Orange County - Not So Peachy

The kind of movie you watch on a boring night in when you'd be out with friends, only you haven’t got any

By Emma Kae - 19th August 2002 - Back to News

Orange County is a pretty etching in America’s landscape – blue skies, beautiful beaches and a border of citrus trees… Yet somehow, the film of the same name is anything but picturesque.

Orange County tells the story of Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks), a high school senior who appreciates the finer things in life, like a perfectly waxed surfboard. That is until one day, when on the beach, Shaun digs up a treasure in the form of the book "Straight Jacket" by Marcus Skinner, and it changes his life.

Inspired by the work of Skinner, Shaun trades in his surfboard and devotes his time to writing the manuscript that will be his ticket to Stanford. Of course, as with all teen movies, the plot would hardly be satisfying without a large dose of disaster-inflicted angst, and so tragedy strikes when the guidance counsellor sends the wrong transcript with his application and Shaun receives a failure letter.

It’s at times like these when one would turn to their family and friends for support, but unfortunately for Shaun, his parental support system offers little solution. His alcoholic mother (Catherine O'Hara) cries with joy that he will be staying home and his emotionally displaced father (John Lithgow) is more concerned about his new wife cheating on him with the pool man to care.

When everything looks its bleakest, Shaun turns to a drug-addled older brother (Jack Black of Tenacious D) who lives his life a single failed pee-test away from incarceration and animal obsessed girlfriend (Schuyler Fisk) for help. The three steal away on a road trip to Stanford to disclose the truth about Shaun’s application and get him onto campus. They meet some people, destroy some property, and learn some things about themselves… as you do on an average weekend as an adolescent.

This is the kind of movie you sit through on a boring night in when you would like to be out with your friends, only you haven’t got any. There are a few redeeming moments when Orange County tantalizes us into believing that it is about to rise above the low brow attempt at comedy illustrated in the teen films of late. Unfortunately, they are few and far between, and even the performances of Jack Black cannot pull this one out of the gutter.

The occasional stabs at a more thoughtful approach, are appreciated, but are soon forgotten when followed by dodgy scenes of a professor on ecstacy, a posh woman lifting a cup of urine to her lips and the nymphomaniac cheerleader. Basically, if you have seen any teen movie in the last 12 months, you have seen it all before. One wonders why some talented actors such as Ben Stiller, Lily Tomlin, Harold Ramis, Leslie Mann, Jane Adams, Chevy Chase, Garry Marshall, and Kevin Kline would bother with cameo appearances.

Its not a bad film… if you take your toilet break whenever Jack Black is not on screen anyway.

Two Stars.

Click here to see when Orange County is playing at a cinema near you.

Click here to visit the official Orange County website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com