Orange County

An endlessly funny, fully realized universe that subverts its subjects and setting, all while clearly loving them. Almost like they were making a satire of turn-of-the-century teen life without denying its power ("Butterfly"). It has surprisingly strong things to say about idolizing your dreams, under appreciating what you have, and realizing the love you have for the family and friends who drive you crazy. An underappreciated and ahead-of-its-time teen comedy.

Shaun Brumder is a student at a high school in Orange County, California. He spends his time surfing with his slacker friends... then one day he finds a book buried in the sand and starts to read it. It changes his life; he determines to become a writer. To that end he applies to study at Stanford University, where the book's author is a lecturer. Unfortunately a bureaucratic mix up leads to him being rejected and it is officially too late to appeal. He isn't helped by his embarrassingly dysfunctional family. The only real help comes from Ashley, his girlfriend... and even she would rather he stayed on Orange County and studied at the same local university as her.

This was a surprisingly fun movie. There are plenty of laughs from start to finish as the story successfully stays just the right side of the line which divides hilarity and cringe-inducing embarrassment. Colin Hanks is solid as protagonist Shaun and Schuyler Fisk impresses as girlfriend Ashley; of the main cast of characters these are the most 'normal'. The other main characters are all fairly dysfunctional; especially Shaun's family. Jack Black stands out as his stoner brother whose attempts to help make matters worse... given the DVD box one might expect him to be on screen for much of the film but he is very much a secondary character; that isn't a problem though as he is funny when on screen but would detract from the story if he'd featured much more. The rest of the cast, which includes quite a few well-known actors in cameo roles is impressive. Comedies about teens seem to favour gross out humour these days but there is nothing really offensive here... unless the sight of Jack Black in his Y-fronts bothers you! Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting a good laugh.

I was continually getting amazed and the big name actors that kept popping up in this rather B type movie. But it was very watchable and like the title, just mindless fun

I feel that I should explain 2 things before I give my opinion of this movie 1) I don't expect much from a MTV production and 2) I went to see this movie just to see Colin Hanks, because of his role as Alex Whitman in Roswell.

I was surprised and impressed with Colin Hanks, and Schuyler Fisk who I had not seen in anything. Both of whom played characters that actually had some depth. They actually wanted to go to college not just get laid or marry someone rich.

I found the movie light and funny, full of great cameos

If you are expecting to see a lot of Jack Black you may be disappointed. He only has a supporting role. But hilariously funny as usual.

I also wish that they had kept Colin's hair off of his face, like in some of the beach scenes. The whole bangs thing just, just…. I just didn't like it.

Worth the rental fee for the cameos, Jack Black, some off color jokes and some of the lines the supporting actors have.

DVD has some great deleted scenes and explains why some of the ads showed things that were not in the movie.

I came home from a hard day of work, and to tell the truth, I needed a melt down. That's maybe the only reason why I enjoyed this movie. Because I seriously had my doubts renting it, but I think that Jack Black is a very funny actor. All I needed was a good laugh and I got it. True, this is one of those "Dude, where's my brain?" movies. Sometimes you just need those though. The people I work with told me that this was a pretty stupid movie, and it is. But I think people shouldn't be in a serious mood for this movie. For an intelligent comedy or a good movie kind of day, no. This is not the movie for you, but if you need a meltdown after a hard day, then by all means give this movie a chance. It's really not that bad, and you get more than a few laughs. But still, if I were Colin Hank's character, I think I still would've wanted to go to Standford. :D 7/10