"THE IN CROWD" (2000) (Lori Heuring, Susan Ward) (PG-13) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Heavy Moderate Extreme Moderate None Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Minor None Heavy *None Heavy Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Heavy Minor Mild Mild Heavy QUICK TAKE: Drama/Suspense: A young club worker finds that joining the inner circle of the young and wealthy patrons she serves has its share of rewards and dangerous problems. PLOT: Adrien Williams (LORI HEURING) is a young woman who's spent time in a psychiatric hospital for sexual obsession, but it's now time for her to be released. As such, her doctor, Henry Thompson (DANIEL HUGH KELLY), has arranged for her to get a relatively anonymous job at a posh seaside club where the upper class' adult kids gather for the summer to party and be among their own. Shown the ropes by fellow coworker Joanne (KIM MURPHY), Adrien learns that the ravishing Brittany Foster (SUSAN WARD) runs a small, but elite clique of such patrons, and has done so ever since her equally beautiful sister left for an extended European vacation. As Adrien is quite attractive herself and reportedly bears a striking resemblance to Brittany's sister, the clique leader takes an interest in the young woman, as does Matt Curtis (MATTHEW SETTLE), the local tennis pro. The quick friendship between Brittany and Adrien seemingly has an erotic tinge to it, something that fellow club patron Kelly (LAURIE FORTIER) seemingly senses and becomes jealous of. Other members of the clique, including Bobby (NATHAN BEXTON), Tom (ETHAN ERICKSON) and Morgan (KATHARINE TOWNE), aren't sure what to make of Adrien's sudden interest in the help. As their friendship intensifies and Adrien tries to get on with rebuilding her life, she soon discovers that there are both advantages and dangerous pitfalls to being included in Brittany's elite group, particularly when she learns that there's more to Brittany's behavior than just friendly overtures. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Arriving without much fanfare or well-known talent in front of or behind the camera, this film might entice some teens with its attractive, "hard body" cast, but will probably otherwise make a quick beeline for the video shelves due to lack of interest. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13 For violence, sexuality, language and drug content. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: LORI HEURING plays a woman fresh out of a mental institution who must deal with a rich class of young people, some of whom like her, others who don't, and those who try to set her up. SUSAN WARD plays the unofficial "queen"/leader of those rich people who befriends Adrien but then turns out to have some serious problems of her own and clearly isn't a good role model. She also drinks a lot and briefly uses strong profanity. NATHAN BEXTON plays another club patron who's often intoxicated to some degree and befriends/helps Adrien. MATTHEW SETTLE plays the club's tennis pro who's attracted to both Brittany and Adrien. ETHAN ERICKSON plays a young man who drinks and gets too aggressive with Adrien while making out with her. LAURIE FORTIER plays one of the rich young women who initially doesn't like Adrien, seemingly because she's jealous of the attention Brittany pays to her. KIM MURPHY plays a club employee who befriends Adrien and informs her of the goings on at the club. DANIEL HUGH KELLY plays a mental institute doctor who apparently has a fling with Brittany. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a quick look at the content found in this PG-13 rated drama/thriller. Violence consists of several people being killed (one by drowning, another via a golf club attack and another in the past), occasionally with some bloody results. Other fighting occurs, with more attempts to end people's lives and some of those scenes and others may be tense and/or suspenseful to some viewers. Various characters have varying degrees of bad attitudes (including those of a killer). Profanity is rated as heavy due to 1 use of the "f" word, while other expletives and colorful phrases also occur. Various shapely young women are seen in various skimpy bathing suits/other attire, while some brief nudity occurs. Several sexually charged encounters occur (with each reaching different levels, some involving lesbianism or behavior suggesting that, and one presumably leading to intercourse) while some "dirty dancing" and non-explicit sexually related dialogue are also present. Many of the young and rich club patrons drink and some are noted as being in or returning from rehab for drug/drinking addictions, while some smoking and suggestions of tense family moments also occur. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for anyone in your home, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed content listings for more specific examples of what occurs in the film. For those concerned with the repetitive flashing of bright lights on the screen, a few brief moments of that occur in scene set in a dance club featuring such lighting effects. