Rating: 
Summary: Delightful comedy that everyone should see!
Review: Whenever Jack Black's name can be found on a movie, you know you're in for some genuine laughs that usually result in you on the floor holding your chest til it hurts. Black is this way in this movie, and, unlike some of his other movies (Saving Silverman, for example), he is backed by a talented cast that knows how to generate some laughs. While the script seems to be a bit weak, which is starting to become an unfortunate trend in Holywood movies nowadays, the cast definitely makes up for it. Basically, Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks), is trying to get into Standford University to become a professional writer, but his dysfunctional family and moronic guidance counselor seem to be preventing him from doing so. Now, I've been hearing a lot of critics complaining about Colin's style of acting, and quite frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Colins, for a new actor, is great in this movie, kinda like my brother and I are around our family (he plays the whole "why does all this crap happen to me; God must hate me" role very well, and it's hilarious). I especially like the scene where he argues with his guidance counselor, exclaiming "because you are a moron!" when she doesn't quite grasp his frustration with sending the wrong transcript to Stanford. Lily Tomin, who plays this guidance counselor, is hilarious the brief time she is on screen, and made the confrontation between her and Shaun that much more enjoyable. Shuan's family, however, takes the cake in this movie. Like I said earlier, your chest will hurt from laughing whenever Black, as Shaun's stoner brother, is on screen (though he could have been on more). He nearly kills Shaun and his girlfriend while driving down the road high on drugs and discussing his job idea to open up a Hawiian clothing store (hilarious scene!). Catherine O' Hara plays Shaun's drunken mom who wants the world to revolve around her; she also does a brilliant job with her given material. Jon Lithgow (3rd rock from the sun) is always funny; he could be starring into space and you'd crack up. Also, the dean of admisssions to Stanford is quite funny, played by Harold Ramis. He is given some exstacy instead of pain killers (by accident), and he plays a drugged dean very well (I was laughing quite hard at that part!) The only character that bugged me was Shaun's animal-obsessed girlfriend (played by Scuhyler Fisk). Her role is not only lousy, but, as an actress, she tends to suck the funny out of Colin whenever she is on stage with her sappy and predictiable lines (ex. "When you prayed to get into Stanford, I prayed that you wouldn't." Noooo........really? Like we didn't see that coming from a mile away!) Infact, she pretty much stunk the whole movie, and I don't see her being in many movies after this one. Overall, however, this is a brilliant comedy that the critics underrated (as they always do) and that everyone should have the pleasure of at least seeing, if not owning.
Rating: 
Summary: Looks wacky and cool- -a great teen comedy!
Review: ORANGE COUNTY will be a crowd pleaser. It stars Colin Hanks (for those who do not know who Colin Hanks is, he is Tom Hanks's son; he also starred in the first two seasons of the hit TV series, "Roswell", and starred in the hit teen film, GET OVER IT) and also Jack Black. But besides the two of them, there are cameo roles made by some famous big stars playing wacky characters in the movie. Just to name a few, Cathrine O'Hera and John Lithgrow play the parents of Colin Hanks's character and Chevy Chase and Kevin Kline make appearances. I am wondering why Tom Hanks didn't make an appearance in his son's film...but oh well. Anyway, ORANGE COUNTY is basically a teen movie for the college-aged movie audience, since it is a college movie. It is about a teen living in California where nobody cares about their futures. Sean (Colin Hanks) becomes interested in writing, and wants to be an author. He desparately tries to get into Stanford University, but when the counselor sends him the wrong transcript saying that he's not accepted into the school, he takes his loser brother (Jack Black) and his girlfriend on a road trip to Stanford University where he will try to prove to Stanford that he is smart enough to get accepted into their school. Along the road, they come across some hilarious and wacky kicks and make all kinds of strange side trips. ORANGE COUNTY will be a great film! I have not seen it yet but I've seen the trailer. From the trailer, it's definitely a movie I will want to see. The acting looks great, and the script looks pretty clever and funny. It's bound for success in the box office! I can't wait for ORANGE COUNTY to hit theaters. Go see it!
