Rating: 
Summary: very very funny movie
Review: WOO!! Really funny movie. Jack Black is one crazy mo fo.
Rating: 
Summary: A coming out party for kids of stars
Review: There is nothing remotely original about this "escape from my home town" teen flick. It has been done numerous times in both dramatic and comedic forms. However, given the state of the market currently, where the industry attempts to draw teenage audiences with disgusting body fluid humor, liberal profanity and gratuitous sex, this film is a breath of fresh air. Amazingly, without any of these "required" elements, this film (which was produced for next to nothing), did fairly well at the box office.Shaun (Colin Hanks) is a kid from Orange County, CA, who loves to surf and hang out with his friends. He has secretly been achieving high grades between waves and after discovering a book on the beach, he decides he wants to be a writer and go to the elite Stanford University. When his guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin) sends in the wrong transcript, he is rejected. So, he takes a road trip with his brother (Jack Black) and his girlfriend (Schuyler Fisk) to set the admissions department straight. The comedy is mostly good clean fun, harmless and goofy. The film is more notable as a coming out vehicle for kids of stars. Colin Hanks is the son of Tom Hanks, Schuyler Fisk is Sissy Spacek's daughter and director Jake Kasdan is the son of director Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill"). The cast abounds with cameos of comics and other notables from the last four decades with appearances by John Lithgow, Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Ben Stiller and renowned director Garry Marshall ("Happy Days", "Laverne and Shirley", "Mork and Mindy", "Murphy Brown", "Pretty Woman"). Colin Hanks plays the role of the serious kid in an absurd world. He spends much of the film being Jack Black's straight man. He proves himself to be a solid actor, though time will tell if he can transcend the incredulous teen roles. Black provides the film with most of its comic horsepower, stealing every scene in which he appears with his sheer outrageousness. Fisk is fairly bland as Shaun's animal rights activist girlfriend. All the veterans lend a comic hand to deliver a chuckle or two from the sidelines. This is not a memorable film, but at least it is inoffensive. It has some silly situations and Black provides more than a few guffaws. I rated it a 7/10. Not bad for a teen date flick.
Rating: 
Summary: Dumb is Good...And Very Entertaining
Review: Colin Hanks, son of Tom, plays a suburban teenager from Orange County, who applies to Stanford University in the hopes of studying with his idol (a very tweedy Kevin Kline) and becoming the next great American novelist.
The movie, directed by Jake Kasdan, leans heavily on the pot-head humor found in "Animal House," "Road Trip" and at least 110 other movies. But that's ok. Laughs are plentiful. The film never bores. And it is chock full of sight gags, great comebacks and inspired farce. I had so much fun, I even hit the rewind button to playback some of the film's wackier moments. You'll probably do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough Jack Black, too much Colin Hanks!
Review: Ok, Colin Hanks is a bit cute if you don't mind the freaky state of mind he puts you in with his total resemblance to his dad, Tom Hanks. It was pretty good for a teen movie. The story line actually stayed IN LINE and the acting was pretty good and true to...what? But...it just smelled all too much like a gift to Hanks's son to get into the acting world. Its almost...too perfect; with all the character cameos in it--Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Harrold Ramis, even Ben Stiller! All star cast in the hilarious hijinks of a So CA boy trying to get into Stanford, but thwarted continually by his ha ha CRAZY family!
Oh that John Lithgow and Catherine O'Hara! And those silly typical... jokes that are a trademark of MTV male writers. But Jack Black was great. I wish there'd of been more scenes with him in it. Check out the deleted scenes with him in it. Its worth it all. "You'll never catch the Rooster, buddy."
Rating: 
Summary: Jack Black: The Only Thing Funny About Orange County
Review: I'm sorry, somebody somehow tricked me into believing that this was supposed to be a comedy...my mistake. The only thing funny about this film is Jack Black. Period. No one else in this movie is funny or interesting. The plot is ridiculously thin and the acting isn't anything to write home about either. But my biggest complaint is that this was billed as a comedy...which it is clearly not. This is a drama (a bad one) with a few laughs coming from Jack Black. I'm also surprised, being the star power (John Lithgow, Kevin Kline, Colin Hanks (Toms' Son), etc.) that this movie was so uninteresting. A quarter of the way through the movie I found myself wanting to change the channel, and then I remembered I was watching a dvd. I would give a description of the storyline, but you might even fall asleep reading that. Check this out if you're a big Jack Black fan, but if not, don't bother unless you're having trouble getting to sleep. 2 stars for Jack Black. 0 Stars for this waste of time movie.
