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Troll Hunter

"...a collision of disparate styles which shouldn’t work but, strangely, does."

The Smurfs

"...the lacklustre performances and uninspiring script fail to engage viewers of any age."

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: The Extended Cut

"...this final chapter remains almost deliberately over-talky, uneventful and drab..."

Ben Hur

"..a 4 hour melodramatic spectacle, but it’s still wonderful to watch."

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Wild Child (DVD)

by Rhiannon Sawyer | January 12, 2009 09:32 | Edited January 14, 2009 10:08

Wild Child doesn’t go nearly far enough to make it as outrageous as St. Trinians

Following in the footsteps of many, many films which tell the tale of bad girl makes good, Wild Child doesn't go nearly far enough to make it as outrageous as St. Trinians nor is it remotely as witty as Mean Girls, two recent examples of the well-worn genre.

 

Poppy (Emma Roberts) is a Malibu barbie in miniature whose misadventures cause her father (Aidan Quinn) to send her to boarding school in England to eradicate her aggressive impulses (he obviously hasn't seen Ladette to Lady). In England, beyond complaining constantly about her mobile phone reception and the lack of mani-pedis, she encounters the school bitch Harriet (Georgia King) but makes four bosom buddy friends and falls for the headmistress' son Freddie. After a series of mishaps and wacky coincidences, she becomes captain of the Lacrosse team and ends up as an angel that was hidden inside all along.

 

While obviously aimed at the tween audience, there is better fair out there for them to sink their teeth into than Wild Child; films like Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, even Sydney White had clever lines. With nary a character having any depth, the film races to the inevitable conclusions without any real lessons learnt.