Rating: 
Summary: A fairly good comedy
Review: This is a good rental comedy but not a purchase as it is a movie you would probably only watch once. Not as good as School of Rock.
Rating: 
Summary: Orange County is for Jerks
Review: Sometimes a movie will inspire me, and I'll decide I need to get up and finish my novel, or my play, or maybe just the laundry laying on the floor. Whatever. Other times, a movie may be kind of stupid but at least I ate a dozen packets of mustard and made fun of something. Right? Wrong! Jake Kasden's Orange County not only robbed me of both these pleasures but left me feeling one stupider for seeing it at all.
First of all, I hate Orange County the place. Everyone in it is trying way too hard to be that jerk from Miami Vice and then assumes that everyone else in the world wants to live there with them. Seriously, you could tell them your dog has cancer and they'll lift up their Gucci shades and say, "You should move to Orange County."
Reservations aside, I drove to Orange County the place to see Orange County the movie. I figured it was approriate and might somehow enhance the experience. Little did I know, however, that the Edwards Cinemas in Orange County the place are too rich to have mustard packets. They actually installed automated mustard machines and got rid of the little packets of pleasure I depend on for snacking and sustenance during my movie watching experience. Needless to say, I was annoyed and hungry for the entire length of the worthless movie.
Then, to make things worse, the movie was terrible: For most of his life, Shaun (Hanks) had been like every other resident of Orange County. He loved to surf and spend time with his trashbag girlfriend, Ashley (Fisk). All this changes when he finds a book buried in the sand. After reading it fifty-two times he decides he wants to go to Stanford University and study with the author of book. One problem: His application form was sent in with screwy records inside and was rejected. So with the help of his fat brother Lance (Black), who has to take weekly drug tests, he travels to the University to try and fix things.
Now, I may be mistaken but, unless you're five, urine isn't funny anymore. I don't care if you're drinking it, spilling it, or making snow cones with it. Bathroom humor is almost always a desperate reach to elicit a laugh from the lowest of the low. The director could have saved everyone a lot of trouble if he'd titled the movie "My Girlfriend is Ugly" or maybe "I, Stupid". I mean, half way through the the thing I began to wonder when someone would get hit in balls with a baseball or something. (That is usually how I know I am watching a really good movie.) Then, finally, all of my patient waiting paid-off when Shaun's counselor finally just kicks him in the sack. Pow! This was by far the best part of the movie. In fact, had this been the only scene, I would have probably really liked Orange County.
The really painful part about the whole ordeal, however, was watching a bunch of people in the movie having boatloads of fun and wishing I was with them instead of watching the stupid movie. Seriously, it was almost like the director was making fun of you for wasting your time on his waste of film.
In the end, Orange County the movie and the place is for dumb teenagers or semi-retarded adults. It's true, Colin Hanks is like Tom Hanks only shorter and uglier; but underneath it all, I think this entire movie was created because someone owed someone else's dad a huge favor. This resulted in someone giving their dogface kid a movie for his birthday, allowing Colin Hanks to cast all of his deformed friends in it. Trust me you're much better off handing your ten dollars to the lazy homeless person laying on the sidewalk than spending it on or in Orange County. I mean, at least maybe joe homeless guy will overdose.
Rating:
Summary: I saw it and I liked it
Review: Orange County is a pretty cool teenage comedy. It's about a teenage surfer Shaun (Colin Hanks), who dedicates his life to writing after reading Marcus Skinner's book. He is an over-achieving student and shouldn't have any troubles being accepted to Stanford. But his guidance counselor mistakenly sends out the wrong transcripts to the University, so Shaun isn't accepted to any university. But he really wants to go to Stanford, so he decides to go to the headmaster of Stanford, to talk him to let him go to Stanford. He goes there together with his brother Lance (Jack Black) and his girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler Fisk). But once there, his brother sets fire to the office and the headmaster also mistakenly takes his ecstasy, so in the end everything goes wrong. Shaun also has a fight with his girlfriend. But then he meets Marcus Skinner and they talk about writing and Shaun's novel, that he sent to Mr. Skinner. So he gets back with his girlfriend and they return home. He finds out there, that also his father (John Lithgow) and his mother got back together. He makes piece with his friend and decides to stay in Orange County and go to college there.
