Orange County

Buy This Item Orange County by Paramount  Available from Amazon  $9.98  on 11-4-2008     While it invites charges of Hollywood nepotism, <I>Orange County</I> overcomes that stigma with a delightful cast of newcomers and veterans alike. It's no better or worse than many teen comedies, but director Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence Kasdan) astutely combines teen-flick staples (stoner gags, raucous parties) with a biting undercurrent of southern California absurdity. This comedic texture helps Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek) to prove their big-screen promise. They play (respectively) an Orange County teen and aspiring writer named Shaun who yearns for admission to Stanford, and his sensible girlfriend who knows just how to nurture his dreams. Much of the comedy arises from the foibles of Shaun's dysfunctional family (played to perfection by Jack Black, Catherine O'Hara, and John Lithgow), while unbilled cameos by Ben Stiller and Kevin Kline add zest to a movie that tries to be different, and mostly succeeds. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I> Reader Reviews I actually thought this movie was good so I bought it for $10. I watched it one night a few months later and I was bored watching it. The plot is about a kid named Sean (Colin Hanks) who needs to get some big mess straightened out about his transcript. He goes along with girlfriend Ashley and his brother (Jack Black) to get the mess straightened out so he can get into to Stanford. It just got boring the whole time when they all were in hot pursuit of the transcript for most of the movie and I don't think I even laughed once. Most of the characters annoyed me and I might be in the minority for saying this but I don't find Jack Black to be funny at all. He's such a poser who copies other funny people. They wasted John Lithgow. I guess being in this movie made John phone this one in. I don't blame him quite frankly. And Catherine O'Hara needs to drop the early '90s frantic mom bit from The Home Alone movies. Her character was a drunk version of Mrs. McCalister. Hopefully the younger Hanks can make better career choices later on and have the type of career his father is having. Anyone who wants to see this movie skip at all costs. It's just another terrible teen movie trying to live up to the reputation of Clueless!

Orange County Available from Amazon Price: $9.98 Updated on 11-4-2008.

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