain icky watching the very young, nubile cast member try get their mouths and bodies around the vulgar dialogue and pseudo-erotic situations they are asked to enact. To boot, the diabolical mean streak of the characters is so borderline psychotic that it's hard to imagine thirt year-olds behaving this way, let alone a bunch of kids. But 'Cruel Intentions' is more than just an Afterschool Special with a filthy mouth -- it seems to really get off on the lurid thrill of watching kids masquerade as sex-starved, coke-fueled adults.

When we first meet them, step-siblings Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) are wealthy, bored and apparently without a single moral fiber in their being. Frolicing about like the bad seeds of the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," the two seem to love shamelessly corrupting and destroying fellow classmates at their upper-crust New York prep school. But their protected lives begin to unravel after they decide to simultaneously meddle with two new students: the inexperienced, daffy Celcile Caldwell (Selma Blair), who is secretly carrying on a forbidden affair with her African-American violin teacher (Sean Patrick Thomas), and "perfect target" Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), a virginal do-gooder armed with a manifesto praising god, country, and chastity (and not necessarily in that order).

Story Rating:

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings 'Cruel Intentions' to Blu-ray eight years after it first hit DVD, and I suspect the master being used is one and the same. This 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer looks fairly good, but suffers from a somewhat dated look.

Picture Rating:

The audio rates about the same as the picture. This is a perfectly nice if dated soundtrack, offered here in uncompressed PCM (48kHz/16-bit/4.8mbps) and Dolby Digital (448kbps) 5.1 surround options. The movie's sound design is not very involving, and dynamics lack the kind of power I've become used to with most modern high-def presentations.

Sound Rating:

Overall Rating:

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