Wild Things: Foursome - Thoughts

If you’ve been following the movie industry long enough, you probably know that certain movie franchises keep going at it, on and on and on, up until there’s no more money to make marketing the same formula. The Wild Things franchise is a perfect example of one such theme that has been mostly replicated substituting different characters/actors, in more or less similar situations. Key elements being twisted scheming plans to squander money, and sultry hot women, set in a sub-urban towns. In this installment of Wild Things, it starts with the mysterious death of a racing legend and tycoon, following which the sole heir his son, his girlfriend, and friends come under suspicion.


While some rehashes are quite enjoyable, like the Fast and Furious franchise, some others tend to deteriorate with every additional installment. The original Wild Things from 1998 was a pretty decent movie, employing a proficient cast and what was at the time a relatively intriguing plot. Sadly Wild Things: Foursome a good 12 years later, is far less noteworthy. Though the twists in the plot far outweigh the original, and up the ante, at some point it all becomes very predictable. To add to this, the amateur cast accompanied with weak portrayals of stereotype characters tend to result in a borderline cheesy movie. As all of this comes together in an almost laughable fashion, the movie fails to grip and hold audience attention. Being a made for TV movie, rest assured that if you switched channels while watching this movie, you wouldn’t miss too much. If you’re looking for something random to watch to pass the evening, or appreciate the Wild Things franchise and are looking forward to more of the same, then Wild Things: Foursome maybe worth your time; otherwise be warned that there is a lot better to watch available.

If blame was to be shared, it would be a combination of the somewhat questionable silly plot, and the extremely sub-par performances. The bulk of the cast was made up of amateurs, who were often overacting, to try and portray their extremely stereotype characters. Ashley Parker who played Carson Wheetly the male lead,  put on an extremely fake performance. The only point worth mentioning being that his character was a silly rich boy who did not really have any substance to his character. So maybe that somehow worked. His girlfriend Rachel Thomas played by Marnette Patterson rode solely on her hot body, which needless to say worked only for a few scenes. The rest of the time it feel flat and her performance seemed largely disconnected. Jillian Murray who played Brandi Cox was relatively better, but was by no means great. She managed to come of convincingly in a few scenes, and was relatively acceptable. John Schneider who played Detective Frank Walker was perhaps the one exception to the cast, who seemed on point for most part. Again, nothing stellar but sufficient per se.

The DVD I sampled was a region 1 US DVD; that said video quality was still just okay. Considering this was a 2010 release it was surprising, as nowadays most video releases are stunningly crisp and clear. While there was no pixilation or obvious issues, the video was dull and slightly lacked vibrancy. Warm tones such as skin colors and sunsets were favored, but again just slightly. Being a TV movie, picture was formatted to perfectly fit a 16:9 widescreen home television set with no letterboxing. Sound was presented by means of a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack, which resulted in good dialog delivery from the center channel. Surround stage usage was pretty average, but scene ambience was decent. 

My Recommendation: Dicey (Younger women, putting on poorer performances, in a sillier plot!)