Movie Review: Orange County

TITLE: Orange County

STATS: U.S. RATING: PG-13 RUN TIME: 82 min GENRE: Comedy/Drama DATE: 1/11/2002 COMPANY: Paramount Pictures LANGUAGE: English

MY SUMMARY: A high school senior picks up a book he found on the beach after one of his best friends dies. After reading the book, he decides he wants to become a writer and basically changes his whole lifestyle. He writes to the author of the book who happens to be a professor at Stanford and basically commits to the idea of being accepted to that university. However, his oblivious counselor sends in the wrong transcript and he gets denied. The movie is then mainly about him trying every means possible to get into Stanford while he balances his girlfriend and trying to keep his family from “ruining” his life.

IMDB SUMMARY: Shaun Brumder is a local surfer kid from Orange County who dreams of going to Stanford to become a writer and to get away from his dysfunctional family household. Except Shaun runs into one complication after another starting when his application is rejected after his dim-witted guidance counselor sends the wrong application. So, Shaun goes to great lengths with a little help from his girlfriend Ashley and his drugged-out loser brother Lance to get into Stanford any way they see fit.

DIRECTOR: Jake Kasdan

ACTORS: Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Schuyler Fisk, John Lithgow, Catherine O'Hara, Lily Tomlin, Carly Pope

MY RATING: 6 out of 10

ROTTEN TOMATOES RATING: 47%

MOVIEFONE RATING: 53 (3 out of 5 stars)

ROGER EBERT RATING: 3 out of 5 stars

THE GOOD: Although the movie is defined as a comedy, there aren’t many singular “laugh-out-loud” moments, but the movie as a whole is pretty funny; it’s just not the same kind of funny as watching a good comedian on stage. The movie moves along pretty well so it doesn’t make you want to look at your watch and wonder how much longer until it ends. All the characters have a pretty good mix of realism and exaggeration to them. It’s just enough where you don’t pass the movie off as just a slap-stick type of comedy, but also enough embellished enough to not make it a Hallmark kind of movie. I also wanted to note that I loved the soundtrack to the movie, which is mainly a collection of alternative rock.

THE BAD: If you want to watch this as a family, you have to be careful. Although there isn’t a ton of swearing, there are a lot of drug, alcohol and sexual scenes and innuendoes. Most of the “high school kids” in the movie are perpetually drunk, high or having sex or some combination. This isn’t a surprise as this is also an MTV movie. Again, if you were looking for a comedy that will leave your sides sore, this probably is not the movie for you. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, but it just isn’t hilarious for the most part. Instead of a howling laugh, it’ll leave more of a half-smile on your face the whole way through. Also, when you watch the movie, there is a little boy that makes you just want to reach in the TV and slap him across the face. This was obviously done on purpose, but maybe it was done a little too well. I don’t know if the boy could be that good of an actor that young… Just a little side-note.

FUN FACTS:  Jack Black wore a wig throughout the entire film Three people involved in the production have famous parents. Colin Hanks is Tom Hanks' son, Schuyler Fisk is Sissy Spacek's daughter and director Jake Kasdan is Lawrence Kasdan's son Jack Black is writer Mike White's next-door neighbor; his part in the movie was written specifically for him. Surprisingly little was improvised

WORD OCCURS WORD OCCURS A** 6 RACIAL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN 0 A**H**E 1 B*****D 0 RACIAL FOR HISPANIC 0 B**CH 1 (used as “bitchin’”) C*** 0 RACIAL FOR ASIAN 0 D**N 2 F*** 1 RACIAL FOR CAUCASSIAN 0 G**D*** 2 H**L 0 RACIAL FOR OTHER 0 M*****F****R 0 S**T 1 LORD'S NAME IN VAIN 12 * These numbers are as accurate as possible, but some mistakes may be present. This is to give a general idea of the vulgarity and not to represent a precise measurement system.