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I love this movie so much

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

Orange County is as light as a feather, but almost consistently entertaining about a frustrated high school senior with high hopes to get into Stanford and leave his crazy family and vacuous town behind. But when his dim bulb guidance counselor mixes up his transcript with that of a moronic burn out, he goes into panic mode to undue the damage and get himself into his dream school which rejected him. His trainwreck of a family are the obstacles that keep his plans from ever materializing into anything but embarrassing defeats. The first two acts are basically episodic comedic situations, but there's enough wit and manic energy here to overcome the TV episode feel to most of the film. With barely the running time of a feature film, Orange County missteps a bit in the last act, which takes place at Stanford and while some of the situations still prove funny - the dean of admissions played by Harold Ramis accidentally taking ecstasy is an inspired bit - it feels more like an overlong screenplay deviation than a last act. Kasdan and Hanks put enough effort and charm into the picture to counter any arguments of nepotism, but Schuyler Fisk has zero screen presence and the charm of a dead goat. Orange County has enough heart to coast by and while not exactly the most memorable film, is funny enough to recommend.

Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) is desperate to get into Stanford. His incompetent guidance counselor mistakenly sends in the wrong transcript and Shaun is promptly rejected. This leads a series of crazy adventure to change the rejection with his girlfriend Ashley (Schuyler Fisk) and his drugged-out loser brother Lance (Jack Black). Dopey haired Colin Hanks may not be up to playing in this outlandish comedy. Director Jake Kasdan and writer Mike White create a very broad comedy. The school is chalk full of stereotypes but Colin seems to be too vanilla white to hold the screen. At times it feels like an inside joke for California kids. Of course Ashley is an over the top animal lover. And Jack Black is completely a 2-Dimensional druggie. At least Jack Black would hook up with Mike White for The School of Rock a year later.

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.

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 !