“Orange County”

This film was like bubble gum, you chew on it at first and it’s all sweet and juicy but after a while you are just chewing a wad of your own spit. That being said, for a teen comedy it was not that bad of a film.

Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) does not get into Stanford because of a mix-up of transcripts at school. He tries throughout the rest of the movie to get in with the help of his girlfriend (Schuyler Fisk), but his family and friends keep getting in the way and ruining his chances of ever leaving Orange County.

The three stars, Colin Hanks, Schuyler Fisk and Jack Black gave very humorous performances. I was pleased in the casting of Fisk and Hanks as they are not your typical Barbie and Ken looking actors. This gives them an air of believability in a very unbelievable film.

The problem came when these characters were not together on the screen – I became bored.

John Lithgow and Catherine O’Hara are wonderful as Shaun’s parents in the film but can’t reach their full potential in these roles. Jack Black, though, stole the show as Shaun’s slacker brother.

Had the main plot of this film been better, it might have been a classic. The talent was definitely there for a great film. Some of the film seemed like they were just trying to make it longer, with many scenes there is nothing going on and they play music over it. I counted many scenes where Shaun is running for no real reason and it turned out as just being a filler.

The characters and scenarios are off kilter enough for some humorous moments, however because of the main plot, most of the comedy seemed like nothing new. During a lot of the biggest moments of the film, I kept thinking, where have I seen that before? I guess you can only have so many teen comedies set in California without some sort of deja vu. It’s above average but wait to rent.