Orange County (2002)

Wow, what a pile of crap and here I thought it would be good, I wonder where I got that from? Maybe coz Jack Black is in it, and as usual he is very good, but man the film is complete shit, boring, cliched, and every other negative word you can think of. Well i'm disappointed because it has a rather good cast, but it's wasted in this mess.

Believe me don't see this, maybe the most unintelligent movie i've seen in a long time!

Fmovies: This flick confirmed many lingering suspicions, and none too pleasant: 1) Jack Black is a great comedic character actor who can easily be strangled by a poor script (he's at his best when he can bounce off of comedy writers like David Cross and Bob Odenkirk); 2)anything produced by MTV pictures is destined to suck; 3) an all-star cast (John Lithgow, Kevin Kline, Catherine O'Hara, Harold Ramis, Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin) should be a signal that the material can't stand on its own.

What else can we expect from a parent company whose idea of "music television" is softcore porn (_Undressed_) and _the Real World_ in a Winnebago (_Road Rules_)?

This is one of those rare cases where if you've seen the commercials you haven't seen the movie. You know how ads nowadays tend to give away all of the jokes? Not this one. And for two reasons: 1) there are very few jokes, and 2) most scenes in the ads aren't even in the movie ("I'm this guy...I'm not getting into your college...," "You have to make love to the camera, like 'Hey Stanford, what's up? You want some of this? You know you do'," etc. -- not in the movie!)

The ad campaign makes you think that this is a comedic romp about a kid trying to get into college, and the slacker brother who helps along the way. The two could have been a great team, Colin Hanks as the straight man, Jack Black as the character he is. But this was not a comedy. This was heart-warming pablum masquerading as entertainment.

Everything comes together in the end in the most predictable of ways. Everyone learns a valuable lesson, the sick are healed, the heavens part, and the soundtrack is on sale at your local record store. And that's what really matters, now isn't it? I won't give anything away though, because the plot will reveal itself immediately.

You need to know this, though: the movie was written by Mike White. At first you might think, "_Chuck and Buck_...critical praise...independent film." But he also wrote _Dawson's Creek_ and the film _Dead Man on Campus_. And it shows.

And as bizarre as this is, the song "Butterfly" by Crazy Town, was featured three times with no explanation. First you have a scene break and suddenly there are these "teen movie" cheerleaders doing a choreographed dance to the song, all looking into the camera like a music video as if to say, "I want you now, 15 year old in the audience. I was put into this movie to distract you from this films many faults."

Later, Colin's girlfriend is singing the song to herself with her headphones on, in a scene that was only put in the movie to introduce a dog (following the formulaic nature of the film, the producers must have said, "people loved the dog in _There's Something About Mary_... we need a crazy dog too").

And lastly Colin meets a new girl who invites him to the obligatory college party. Suddenly "Butterfly" begins to play and she and her friends go nuts screaming, "it's our song!" They proceed to do the same choreographed dance as the cheerleaders, looking seductively into the camera. And you watch this and ask yourself why? What does this have to do with the movie? It's clearly an attempt to sell this song as the lead single of the film.

I'm thinking of writing Jack Black to get my $6 back. He got $2 million for this pile of garbage. He can afford it.

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.

Orange County fmovies. An endlessly funny, fully realized universe that subverts its subjects and setting, all while clearly loving them. Almost like they were making a satire of turn-of-the-century teen life without denying its power ("Butterfly"). It has surprisingly strong things to say about idolizing your dreams, under appreciating what you have, and realizing the love you have for the family and friends who drive you crazy. An underappreciated and ahead-of-its-time teen comedy.

With an amazing cast, dialogue that makes us really laugh, and a brilliant soundtrack, I can't believe this movie isn't rated higher! It's close to perfect - Colin Hanks, Schuyler Fisk, John Lithgow, Catherine O'Hara and Jack Black... what can you say??? Then there's the Chevy cameo and Kevin Kline! Please watch it again and upgrade your vote...

I came home from a hard day of work, and to tell the truth, I needed a melt down. That's maybe the only reason why I enjoyed this movie. Because I seriously had my doubts renting it, but I think that Jack Black is a very funny actor. All I needed was a good laugh and I got it. True, this is one of those "Dude, where's my brain?" movies. Sometimes you just need those though. The people I work with told me that this was a pretty stupid movie, and it is. But I think people shouldn't be in a serious mood for this movie. For an intelligent comedy or a good movie kind of day, no. This is not the movie for you, but if you need a meltdown after a hard day, then by all means give this movie a chance. It's really not that bad, and you get more than a few laughs. But still, if I were Colin Hank's character, I think I still would've wanted to go to Standford. :D 7/10