CAST: Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair
SCR/DIR: Roger Kumble
STUDIO: Columbia Pictures

Last year, Columbia's Pictures' "Wild Things" took sleaze and debauchery to a new, delicious low. It showcased emerging stars casting off their inhibitions (not to metion the occasion article of clothing) and saying "image be damned!"

The very notion of a teen version of "Dangerous Liasions" gets the mind spinning, but the end result was, sadly, what I should have expected all along.
Step-siblings Kathryn (Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) hatch a bet. Valmont (they even kept the name) has to squire the viginal Annette (Reese Witherspoon), who has gone so far on record about her intended coitus that a Seventeen magazine article about her is entitled "Why I Plan To Wait".

If he wins, he wins twice, as Geller will give him whatever he desires (I won't elaborate). If he is unsuccessful in his conquest, she snags his priceless 1956 Jaguar.

The sexual tension is effective in some places, laughable in others. As well, the best pieces of dialouge are the nasty barbs Gellar and Phillippe hurl at each other. But in the end, when, predictably enough, Valmont and Annette actually fall in love, this nasty little romp wears out its welcome but fast.

I don't think much of Phillippe's acting ability. He seemed too slight in the part, but that might have been classic miscasting. Gellar seems to relish the opportunity to say things like "I want to fuck!" and she's fun to watch. But it's Reese Witherspoon ("Pleasantville,""Twillight") who actually shows up with the intention to act. Her character, the virtuous Annette, is not written off as a pawn.

There's an intelligence in her eyes that not only makes her wonder what she would see in the flitty Valmont, but why she'd even want to be in this movie.

--reviewed by DENNIS WILLIS

Evaluation: C+