CAN'T HARDLY WAIT A film review by Andrew Hicks Copyright 1998 Andrew Hicks
(1998) *** (out of four)
Either all the critics are wrong or I'm wrong, but I liked CAN'T HARDLY WAIT. They say it rips off other teen party movies like SAY ANYTHING, SIXTEEN CANDLES, DAZED AND CONFUSED and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, all of which I liked. I say that's because all these movies are based in part on the screenwriters' high school experiences, and let's face it, every high school is pretty much the same. They say the characters are all one-note stereotypes. I say so are at least two- thirds of teenagers, or at least they behave in stereotypes because they think that's how they're supposed to act.
I will admit, there's not a lot of intelligence or originality in CAN'T HARDLY WAIT, but it's the kind of movie that gets into your psyche and makes you laugh all over again at the same old stuff, root for the same good characters and hate the same bad characters. And it may even make you wish you could go back to that big graduation party all over again. Hell, I turned down the invitation to my big graduation party, so movies like this and college parties are all I've got.
The main character is Preston (Ethan Embry, formerly of EMPIRE RECORDS), the soft-spoken writer type who's carried through high school an obsession with Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt, the victim of a lot of obsessions right about now), the prom queen who's just been dumped by boyfriend Mike (Peter Facinelli, a dumbed-down Tom Cruise), the football quarterback who's now trying to convince all his jock friends to dump their girlfriends and join him for a summer of commitment-free sex with a string of babes.
Rounding out the ensemble are Denise (Lauren Ambrose), the independent thinker no one remembers; Kenny (Seth Green), the white kid who talks ghetto and wears goggles as a fashion statement; and William (Charlie Korsmo), the nerd who's been picked on all through high school and now wants revenge on Mike. He enters the all-night keg party while his geek friends wait on the roof, debating "Star Wars" and "The X-Files," and showing each other their retainers.
CAN'T HARDLY WAIT is filled with cheap, predictable humor like that, but somehow I liked it, and I liked the characters, especially Denise and Kenny, who end up locked in a bathroom for most of the movie. There are some real groaner moments, most of them coming when the movie tries to be serious (and having a stripper Jenna Elfman as the instrument of redemption just plain doesn't work), but for what it is, it's a good movie.
You can listen to all the grownup critics if you want, but I've got a level head on my shoulders (thumbs-up to THE TRUMAN SHOW, thumbs-down to GODZILLA) and I personally think CAN'T HARDLY WAIT is worth ticket price just to see a drunken Korsmo, the Kid from DICK TRACY, singing "Paradise City" and ripping his shirt off while all the popular girls drool over him. It just proves that the best moments in teen movies aren't about the stuff we know will happen but the stuff we wish would happen.
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