Orange County (2002)

I must say out of all the comedies I have ever seen in my life Orange County was by far the best one! I could not stop laughing the whole time, the acting in this movie is phenomenal I feel all the actors did such a great job on their part in the movie. The movie starts out with a young but very intelligent guy who is about to be a high school graduate but he doesn't care about school at this point nothing but hanging out with his friends and partying until Shaun discovers a book on the beach written by an author named Marcus Skinner that moves something deep inside him that encourages him to want to become this professional writer Shaun then makes it his mission to get into Stanford and to meet Marcus Skinner in person. Shaun has so many personal issues among his terrible dysfunctional family that causes so much chaos throughout the movie. His brother is played by the famous Jack black who is the person who truly makes the movie so interesting and funny. Shaun has a girlfriend that tries to help him along the way to get into Stanford but somehow terrible things keep happening but if you will stay tuned you will fall in love with this movie, it has great humor and it will be a movie that you will be talking about for years to come don't miss out on this one! I don't want to put any spoilers in here so there is a lot of detail left out but there is enough in here to show you what the main plot is in the movie, hope anyone that watches will enjoy.

Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) is desperate to get into Stanford. His incompetent guidance counselor mistakenly sends in the wrong transcript and Shaun is promptly rejected. This leads a series of crazy adventure to change the rejection with his girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler Fisk) and his drugged-out loser brother Lance (Jack Black). Dopey haired Colin Hanks may not be up to playing in this outlandish comedy. Director Jake Kasdan and writer Mike White create a very broad comedy. The school is chalk full of stereotypes but Colin seems to be too vanilla white to hold the screen. At times it feels like an inside joke for California kids. Of course Ashley is an over the top animal lover. And Jack Black is completely a 2-Dimensional druggie. At least Jack Black would hook up with Mike White for The School of Rock a year later.

How this movie has an average rating of 6.1 at the time of me writing this review is beyond me. The semi-serious base story of Shaun, a high schooler trying to get into Stanford is a good enough drama on its own, but then you ad the social commentary (albeit exaggerated...maybe)on the southern California mindset with an all star cast including Jack Black Lily Tomlin and Chevy Chase the movie becomes outrageously funny. I think Colin Hanks is an excellent actor (I have no idea why he has all but disappeared in the last 10 years), and does a bang up job of being the one kid in school who actually cares about his education all the while being pulled away by his numb-skull surfer buddies. Another of the cast who seems to have disappeared is Schuylar Fisk who plays Shaun's girlfriend Ashley. Ashley is the overly positive sweetheart girlfriend who will support Shaun through thick and thin. This is honestly one of Jack Black's funniest performances. He plays Shaun's druggie dead beat brother and when he gets mixed up in Shaun's quest for Stanford, hilarity compounds! Even 10 years after the movie was released I still laugh out loud watching this!

At first it looks just like any high school comedy you've ever watched especially during the 2000s as followings of the new godfather of the genre (American Pie – 1999) which I despise. But afterwards you'd find out that it's totally something else.. something better as a comedy with a great message.. Yes great ! Can you imagine waiting for something great in any contemporary high school comedy ? At this one you can.Maybe it's the most marvelous story for that kind of movies, a rare exceptional one without the same idiot work about some idiot students which is full of the usual quantity of bad taste, the ordinary amount of sex jokes and the regular irregular images of young Americans ! It is one funny movie indeed which will live longer than its likes not only because its solid atmosphere or smart script but basically for its main motif. It's about a middle class disintegrated family with tones of problems and one talented kid who wants to get away from all of this to make his own separate career as a writer, however he must get through that journey to discover one hell of a neglected fact about how he needs his family and his family needs him as everyone wanting the other to cure oneself, so he must run to his home not out of it ! I believe that the creative writer can't create honestly when he gets out of his original experiences, or his basic cases that he can't escape from them. So the clever meaning which (Orange County) simply poses is that the talented author is the one who creates from his people and for them. In fact the way of the movie to present this was plainly and soberly.Despite whatever looked as indecent or trite in dealing with its characters, it was unlike nearly all the kind's comedies, having some rationality that could proficiently keep the humanity of the characters and their sick pathetic conditions with the ability to mock at their sad ironic features or acts in the same time, but without losing the beautiful deep message or being that busy all the time of making only gross laughs.I loved all the cast as maybe the best ever for a small nice movie like this. I must refer to (Kevin Kline). He did such unforgettable job even it was a 4 or 5 minutes appearance as the real mentor who came with the golden answer for the errant hero late at his journey, to discover the truth and then to choose.. to make the last decision.It's not the Odessa ! But also it's not -God Forbid– another American Pie ! It's one commercial light comedy with expressly good message too. And if you ask me that is truly scarce nowadays !