Cruel Prequel
Having been thrown out of yet another private school, 16-year old Sebastian Valmont (Robin Dunne) heads to New York City to move in with his father and his latest stepmother along with his stepsister Kathryn Merteuil (Amy Adams). Having become use to getting things his way Sebastian finds himself up against it when at Manchester Prep he realises that Kathryn, who is student body president, is a manipulative and controlling woman who is not too dissimilar to him.
"Cruel Intentions 2" starts with a scene involving Sebastian playing the dean of the school he is being expelled from, turning on the charm before humiliating him by putting a photoshopped picture of his wife in the School year book. It is a scene which is more reminiscent of "Van Wilder" rather than "Cruel Intentions". That may come from the fact that originally "Cruel Intentions 2" was devised as a TV series called "Manchester Prep" but for what ever reasons, and there are various speculations on the net, the series got canned before it was aired and what footage had been filmed was edited and turned into this movie, a prequel to "Cruel Intentions".
In truth "Cruel Intentions 2" doesn't really work as a prequel but more as a spoof/homage as we see how Sebastian is a player and womanizer whilst Kathryn is a devious minx who likes to destroy people especially anyone who out trumps her in anyway. Along the way there is some nudity but also a whole lot of cheese with jokes and winks to "Cruel Intentions" which fail to come off. About the only way that "Cruel Intentions 2" works is that if you are a teen who heard it featured nudity and hadn't watched the superior "Cruel Intentions" yet. Even the novelty of Amy Adams starring as the manipulative Kathryn does little to make this more entertaining.
What this all boils down to is that "Cruel Intentions 2" may have worked as its original concept but put together as a movie it comes up embarrassingly short. Actually in a sort of so bad it is entertaining way it is watchable but not if watched expecting anything close to the original movie.
