CAN'T HARDLY WAIT RATING: 7 / 10 --> Good movie
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This film is basically a 90's retread of all the dopey 80's teenage high school movies from the ultimate of all teenage films, BREAKFAST CLUB (8/10), to the ultimate in all house-party-fantasy movies, WEIRD SCIENCE (8/10), to all the geeks and geekettes in the all-American black comedy classic, HEATHERS (8/10). Slap some Jennifer Love Hewitt in a tight top into the mix, and you've got yourself a testosterone-fest of beer, teenage heartaches, devirginizations and love matches to which you could crack an egg.
PLOT: The high school's most popular girl gets dumped by her boyfriend, who happens to be the most popular guy, on the last day of school right before the last big party before College. Everyone who's anyone goes to the party that night, from nerds to jocks, hipsters to poseurs, all looking for that last real high before their life of actual responsibilities takes off. Love is in the air, but so is a lot of alcohol and music. Pour over ice, mix well, and drink up!
CRITIQUE: Completely unoriginal idea for a film scores points for a great soundtrack, a solid cast, a decent characterization of most every stereotype, and a mostly funny, sometimes sentimentally nostalgic look at the last days of the greatest days of most of our lives. Call me a sucker for high school comedies that feature house parties, but this film never bored me through its entire quick runtime, despite its derivative nature, and generally kept me smirking and interested in the lives of the characters presented therein.
For this accomplishment, I must give the props up to two of the actors that portrayed their characters with the most believability and sincerity, that being Ethan Embry and Lauren Ambrose. But don't get me wrong, the rest of the cast was also quite adequate in their roles, with Seth Green acting out a great fly white-young black-wannabee (a la Gary Oldman in TRUE ROMANCE (9/10), I might add) but these two stood out amongst the plethora of cardboard cutouts plastered through most of this film. Having said that, I think the marketers of the film did a piss-poor job of marketing this film as a Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle, since first of all, she is barely in it, second of all, is not all that good in it, and third of all, is one of the least interesting characters in the entire picture. I think they might've gained a wider diversity of audience, if they were to have introduced more of the characters in the previews, but then again, who am I to argue against a set of gazongas?
All in all, this picture is interesting enough to watch, funny enough to laugh at from time to time, and nostalgic enough to drift your mind off to the days of old for a second or two. Also, the soundtrack of this film really blew me away with its eclectic mix of heavy rock, rap and punk, and any film that has the balls to feature Guns 'n Roses "Paradise City" as one of its flagship tunes (During one of the best scenes in the film) is allright in my book! Cameos by Jenna Elfman and a dead-ringing jock Jerry O'Connell top this tasty tart of emptiness, and the epilogues of all the featured characters stamp this film as the ultimate impersonation of all films teenage.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: This film was originally titled THE PARTY. Macho-man Peter Facinelli had a baby-girl with 90210-famed actress Jennie Garth in 1997. They named her Luca Bella. Jennifer Love Hewitt was born in Waco, Texas. She has a cat named Don Juan (She loves Johnny Depp), and also had a role in SISTER ACT 2: BACK IN THE HABIT. Some of you may remember fly-boy Seth Green from his part of Scott Evil, son of Dr. Evil, in the shaggoliciously funny Michael Myers film AUSTIN POWERS (7/10). You might also remember Charlie Korsmo, who plays the nerd character effectively in this film, from his earlier kid roles in HOOK, WHAT ABOUT BOB? (7.5/10) and DICK TRACY, alongside Hollywood legend Warren Beatty. He took a seven-year hiatus from acting to have a "normal" teenage life and finish junior high and high school. Actress Lauren Ambrose is also a classically trained opera singer. Ethan Embry is one of the many actors to have portrayed Chevy Chase's goofy son in the VACATION movies, as he was the one to portray Rusty Griswold in 1997's VEGAS VACATION. His real last name is Randall, but he changed it to Embry because it was his grandfather's. This is the directorial debut for both Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan. Summer Phoenix, from the famed Phoenix clan (River and Joaquin) has an unnamed part in this film. The girl running around with the yearbook throughout this entire picture is Melissa Joan Hart, better known for her TV role as "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch". Producer Betty Thomas also directed the Howard Stern vehicle PRIVATE PARTS (7/10).
Review Date: November 25, 1998
Directors: Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
Writers: Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
Producers: Betty Thomas and Jenno Topping
Actors: Ethan Embry as Preston Meyers
Jennifer Love Hewitt as Amanda Beckett
Lauren Ambrose as Denise Fleming
Seth Green as Kenny Fisher
Charlie Korsmo as William Lichter
Peter Facinelli as Mike Dexter
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 1998
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(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
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