Vile

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 1999)

I'm going to keep this short because I don't think this movie deserves much more than a quick kick- preferably to the groin around which most of its humor seems to be based. After flashing her soccer coach to get her sweetie out of detention, our heroine Katarina explains herself by saying, "I used my wits." And you know what wits rhymes with, dontcha? Geddit? It's an embarrassing admission by both the heroine and the writers of this nasty flick. While Shakespeare's Katarina was witty, smart, and intimidating, this Kat is nothing but sarcastic. She doesn't even seem to be able to get the better of the dumb pretty boy set up as her arch-rival. This Kat has boobies where Shakespeare's Kat had brains. It's an unpleasant trade-off, even if you ignore the disturbing image of a high school girl exposing herself to a teacher. I hear the producers handed the leads Cliff's Notes of "Taming of the Shrew" on the first day of production- a gesture both tellingly condescending towards the young, and futile. Excluding a few clumsy references, this script doesn't bear any resemblance to Shakespeare's play. They should have kept a copy for themselves.