Plot: What’s it about?
Adrien Williams (Lori Heuring of “The Newton Boys” & “8 Seconds”) has just been released from a mental institution after going in front of a review board. Her Doctor (Daniel Hugh Kelly of “Star Trek: Insurrection” & “The Chill Factor”) finds her a place to stay and a summer job at a country club as a cabana girl. He feels this will help her get back on the right track. However, one of the other doctors (Tess Harper of “The Jackal”) doesn’t feel that Adrien is ready to be released. The stipulations of her freedom are that she can’t drink or do drugs, must keep her job and stay within the county limits. Coworker Joanne (Kim Murphy) shows Adrien the ropes and tells her about one of the spoiled rich cliques that she can’t stand that consists of club members Brittany Foster (Susan Ward of “Poison Ivy: New Seduction”), Bobby (Nathan Bexton) Kelly (Laurie Fortier), And! ! y (Jay Ferguson), Morgan (Katherine Towne), Greg (Charlie Finn) and Sheila (Erin Bartlett of “Deep Blue Sea”). Brittany, who is the head of the clique is saved by Adrien when she falls into the pool and is somehow unconscious. The two hit it off right away and there is a hint of a sexual attraction between the two. Brittany invites Adrien to a beach party and introduces her to her friends. Kelly and a few of the others really don’t accept her at first because she is an outsider and “one of the help.” However Brittany seems determined to help Adrien fit in. Brittany invites her to play golf with her and some friends. She also invites to another party, a night on the town, a trip to the salon and gives Adrien a dress. Brittany starts to get a little jealous of Adrien when she starts talking with her boyfriend Matt, the tennis instructor (Matthew Settle of “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.”) We begin to find out that! ! there is more to Brittany and her clique than meets the eye as there is a dark secret in their circle as well as well as one in Adrien’s.
“The In Crowd” was directed by Mary Lambert who directed Pet Sematary 1 & 2 which were both enjoyable, although part 2 was better. She has directed another good movie with “The In Crowd.” This film was a flop at the box office where I think it made around 5 million although I heard the movie only cost 13 million to make (Which Warner Bros. should make back on foreign rights, DVD/video, & cable). I think it is more deserving than the reception it received and it should find a new life on DVD. I enjoyed the story and the performances of Susan Ward and Lori Heuring who are both very hot!!! Susan Ward has to be in the top five of the sexiest actresses that I have seen on screen (Especially in the scene by the pool with Heuring and when she’s changing clothes and in the dance club.) This movie definitely rides a thin line for a PG-13! ! movie with a little nudity and suggested lesbianism. Besides this I liked how Brittany has different layers to her character and that there is more to her than what you see from the start. Adrien also had that quality as well because you don’t know everything about her in the beginning and there is also more to her. The rest of the cast does a solid job as well but the focus here is definitely on Brittany and Adrien. However, it would have been nice to see an R-rated version of this as Susan Ward mentioned in the commentary that some nudity was cut to preserve a PG-13 rating.
What I have liked about Warner Bros. DVD’s are the good quality and quantity that you get at an affordable price and this one is up there. This disk is priced at a retail of $19.99 which means $14.99 and less if you go to best buy or order on-line at Ken Crane’s. The fact that this is a newer movie and not an old catalogue title is one reason why the price is so great. But also that there is a solid widescreen picture and 5.1 mix, an audio commentary, deleted scenes, interviews with the cast, trailers, TV spots and more. There was definitely a good effort put into this considering that the film was not a hit and could have easily been put out in featureless overpriced disk (like some other big studios that do that with newer titles and older ones). One disk that comes to mind is Halloween: The Curse Of Mi! ! chael Myers which has about no features and is retailed at $32.99!!! I hope that other studios take notice and follow Warner’s path because if they can release a newer title with good supplements at a low price then I can’t see why others can’t release some of the newer and older catalogue titles at that price as well. Enough of my Bitching, now on with the review.
Video: How does it look?
The picture is in the widescreen ratio of 1.85 and is 16:9 enhanced. The colors look good with no smearing or bleeding. Black levels look fine and the picture looks sharp but not as sharp as the new “Shaft.” I just reviewed. There is a little gain throughout the movie but I didn’t find it distracting because I didn’t really notice it the first time I watched it. I noticed it when I looked at the picture again prior to writing this review. Still this is a good transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is a little better than the video which I was a little surprised by considering that this is not an action picture like “Shaft.” This is a 5.1 mix that has a good balance between the dialogue and music/sound effects. A lot of the sound is in the front but there is quite a bit in the rear speakers such as music, birds chirping, the wind and ocean on the beach, mopeds, cars, sound of people and music during a night club scene and others. Overall a pretty good mix.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There are some nice extras here on hand. The first being an audio commentary by stars Susan Ward and Lori Heuring which I listened to for a little bit. From what I heard it sounded like a good commentary track as the two seem to be pretty good friends and are laughing it up and having a good time with this. I found several bits funny especially when Ward referred to a scene as the Monica Lewinski scene because it involves a dress and a certain stain on it. They also had good things to say about other cast members and crew. There are also three deleted scenes separate from the movie that consist of dialogue only and where cut for pacing purposes (which were not a big deal to lose). There is cast and crew biographies which are set up nicely with the actor/crew member’s biography running up the screen like movie credits and onscreen interviews that you can click on under select actors and Actresses. The! ! re are also 2 trailers and 4 TV Spots, An isolated music track, Tailors of other Morgan Creek movies, Animated Menus and DVD-Rom PC material you can access as well (Behind the scenes footage, downloads, production notes, etc.) Also English & French subtitles.
An enjoyable movie with good performances by Ward and Heuring. The movie plays itself pretty serious and is not silly which it could have been with this type of movie, especially in the wrong hands. If you liked “Wild Things” and “I Know What You did Last Summer” you will probably like this as it has some touches of those movies in it. A nice looking and sounding disk and some cool supplements to go along with it at a low price range of $13.99-$19.99. I think that it is at least worth a rent but if you don’t like teen/20 something horror/thrillers of today than you probably wouldn’t be reading this review.
