So my arse was bored on a Tuesday night. With nothing better to do (like getting a life, hah!) I flipped it to one of the HBOs on here. To which I was horrified to find this movie on the TV, a 2000 film called The In Crowd:


So, the plot here is that a crazy chick gets set loose from a psychiatric hospital. Trying to return to normal, her psychologist puts her in to a country club where the rich kids hang. Shenanigans, date rape, and murder ensue. To put it simply, how anyone allowed this to get a greenlight by a major studio (Warner Brothers backed the $15 million for it) is amazing to me.

For one, the plot is not suspenseful. The film hits you over the head with obviousness to where you can tell that Susan Ward is the bad chick. (I would say this is a spoiler, but it's not like you can't tell within five minutes.) None of the characters, including the lead character played by Lori Heuring, are any bit interesting whatsoever. Their vapidness is screamed because they have money, they like the opposite sex a lot, and they look down on those with no money. Wow, sounds like every silly rich person stereotype.

If the film is an attempt at satire, then it has failed at that as well. Because as much as they show the one-dimensionality of their actions, in no way does it condemn those actions, either. No, instead it glamorizes that rich atmosphere as well as bangs you over the head with the fact that its actors are...y'know pretty and stuff. Oh, and they can't act.

Especially Ward, who would make a great villain were it not for the fact that she makes it so obvious what she is. As drop dead gorgeous as Ward is, she can't act her way out of a bucket and it shows. Heuring isn't much better. And neither is anyone else in this dreck.

The direction may be the worst strike as...let's keep in mind that not only this movie got greenlit by a major studio but the film also saw a major theatrical release when it came out in July 2000. And yet your average Lifetime original movie plays with more appealing direction. Mary Lambert seems to forget to give her characters life or figure out something different from the TV show look she is used to creating. In fairness, her efforts aren't probably as noticable in how bad the film is, but something says your film is troubled when Sarah Michelle Gellar drops out of shooting.

Oh, but worse yet is the music selection. Either the film is backed by an annoyingly endless techno score or a "rock" song that sounds pulled out of the mid-90s alternative rock era. And not, y'know the good alt rock. Hell, not even Candlebox-level alt rock. Just godawful music.

And thus, I've went on for five silly paragraphs on a movie I'm fairly certain none of you will see nor give two craps about seeing. So, there ya go. One more movie that won't waste your life with its airy plot and silly tittilation.