Well, I especially liked Jack Black's performance, because this guy is really funny. I also liked Colin's performance, although he is not really funny, but his character is really likeable.
Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly touching Surfer Dude comedy
Review: I caught Orange County late one night on Comedy Central. It didn't seem like the type of film I'd usually watch. It struck me as perhaps the typical teen comedy. But there was nothing else on, the story was centered on a young man who wanted to be a writer (an unusually introspective plot for a teen comedy, as they generally center on jocks, computer nerds, preppies, or sex-obsessed stoners), and so I gave Orange County a shot. I was pleasantly surprised.
The plot is relatively simple and straightforward. Shaun Brumder is a surfer dude from Orange County who one day finds a novel buried in the sand. He reads the book and it inspires him to become a writer. Shaun soon sets his sights on attending Stanford University, where the author of the inspirational book is on staff. Inevitably, Shaun is faced with many hilarious mishaps on his journey toward Stanford; and Jack Black, with a slapstick performance that would make the Stooges proud, eventually steals the show as Shaun's loveable slacker/pothead older brother.
If you're looking for a lighthearted, occasionally touching, and occasionally hilarious, movie, then Orange County won't disappoint.
Oh, and I must mention something very unusual, very synchronistic....
While watching Orange County I became oddly fascinated with one of Shaun Brumder's surfer buddies. He's a cute kid, and I've always admired the sort of palpable humanity of surfers as well as their bravery in taking on the waves (I'm afraid of water, don't even like baths), but this hardly justified the virtual fixation I suddenly developed for this actor who has only a very minor role (perhaps 10 lines in the whole movie). Even stranger was this odd sense of comfort I felt when I saw him come on the screen. I felt a spiritual connection to him. I felt he had a very positive energy, a compassionate presence and perspective that defied his years -- all very odd since his character in Orange County is hardly more enlightened than Sean Penn's role in Fast Times and Ridgemont High.
Trying to let go, I reasoned I'd probably just seen this particular actor before in some bigger blockbuster movie, or perhaps it was just that he bears a slight resemblance to the lead singer of Sum 41. Though even this explanation didn't offer much resolution, as I'm not a fan of Sum 41.
Finally, I decided I must get to the bottom of this mystery. And so I turned to the good old Internet Movie Database site, intent on placing that face. After about 20 minutes of fumbling around, I found that the actor in question is named Kyle Howard. I scanned his biography and found nothing familiar. I looked on his movie credits and found that he has never been in any blockbuster. Maybe I was just going crazy, or maybe sleep deprived.
Just before I gave up and went to bed, I decided to scan Kyle Howard's credits one last time and, to my amazement, I read that he had been in the made-for-TV movie "Yesterday's Children," based on Jenny Cockell's book "Across Time and Death: A Mother's Search for Her Past Life Children." It surprised me that I would remember Kyle's face, as Yesterday's Children was aired in 2000 and I have not seen it since.
Yesterday's Children is about reincarnation, about Jenny Cockell trying to find her past life children, who were now in their 60s and 70s. Kyle Howard played the most supportive member of Jenny's family, the son who tells Jenny that if she didn't follow through with her research, unconventional though it was, then she might never find peace.
Jenny Cockell is one of my closest friends, and has been for more than a decade -- since I was 18. In other words, Kyle Howard once portrayed the son of one of my closest friends. (Jenny told me that she watched the TV movie in tears, as it truly captured the essence of her journey.)
