Powerful

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In my opinion, a movie comedy needs more than just an endless cast of characters who are such confirmed idiots that everything they say and do is either laughably stupid or so totally haywire that they never learn from the appalling results of their stupidity, but go on making the same blunders from first to last. Not only do they never wake up to themselves, the very few normal people they come into contact with, do virtually nothing to put them right. True, there seem to be only three or four normal people in the whole of Orange County, and they have very, very, very, very minor roles. Just about all the main characters are full-blown idiots, and those few support characters who are not full-blown idiots could well be described as half-blown idiots who should make some efforts to wake up to themselves. True, in many cases they are usually somewhat amusing, but in my opinion clowns, half-wits and dopes need to be surrounded by plenty of normal, everyday people, if only for contrast, let alone verisimilitude! The normal people need not be geniuses. In fact, they may not even be very bright, but they are not going to quickly slip on the carpet or immediately fall down the stairs, or tumble off a ladder as soon as they mount three or four rungs, or inevitably crash their cars as soon as they sit in the driver's seat, or accidentally set a huge building on fire by lighting a match.To sum up, in my opinion, brain diseases are not something to inspire hilarity. True, I laughed at some of the catastrophic episodes, but I feel guilty about it.

This movie suffers from what many modern (post 2000) slacker comedies are stricken with: the "Anything Goes" syndrome. There are few bounds in this independent film directed by Jake "Son of Lawrence" Kasdan, featuring cameos from Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin and Lawrence's own stock actor, Kevin Kline. The story centers on a young man from... yep, Orange County, California, who spends his careless youth surfing and partying; then reads a book that "changes his life" and, along with a dream to become a writer, really wants to attend Stanford University to meet the book's author who works there. Along the way this desire (i.e. the plot) is outshined by the wacky side-characters, including two Beavis and Buttheadish surfer pals; a drunk mother (Catherine O'Hara) married to a crippled old man; a selfish father (John Lithgow) married to a gorgeous young "trophy"; and a stoner brother played by Jack Black (who's not in the movie as much as is promoted) - all vying to outdo each other on screen. When the main character - played by bland Colin Hanks, son of Tom - finally arrives at the college of his dreams, within ten minutes he's accidentally given the dean of admissions (a portly Harold Ramis) enough "X" to blind a horse, and to top it off, his zany drugged-out brother (using every stoner cliché in the book including the usual "WOW!") burns the admissions building to the ground. Nothing really matters at this point, and yet we have another (drawn-out and totally useless) half-an-hour to go. All the things that should have been peripheral eccentricities, which end up leaping to the foreground of every scene, are symptoms of that disease I already mentioned: "Anything Goes"... Which can be, as in this case, fatal. That is, without that one cure, substance... Something this movie has very little of.

Orange County is a movie about a kid trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. After the passing of one of his friends he abandons his old easy going surfer life style stereo typical of where he is from (orange county) and dedicates his life to writing. His goal was to go to Stanford and escape the dysfunctional home and town he grew up in. The movie starts out kind of stupid, but Jack Black was kind of funny in his same old roll as a fat crazy guy. The main character and his crazy day sort of reminded me of a mix of the catcher in the rye and Ferris Bueller's day off. For some reason I just enjoyed watching the movie and it seemed like a good length, with a good beginning, middle, and end.http://thp-moviereviews.blogspot.com/

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 !