It's Not Just A Film, Its An Insomnia Cure. Review on Orange County

It seems that I have an awful lot of films that don’t seem to appear in the database under DVD anyway and this is another such film. Now when it was first released I’d seen it advertised and of course in the video for the Foo Fighters “the One” but never actually seen it showing at any of the local cinema’s. The other plus that really drew me to the film was Jack Black, in almost everything I’ve seen him in he has played a big part in my enjoyment of the film. Unfortunately even he cant save Orange County.

The plot, if you can call it a plot, revolves around Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks) a surfer from Orange County, California who isn’t really doing much at school and bunks off constantly to go surfing with his mates. Until of course he finds a novel by Martin Skinner, which he reads about 50 times in a month, or so we are told. Shaun decides his future lies in writing and now wants to leave Orange County behind and head to Stamford University to study Creative writing with Martin Skinner.

However along the way a number of mishaps occur, to attempt to stop Shaun from following his dream. From problems with his girlfriend (Schuyler Fisk) who wants him to stay in Orange County and attend University there to his alcoholic mother (Catherine O’Hara) who constantly seems to be drunk and trying to embarrass her son. But when Shaun’s application to Stamford is confused with another students and rejected, his family step up to help him and with Drug addict brother Lance (Jack Black) on the case a mad dash to Stamford is on but can Shaun save his dream of getting into the University.

To say that Orange County didn’t life up to my expectations would be an understatement. As much as the above may sound like a plot of sorts, the way it is actually put across in the film is totally different, Nothing really flows and for this I think director Jake Kasdan, of very little fame at all really takes most of the blame. The script seems well written although a few changes may have been needed but it’s the actual projection of this script into the film. Nothing really flows with the film constantly flipping from one part to another without any sort of meaningful reason.

This makes the film an awful lot harder to watch and would ultimately mean that if you aren’t prepared to sit there and really struggle through a film it’d be off within about 10 minutes. A few comical moments but not really much of note, however suffice to say that ever comical moment involves Jack Black in some way. The rest of the film seems to be lacking in humour, which again really spoils your enjoyment of what could have been a pretty good film. Many of the cast also struggle with a couple of new rising teen stars who will probably of vanished in a couple of years into B movie bliss and a few rather more well know actors.

The main star, Colin Hanks, I had seen before in “Get Over It” and to be perfectly honest he did little to impress me in that, which probably explains why I didn’t realise it was the same guy till I looked on IMDB. I found him very unbelievable as the lead, he didn’t seem to really stand out and really started to fade the more the film went on. His character doesn’t really help as I would have thought he really wasn’t the type of person they had in mind to play Shaun in the first place.

A really unimpressive start and that continues onto Schuyler Fisk who again hasn’t had a wealth of films that you could have seen her in but suffice to say after this one I doubt you’d be rushing to see her in anything again. There is absolutely no chemistry between her and Hanks, which in turn makes the relationship seem very stale. The obsession for animals they seem to have given her character seems to add to the annoyance factor and I’d say that was probably the plan.

The only saving grace is Jack Black, although he cant do enough on his own to save the film. Even though his character Lance is probably the worst idea out of all of them it’s the only one that comes across reasonably believable. I think every time I actually laughed during the film was due to something Lance had done or was involved in. The other big hope I had was with John Lithgow who plays Shaun’s father however even he disappointed me in this and seems to be taking the Dick Soloman characteristics from “3rd Rock From The Sun” into the Roll and as much as I like “3rd Rock” that sort of persona really isn’t suited to this film.

The soundtrack is the only part of the movie that I really liked. The inclusion of tracks by the likes of The Offspring and Jimmy Eat World make it a worthwhile listen and a lot more enjoyable than the actual film itself. The locations as well are good choices from the beach to the school but in the end a good soundtrack and locations aren’t really going to make up for a poor film.

I’d say if you were intending to watch this don’t bother unless you really are a teen flick serial watcher in which case a lot of the old clichés from this type of film are there in evidence. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to one person who actually liked the film, which I hope gives some sort of indication as to just how bad it really is. So as far as the film goes I’d say avoid it like the plague, unless you want to be bored for 75 minutes of the 79 minute run time, Jack Black still makes it worth while for a whole 4 minutes!!