'Wild Things' is a wonderful piece of trash cinema

I don't think the makers of 1998's Wild Things don't have let's a John Waters level of self awareness, but they seem to be at least somewhat in on the joke. Bill Murray certainly was, he delivers one a surprisingly compelling supporting performance here that revels in the film's atmosphere of sleaze.

I'll never forget the excitement this movie generated with teenage boys like me when it came out over 20 years ago. It didn't make much money but it's salacious sex scenes and ample nudity certain made an impression. A friend and I tried to get into the movie before we were of age, we failed and we re stuck seeing Titanic instead. When I eventually did see it, the movie -- as absurd as it is -- delivers.

It's one of those great trashy movies -- where people hurl profane insults at each other, slap each other and then somehow end up sleeping with one another within seconds. Wild Things is one of the horniest movies I've ever seen and I am not even made about it.

Of course, it is horrendously un-PC. If you think about the plot hard enough it's more than a little bit disturbing -- especially if we're to accept the conceit that Neve Campbell and Denise Richards are high school girls. Also, a word on Denise Richards. She's actually kind of fantastic in this movie. She has been justly maligned for years for her wooden The World Is Not Enough performance, but she has a real movie star presence here that she unfortunately squandered.

The movie feels like it's in the tradition of the great Russ Meyer movies like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It's chock full of jaw dropping dialogue, ludicrous twists and back stabbing and gratuitous T&A.

They don't make movies quite like this anymore -- films that are almost engineered to provoke controversy and the clutching of pearls. Wild Things is to silly to be scandalous, but it also never even a little bit boring, which is more than you can say for a lot of movies.

Pretty Maids All in a Row

Here are some more hilariously trash-tastic movies I recommend:

Showgirls - I've recommended this one many times before, but seriously Paul Verhoeven's movie is more self aware than you might think. Of course it is one of the worst written films of all time, but come for Elizabeth Berkley's hysterics and stay for Gina Gershon's delightfully campy, scene-stealing work.

Pretty Maids All in a Row - A truly bizarre favorite of Quentin Tarantino's stars Rock Hudson of all people as a ladies man high school football coach who is also a serial killer. It's surreal and strange and I've never seen anything quite like it.

RoadHouse - Patrick Swayze has never been cooler (sorry Dirty Dancing fans) than he is this barroom brawl heavy melodrama set in a world full of world famous bouncers. Plus it's got Sam Elliott too!

Death Race 2000 - An early Stallone role -- even though this is really David Carradine's movie. It's a cartoonish romp about a futuristic cross country race where you get points by running over the most people and that's not even the craziest thing about it.

Alligator - The late Robert Forster gives a great leading man performance in this absurd horror film about a giant alligator emerging from the sewers and going on a rampage. The effects are charmingly shiity, but the film is smarter than you'd think.

Femme Fetale - The most Brian DePalma-ish of Brian DePalma movies. After briefly flirting with blockbuster filmmaking following the success of Mission: Impossible, the director returned to the kind of explicit, violent pictures that made him famous. This one may be his last great foray into cinema.