The main reason this is eerily synchronistic is because Jenny's inspiration and support for my writing mirrors the advice given to Shaun Brumder by the author of the book he finds in the sand. I once confessed to Jenny that I doubted I would ever be able to be a good writer because I do not have a degree in literature, or any degree for that matter. "Andrew, you don't have to have a degree to write!" Jenny once told me emphatically. You'll have to watch the whole movie to see how oddly similar this is to the advice that Shaun eventually receives.
Andrew Michael Parodi
Rating:
Summary: O.K. Probably the BEST COMEDY MOVIE EVER !!!!!!!!
Review: I watched this movie for the first time on VHS (I live in Bolivia and these kinds of flicks hardly get to the movies) because I am a very HUGE HUGE fan of Jack Black. He is one of my favortie actors ever. He is hilarious and smartly stupid. This flick is the right one for those who apreciate good comedies. But for those who don't like crazy comedies, then DO NOT watch this one.
I think this one is one of the best comedies ever. Watch it, I sugest.
JACK BLACK RULES!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Welcome To Orange County
Review: I have to say that this movie captured the spirit of a growing up in Southern California more than any movie I have ever seen, and this creates a bias for me because when I watch this movie, I am a teenager in California again.
However, all admitted bias aside, this movie is not only a must see, but a must buy. Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) is a surf punk that discovers he wants to be a writer, and his inspiration, Marcus Skinner (Kevin Kline), is a Stanford professor. This, of course, inspires Shaun to apply to Stanford. His guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin), messes up his chances with a terrible mix-up with a loser of a student. From there, Shaun is determined to make things right, and with the help of his brother, Lance (Jack Black), who is hardly a help at all, and his girlfriend, Ashley (Schuyler Fisk), they set off for Northern California to do what they can.
Jack Black steals this show. He is hilarious, and there are scenes in this movie where I swore that if I laughed any harder, I would lose control of my bladder. Catherine O'Hara plays Shaun and Lance's mom, and her performance is just classic. She makes for another "wet your pants" moment in this movie, as well as some hilarious scenes with the housekeeper.
Each and every character in this movie is funny. Even the potentially annoying Fisk as the tree hugging Ashley, comes off as funny, and not annoying, as one's first impression might lead one to assume.
Overall, this is a thoroughly enjoyable movie that contains some important lessons about growing up, and every kid's desire to get away from the those that they love, but can't generally stand. Even more important, it's funny.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the worst movie ever made
Review: This movie was awful! The plot was horrible, the jokes were dumb, and the sexual content was equivalent to that of an R rated movie. Ive never seen a movie that I hate more. If you insist on watching this dumb movie, send it to cleanflicks, but the plot isnt worth watching anyways.
Rating:
Summary: Hysterically funny
Review: I didn't know until after the second time I'd watched this movie that Colin Hanks is Tom Hanks's son. Colin Hanks plays a young man trying to get into the college of his dreams- Stanford. After reading a book written by the author Marcus Skinner (played by Kevin Kline), Shaun decides he wants to give up surfing to become a writer. He writes a story about growing up in Orange County, which becomes the backdrop to the concept of the movie.
Coming from a totally dysfunctional family which includes coked-up Lance (Jack Black, who steals the show), alcoholic drama queen Cindy (Catherine O'Hara), and Bud (John Lithgow), Shaun is disappointed to find that he doesn't, in fact, get in to Stanford. Thus beguns a hillarious trip up to the school with Lance and his bleeding-heart girlfriend Ashley to try to talk the Dean of Admissions into adding his name onto the "admitted" list. It seems that Jack Black spends most of this movie in his underwear, only pausing to don clothes for the trip to Stanford.
Its a hysterically funny movie which makes me laugh harder and harder every time I see it. It does, however, have a serious tone to it. Shaun wants to be a good writer, and is worried that he won't be a good one unless he leaves the place where he grew up. After a talk with his role model, however, Shaun realizes that things are OK, and that there truly is hope in the world.
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