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Among Adrien's release rules are no drugs and no drinking. Various club patrons have drinks. The young club patrons have drinks the next day out at the beach. Adrien and Joanne serve wine to patrons at a reception. One of the regulars comments that she thought another who's just arrived was in rehab (and he was). Someone then comments on something being more fun "when you're doing blow" (cocaine). Bobby brings two bottles of booze/liquor for himself and a young woman (but neither consume any). Various people in the club drink various forms of alcohol. People at a nighttime party drink beer and other drinks. Various young adults have drinks. Adrien, Brittany and others have drinks at a dance club/bar (after Brittany says that they can go in and get crazy and as drunk as they want and no one will know who they are). Bobby has a drink. Adrien talks about that when her parents got divorced, she started acting up, taking pills and running around. We hear that Tom is in rehab and Brittany earlier made a comment about his money going up his nose (snorting cocaine). Bobby appears to be a bit intoxicated while Brittany and a young man have drinks. We see that Adrien has drugged her counselor (with the ground up sedatives she was supposed to have been taking) so that she can escape from a mental institution. People have drinks at a party/dance. BLOOD/GORE We see a little bit of blood on Kelly's shoulder and leg after she wrecks her moped and is injured. Later, we see a large bruise on her shoulder. We see a golf club head that has blood on it, and then briefly see some blood around the body that was hit by it. We see a decomposed arm as it's dug up out of the ground. Two people are bloody while one attacks and pursues another. One has blood on their chest and arm, while the other's leg is bloody. A few drops of blood fall down from one wounded person onto another person's arm. We see a person with some streams of blood on the side/back of their head behind their ear (from where they were struck with a shovel). DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Many of the young, but rich club patrons have varying degrees of conceited attitudes. Some of the patrons try to pull a practical joke on Adrien by hiding a snake in a bag up inside an outdoor umbrella she'll open (it doesn't scare her, however). Later, some of them turn off the power so that they'll purposefully trap Adrien in an elevator. Kelly publicly doesn't like Adrien and at a party where participants announce their secrets, she states, "I never drank with the help" (meaning Adrien). Tom and Adrien make out and end up on lying on a piece of furniture with him partially on top of her and running his hand up her increasingly exposed thigh. She tells him to wait but he continues and gets more aggressive until she eventually pushes him off. We later learn that he was doing that as a favor for Brittany and she isn't pleased that he failed. We see that someone is tampering with a bolt on Kelly's moped (that later causes her to wreck and be injured). A person turns on another person who was formerly their friend and tries to set them up. A person pushes another person overboard where a cast on their leg weighs them down and eventually causes them to drown (not seen through to completion - although the beginning stages are). A person repeatedly tries to injure and/or kill another person. FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence" may also be tense or suspenseful to some viewers. Adrien spots Brittany floating face down in the swimming pool and jumps in to revive her. As Adrien showers, she hears someone come into the room and then leave. She then gets out and slowly makes her way through the house, but in the end, she simply finds that someone has left her a gift. A person pushes another person overboard where a cast on their leg weighs them down and eventually causes them to drown (not seen through to completion - although the beginning stages are). A person snoops around another person's room until the second person comes home and nearly catches the first. GUNS/WEAPONS None. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Bastard," "Pissy," "Bitch" (said several times), "Shut up," "Let's get the hell out of here," "Screwed up" and "Screw" (nonsexual). JUMP SCENES None. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) A heavy amount of suspenseful, ominous and dramatic music plays during the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None that we heard, although some songs contained lyrics that could not be understood. PROFANITY At least 1 "f" word, 5 "s" words, 2 asses (both used with "hole"), 2 hells, 5 uses of "Oh my God," 2 each of "God" and "Oh God" and 1 use each of "For God's sakes" and "Jesus" as exclamations. SEX/NUDITY Adrien's release papers list her having a sexual relationship with someone, but the entire sentence couldn't be read. Throughout much of the movie, we see various shapely women in skimpy and/or revealing bathing suits (including bikinis) and other clothing. In one scene, water is sprayed on a woman who appears to be sunbathing with her top down (lying face down, but she rears up for a moment