Rating:
Summary: Redeeming factors make the film tolerable & acceptable
Review: I believe I do not need to further stress how S-T-U-P-I-D the scenes were. I specifically loath Jack Black but I guess he epitomizes to perfection Shaun's dysfunctional family. I can go on & on enumerating flaws but let us be constructive instead, ok? If you will just be patient enough, you will realize the constant struggle & desperation of Shaun, who I say, has big dreams but trapped in a frustrating relationship with his parents & druggie-bro. This may have not come out too clear with all the senseless & exaggerated string of events, especially those participated by Jack Black - but again, it wouldn't take you a second to realize this just by looking at the latter. In a way, his case is similar (upto a certain degree) to that of Susan Sarandon's daughter in "Anywhere but Here", who wanted to leave home in search for freedom, happiness & fulfillment. Of course, his intense desire to leave is not entirely to pursue his goals but partly to escape his family as well. At the end, he realizes this through the help of his ever-sensible girlfriend. Also, we have here a bunch of feel-good scenes where parents get together & do everything they can to make things right for their son. He also realizes that he can achieve his dreams even if it means staying in Orange county. It would be safe to say at this point that this is the moral of the story. Unfortunately, you have to watch first Shaun's series of misfortunes before finally being comforted at the end. With regard to our newcomers, Colin & Schuyler, let us give them a break. True, they are children of famous (& need I say, multi-awarded)artists, but it is basically this why people have higher expectations of them. In time, they will be able to hone their skills & be better performers. & hopefully, on their next assignments, they will show more serious acting.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I was expecting
Review: Jack Black is one of my favorite actors at the moment, so I've come to expect a lot more crazy antics from him. I'm not a fan of Saving Silverman, but that movie had a lot more craziness that I expect from MTV films. This movie, while good, lacked a lot of the craziness I had anticipated, and a completely different plot than I expected. The commercials lead me to believe that the movie would have Jack Black being accepted to the school in lou of the character played by Colin Hanks. This set up would have potential for a lot of crazy comedy. This isn't how the story goes.
My disappointment with this film is not that the plot was different its that the movie comes off as more of a drama than a crazy comedy. Don't get me wrong, it has quite a few moments, just not as many as I would have liked. Now as a drama, I would give this movie a higher rating. Mr. Hanks character has the ideal girlfriend, and a near perfect relationship with her. I think most of us guys out there would give anything to have someone like her. His family is a bit on the loopy side though, and it is they who serve the comedy antics that barely pass this film off as a comedy. However, the characters all have serious and very real issues that pull us away from the comedy momentarily too.
Its a great story, but more of a renter than a buyer.
Rating:
Summary: Decent teen fare even a "grown up" can enjoy...
Review: My adolescent son wanted to see this movie, so I gave in. My wife was working that night, so it was "guys' night out" for dinner and a DVD. I plopped down on the couch expecting to sit through another brainless movie like "Dude, Where's My Car?" or "Road Trip," and despite my initial resistance I found that I actually kind of liked this quirky teen fare movie. An Orange County high school senior/surfer dude picks up a paperback buried in the sand, is enraptured and reads it repeatedly, and decides to become a writer and go to Stanford to study with the writer (a nice cameo by Kevin Kline). Unfortunately, the school counselor (Lilly Tomlin in a nice hammy role) sends Stanford the transcript of the wrong person (who when the hero finds out the error, we see the stupid dude going, "Dude, I got into Stanford and I just applied for a joke."). Anyway, at the core of our hero's life is a truly dysfunctional family, with a perpetually stoned, overweight and on-parole brother who comes up with a brilliant idea: let's go to Stanford and convince them of the error. Needless to say they arrive in the middle of the night, manage to burn down the admissions office, and our young hero meets the writer of the book he so adores. OK, it sounds really stupid and in some ways it is, but it all comes together nicely in the end when our hero realizes what's important in his life and, well, all's well that ends well. OK, Oscar material it ain't. But if you've got a kid 10 or over, this is a fairly funny movie that both the younger and older generations can enjoy together -- though I'd imagine the male members of both generations would tend to enjoy it more. It is a DUDE picture, but a decent one, even for this 47-year-old teenager...
Rating:
Summary: Very Average
Review: finally saw this Last Night&while it had some Cool Moments it was a Standard Modern Day comedy overall.Colin Hanks at best was doing His Pop's Cutting Room Floor Routines from Bossom Buddies.He is very Boring thus far in His Career.Jack Black needs to reach out more because He can have alot more to offer if He gets beyond sameness in His past few films.
Rating:
Summary: No rotten Fruit Required!
Review: It is no wonder this film didn't do good in the box office. The teasers/trailers for this film did not do it justice. I refused to see it in the theater and chalked it up as a "Wait for the Video" flick. Now that it is on DVD, I rented and finally watched it. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. He is not his father, but Colin Hanks gives the kind of performance you would expect from a movies of this genre. Supported by Jack Black and cameos by Chevy Chase, Kevin Klien, and John Lithgow, this movie is highly entertaining. It does have some language not suited for same children, but note the PG-13 rating.
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