| Product: |
Orange County (DVD) |
| Date: |
24.01.08 (109 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Jack Black
Disadvantages: Fairly uninteresting when he isnt on screen
'It's not just a movie, it's a state of mind'
Orange County, is the story of a Shaun Brumder, a boy on the verge of going to college. He has set his sights on Stanford University, where the man who inspired his interest in creative writing teaches. He is bright, talented and just knows he will get in. Unfortunately due to his guidance counsellor messing up the transcripts and sending someone else's test scores under his name, he is turned down. Shaun knows that he needs to get away from Orange County and it's surfer lifestyle to be able to fulfil his ambitions and sets about finding a way to get into Stanford. All he has for help though is his alcoholic mother (Catherine O'Hara), his uninterested father, now remarried, (John Lithgow), his permanently stoned slacker brother, Lance (Jack Black) and his girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler Fisk)
Can Shaun find a way to correct the mistake and get himself into Stanford or will fate prevent him from achieving his life's ambition? Will he manage to escape the confines of his crazy family and surfer dude friends? Only by watching this film will you discover the answer!
Orange County came out in 2002 and fits solidly into the Teen flick category that will always be a staple of mainstream cinema, there is, after all, a never ending supply of teenagers at school who relate to the characters situation and want to watch stories about their lives.
Despite having been written by Mike White (who also wrote 'School of Rock' and The Good Girl' both excellent films) Orange County just doesn't really manage to achieve any sort of cohesion. Maybe it is because the two leads are so bland and have absolutely no chemistry but the film never really gets going. To call it a comedy would be a complete misnomer if it wasn't for Jack Black. Jack Black is hilarious and every time he is on screen you know something hilarious is going to happen or be uttered. His character, Lance, is a typical Jack Black character. A underwear wearing, stoned, pill popping loser of the worst kind. His attempts to help his brother just go from worse to worse and in fact do anything but help him, but like a lot of other Jack Black parts (School of Rock, High Fidelity, Shallow Hal) there is something likeable about him. Not sure what as he is an incredibly annoying brother and I wouldn't want to know him, but I think it is that at all times he means well, he is just incapable of actually achieving anything, Lance's Mission Impossible style break in to the admissions office is hilarious and shows why Mike White went on to write and make another film with Jack (School of Rock)
No one else really stands out at all, or even comes out of it with any sort of plus points. You feel that Hanks and Fisk are there due to family connections (Tom Hanks and Sissy Spacek respectively) not due to any actual acting ability. John Lithgow mainly just rants and raves on the phone and Catherine O'Hara is not even close to her best.
If you are a big Jack Black fan, which I am, then it is worth seeing, otherwise avoid, there are many, many better films in this genre to view before this one.
Odd fact I discovered in a film quiz just before Christmas:- Jason Schwartzman, star of Rushmore and I Heart Huckabees, performed a song on the soundtrack with his band.
Summary: If you are a fan of Jack Black this is worth seeing
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