Niklaus Lange Movies
A seafaring birthday celebration takes a turn for the terrifying when the passengers of a luxury yacht forget to lower the automated ladder before jumping into the ocean for a playful swim. It was a perfect setting for a relaxing weekend at sea, but sometimes even the best-planned trips can take an unexpected turn for the worst. After diving into the ocean and realizing to their horror that they have forgotten to lower the safety ladder, the friends who had set out for a simple weekend getaway realize that they have become helplessly stranded in the middle of the ocean. The sheer sides of the yacht are impossible to climb, and now the group is growing increasingly desperate. As the grim reality of their helpless situation slowly begins to dawn on the doomed friends, hydrophobic Amy (Susan May Pratt) struggles to maintain her composure after realizing that her baby daughter Sarah is helpless and alone aboard the boat. Now treading water as panic begins to set in, the once inseparable friends fast begin to turn on one another as exhaustion begins to set in and the vast ocean threatens to swallow the entire group without a trace. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight, Jr., (more)
Reese Witherspoon stars in this romantic comedy, the feature film debut of award-winning Australian director Robert Luketic. As a ravishing Miss Hawaiian Tropic, sorority president, and calendar girl, Elle Woods (Witherspoon) is a big hit on the campus of her sun-drenched Los Angeles college. She's also got the perfect boyfriend in Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis), a wealthy East Coast blue blood. Fearing that his snooty friends and family will never accept the bubble-headed Elle, however, Warner dumps her before heading off to graduate law school at Harvard University. Determined to win back her man, Elle enrolls in the same imposing institution, quickly becoming an object of scorn and ridicule, especially to Warner's old prep school flame (Selma Blair). Despite her penchant for malls, makeup, and tanning, Elle is no dummy and is soon showing elite Ivy League snobs a thing or two about class, self-confidence, and courtroom victory. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, (more)
The remarkable life and tragic death of Marilyn Monroe has fascinated film fans for decades, but this two-part TV miniseries, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, takes an unusual approach, using dramatic license (the film announces itself as a work of fiction using the names of real people) to look inside the minds of Monroe and those around her to ponder the circumstances of her rise and fall. Young Norma Jeane Baker (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is raised by single mother Gladys (Patricia Richardson), who is unstable, uncaring, and poorly equipped to deal with the responsibilities of parenthood. As Norma Jeane grows up without a father and with little affection from her mother, she suffers from a poor self-image and craves attention; when she grows into a beautiful young woman who is unusually attractive to men, she falls into a number of romances and a short-lived marriage in search of the approval she needs so desperately. When Norma Jeane (now played by Poppy Montgomery) turns 20, she meets a photographer, Otto (Eric Bogosian), who sees star potential in her beauty. Otto's cheesecake pictures catch the eye of I.E. Shinn (Wallace Shawn), an agent who in turned introduces her to Mr. R (Richard Roxburgh), the head of a movie studio, who offers to make Norma Jeane a star -- if she would be willing to have sex with him. Norma Jeane unenthusiastically agrees, and Mr. R proves good to his word; renamed Marilyn, she becomes an major film star and an international sex symbol. But the adulation proves to be a poor substitute for the love she craves, and as she falls into relationships with any man who treats her with a modicum of respect -- including a famous baseball player (Titus Welliver) and an acclaimed author (Griffin Dunne) -- her life begins to spiral out of control. Blonde also stars Ann-Margret, Kirstie Alley, and Patrick Dempsey; the series first aired May 13 and May 16, 2001, on the CBS television network. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Poppy Montgomery, Patricia Richardson, (more)
- 2001
A woman looking for love finds sex complicating her problems in this independent drama. Samantha (Stephanie Bennett) has been involved with her live-in boyfriend Anthony (Jeramy Guillory) for seven years, but she's been unable to break herself of her habit of getting drunk and throwing herself at other men in social situations. Anthony has grown tired of Samantha's behavior, and after an especially embarrassing incident at a party, he reads her the riot act and she moves out on her own. After spending the night with her new neighbor, Samantha decides she's made a mistake and tries to patch things up with Anthony, only to discover that he's already found a new girlfriend. While Samantha tries to ease herself back into Anthony's good graces (often stopping by his home on the pretense of visiting their dog), she throws herself into a number of short-term affairs with men she barely knows, usually after having too much to drink. But while most of these pairings don't last for more than a day or two, after Samantha spends the night with Tony (Tom Vitorino), she finds to her consternation that he's not so willing to let her go. Some Body was written by director Henry Barrial and actress Stephanie Bennett, based on material improvised by Bennett as part of an acting class; much of the incidental dialogue and a number of the secondary scenes were also improvised by the cast, and the 80-minute feature was assembled from 100 hours of footage of material shot on digital video. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephanie Bennett
- 1999
The pun-ny title of this episode refers to a fellow named Clay (Victor Browne), who is a former boyfriend of Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano). Coming back into Phoebe's life, the highly untrustworthy Clay also brings along a heap of trouble for the Halliwell girls, in the form of a cursed Egyptian urn. Elsewhere, Piper (Holly Marie Combs) learns the hard way that affairs of the heart cannot be controlled by witchcraft, while Prue (Shannen Doherty) tries to undo the damage caused by warlock Rex -- and to save the auction house from going on the block itself. Cristine Rose makes her first series appearance as hard-nosed businesswoman Claire Price. ~ All Movie Guide
A typical frat rat has a secret lurking in his closet in this gay-themed drama. John "Griff" Griffith (Daniel Chilson) is a student at a college in Southern California, where he lives with his friends in a fraternity house. Griff's frat brothers and his best friend Todd (Niklaus Lange) don't know that he has been having an affair with Pete Bradley (Don Handfield), another member of the frat who lives in an off-campus apartment. While Griff acts "straight" and talks about women with his beer-drinking frat brothers, his involvement with Pete has been going on for some time. Pete has accepted his homosexuality and is tentatively inching out of the closet; he wants to have a real relationship with Griff, based on more than furtive sex, but Griff is unwilling to acknowledge that he is gay. Pete asks Griff to meet him at a gay coffeehouse; their conversation turns into an argument, and Pete storms off in a huff. The next day, Griff learns that Pete is in the hospital; while walking home, he was attacked by gay-bashing yahoos and is now in a coma. Griff must now resolve his confused sexual identity, as well as his feelings for Pete. Defying Gravity was the debut feature for writer/director John Keitel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Chilson, Niklaus Lange, (more)
