Orange County is a comedy, and it reminds me of the classic movie called “Fast Times at Ridge Mount High”. If you have seen the classic movie then you will understand why I feel that this movie has some of the same story line.
Cast
Colin Hanks, (Shaun) he is also Tom Hanks son.
Jack Black (Shaun’s brother)
Catherine O’Hara (Shaun’s mother the drunk)
Schuyler Frisk (Shaun’s girlfriend), Also Sissy Spacke’s daugher)
Directer:Jack Kasdan
Rated: PG 13 due to drug content, and language and sexuality
My review on Orange County
The movie begins with 4 best friends who spend their time getting high and surfing. Then one day Shaun was sitting in the sand at the beach after the death of his one friend, and he seen a book that was buried in the sand. He took the book home and for a few days later he kept reading this book from cover to cover. The book had a great impression on him, and he loved the style that the author wrote in. He now knew what he wanted to do with his life, he wanted to go to Stanford and be a writer. Shaun was very smart, he was the class president and straight A student and he got a 1550 on his SAT test.
His College Advisor told him that he would have no problem getting into Stanford, she told him to not worry about putting college applications in anywhere else. So Sean figured he was heading for Stanford after graduation. Shaun’s family and friends were a bit weird. His parents were divorced, his father was a lawyer and his mother was a drunk. His father had remarried and now had a new son, and his wife was real young and always cheated on him. His mom remarried as well to an older man that was in a wheel chair and needed medicine all the time or else he would start acting weird.
Now the biggest goof ball in the family was his brother. His brother was a dope head and on probation, he was never straight always smoking his weed and acting like a slob. So one big major reason why Shaun wanted to go to Stanford was because he needed and wanted to get out of Orange County and away from his friends and family. When Sean was waiting for his papers to be sent to him to say if he was accepted or not to Stanford some of his other friends in school already heard they were accepted so he rushed home to see if he had his letter too. Once he opened the letter he was shocked, he was not accepted to Stanford. He rushed to his advisor and she didn’t even remember him and when she typed in his name she found out that she sent the wrong high school transcripts to Stanford and someone else got his transcript and was accepted to Stanford in his place. He was so upset that he attacks the poor lady. Now what is Sean to do? His girlfriend tried to help she had a friend of hers call her grandfather and ask him to go to Shaun’s house and talk to him and his family and then maybe he could get Shaun in Stanford.
Well this was a blow out. Once the people arrived Shaun asked him mom not to get drunk, but she ends up getting wasted and telling these people her sad story of how Shaun’s father cheated on her with a younger woman and she caught them in bed with handcuffs on him, and to make matters worse Sean’s brother walks into the room in just his underwear, Shaun’s brother is so fat and sloobly that he looked so grouse. He was asking Sean were the container of pee was because his probation officer needed it. Well at that moment the lady who was there picked up the bottle thinking it was her drink and then realized it was this kids urine and she threw it down and they ran out of the house.
Now Shaun knew he would never get to Stanford. His brother then decides that he will help his brother get into this college and they take a road trip to Stanford to see the Dean of Admissions and set the story straight. This is when things really begin to go wrong.
Conclusion I will stop there but will give you a few hints of what is ahead in the movie. You will see Sean’s brother burn down something, after he gets laid by a lady, you will see the Dean of Admissions end up in some deep problems, and Sean and his girlfriend will go through a ruff time, and poor Sean will be depressed, but one big major excitement that will change Shaun’s life forever shows up, guess who that is?
This is when Sean figures out what is important to him. The ending is cool, and I never figured it would end the way it did. Sean was so funny, but his brother was even better. Shaun’s father is the guy off the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun. You will also see Chevy Chase in this movie. The movie is basically based upon what a person goes through and how some might seem to want to leave the town they grew up in, and get away from their parents and live a different life. It shows a young boy growing up and taking on a challenge, but it;s so hilarious that you will laugh through out the whole movie.
This was the first time I seen Colin Hanks in a movie, and he is just as good looking as his father, and he sure does act great in this movie. I think he is going to go far in his career as an actor. You could really feel his embarresment when it came to his brother (Black). Now Black he was so funny, he also hosted the MTV Movie Awards and done an outstanding Job. I seen Black play in other movies before they were also all comedy’s. Frisk which is Sissy Spackes daughter who played the girlfriend to Shaun was pretty good, however I never seen her before in a movie either. She done a great job portraying Shaun’s girlfriend.