Orange County (2002)
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Shaun Brumder is a local surfer kid from Orange County who dreams of going to Stanford to become a writer and to get away from his dysfunctional family household. Except Shaun runs into one complication after another, starting when his application is rejected after his dim-witted guidance counselor sends in the wrong form.
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What critics compared Orange County to
Those of you who remember Tom Hanks from such wacky 80s comedies as "Bachelor Party" and "Splash" will feel a shudder of déjá vu watching his son Colin's performance in this likeable comedy.
Listen to it and you can almost hear Tom Hanks spouting out “There’s no crying in baseball,” from “A League of Their Own.”
Case in point is the scene where Shaun is entertaining a Stanford official who's played by actor/director Garry Marshall ("Never Been Kissed," "A League of Their Own") in one of those extended cameo bits.
In fact, it mostly starts off in that second fashion and makes one wonder where director Jake Kasdan ("Bad Teacher," "Orange County") and his writers might go with the theme and story.
Director Jake Kasdan has, in movies like Orange County (2002), shown that he can do more with a strong script but the script here is just reasonably good enough for the film to merit a recommendation.
Kasdan’s previous output is mostly admirable; in fact, Sex Tape draws upon shades of his Orange County and his previous Diaz collaboration Bad Teacher .
Aside from a neat opening credits sequence, Jake Kasdan displays very little flair or even directorial competency with “Bad Teacher”, a surprising revelation given that his previous comedies (“Orange County” and “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”) were both quite good.
In general, the movie — directed by Jake Kasdan (Orange County, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) — has a pretty relaxed attitude about storyline, preferring to shamble along from one episode to another as it covers Elizabeth’s school year.
Director Jake Kasdan has a string of marginal cult faves to his credit, the kind of little-seen weirdo comedies (Zero Effect, The TV Set and Orange County) that people pretend to have seen to earn cool points at parties.
I even think "Orange County" has its moments.