and we see the tops of her bare breasts). We see the complete side of Brittany's bare breast as she stands topless before Adrien and acts a bit seductive toward her. We see two women at a party riding on men's shoulders and playfully trying to remove the other's bikini top. One eventually succeeds and the "loser" covers her bare breasts with her arms. We see a couple making out on the beach at night (in swimsuits) and the woman is partially on top of the man who's lying on his back. Trying to get Adrien to play a game of admitting secrets, one of Brittany's group members spouts out an example, "I never slept with my mom's boyfriend." Someone then chimes in that they heard it was a threesome, and another states that they never slept with the new au pair (speaking as someone else). Trying to help improve Adrien's golf game, a young man tells her to spread her legs and then somewhat suggestively uses his hands, from behind her, to do that (and on her bare, inner thighs). We see Adrien in her bra, later wrapped in just a towel and then in a dress that shows some cleavage. One of the young men in Brittany's group breaks a pool cue (upon losing a game which means the victor gets his girlfriend for the night). Tom and Adrien make out and end up lying on a piece of furniture with him partially on top of her and running his hand up her increasingly exposed thigh. She tells him to wait but he continues and gets more aggressive until she eventually pushes him off the furniture where he cracks his head on an ornamental piece next to it. Adrien and Brittany go off to a club to do some dancing. They do, with each other at first (and somewhat sensuously) and then collectively dance with a stranger they've just met (in a grinding, dirty dancing type of way). Someone mentions something about a "wet dream." Adrien talks about that when her parents got divorced, she started acting up and sexually fantasized about the doctor she was seeing. Joanne then asks if Adrien had sex with that doctor and she says that they didn't. Brittany appears in Dr. Thompson's office and acts seductively toward him, telling him that she's not at all interested in "boys." As she moves up next to him and he finally succumbs to his desires, she unzips her dress and then lets at least the top part of it drop down (although we don't see any nudity). They then make out while standing up, he starts kissing down her neck to her chest and the scene ends there (although it's implied that they further fooled around and/or had sex). Brittany and Kelly briefly but passionately kiss and begin to lie down until one of them stops. An official tells a woman that they found her dress with drops of a man's semen on it (implying that she had sex with him - although she didn't and someone else did while wearing her dress). SMOKING Various club patrons smoke (but none are the major characters). TENSE FAMILY SCENES Adrien's doctors indicate that her parents want nothing to do with her upon her release from the psychiatric institute. Brittany says that her mother died when she was four and we then learn that she and her sister didn't get along with each other at all. Adrien talks about that when her parents got divorced, she started acting up, taking pills and running around. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT Class differences and how members from different classes treat each other. Sibling rivalry. Mental illness. VIOLENCE One of the young men in Brittany's group breaks a pool cue. When Tom gets too aggressive in making out with Adrien, she eventually pushes him off the furniture they're on and he cracks his head on an ornamental piece next to it. We see that someone is tampering with a bolt on Kelly's moped (that later causes her to wreck and be injured). We see a flashback of Adrien beating a windshield with what looks like a hockey stick, shattering it. A person pushes another person overboard where a cast on their leg weighs them down and eventually causes them to drown (not seen through to completion - although the beginning stages are). A person repeatedly strikes another person with a golf club until they're dead (we see little of the actual impact). Brittany uses a crowbar (or something similar) to break a window. A person hits another person with both ends of a shovel. The two then struggle on the ground with both trying to strangle the other. The first hits the second with the shovel again, but that person manages to limp away with the other person in pursuit. That person knocks someone out by hitting them over the head with the shovel and then continues pursing the other person, this time with large hedge clippers. The pursued rolls a chair into their attacker and a shelving unit falls down as the attacker tries to get the other person with those clippers. The attacker then tries to stab their intended victim (who's above them on some piping) with some sort of pole/bar, but all sorts of things fall down onto the attacker. The attacker then grabs the other person by her hair and throws her into a pool where she jumps in and tries to drown her. Reviewed July 19, 2000 / Posted July 20, 2000

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