Directed by Jake Kasden
Written by Mike White
Starring
- Colin Hanks as Sean Brumder
- Jack Black as Lance Brumder
- Kyle Howard as Arlo
- RJ Knoll as Chad
That Erich is a tricky fellow. And he wrote this review. As far as I am aware, Orange County, California has exactly one redeeming feature. It is home to Wally George. He used to do a show that was a show that was a cross between Rush and Springer that was even lower-brow. This was before Rush and Jerry were famous. Old episodes are still shown in LA, and the Wally George show is the best thing on television. Actually, the best thing on television are the ads that a now old Wally does during the show. One is for a wig shop. Wally looks like he has a mop on his head. It's like watching Christopher Reeves do an ad for an equestrian helmet.
Other than that, Orange County is pretty whack. I've only been there a few times. My dominion is the north and west of LA. Orange County is like LA's retarded half-brother. People there actually take Wally George seriously. Also, Orange County went bankrupt once. Everyone who lives in the good parts of southern California had a hardy laugh about that.
We have the Dodgers and they have the Angels. We have Six Flags and they have Disneyland. We have strip malls, they have strip malls. But ours are way better. Ours have Indian restaurants and sushi bars in them. OK, so do theirs, but we have way fewer Nazis. Orange County is a slice of Middle America right in the middle of Southern California. A Bermuda triangle for culture, tolerance and intelligence. It's kind of bizarre really, as if Disneyland contaminated the whole place. I'm sort of exaggerating to make this better to read, but Orange County really sucks.
Orange County really sucks, too. It has tons of good actors like Jack Black and Catherine O'Hara. God knows why they agreed to do the film. But the main actor is Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks' son. The director, Jake Kasden is the son of Lawrence Kasden. Nepotism works about as well in these cases as it did in The Godfather III. Or the presidency. This movie is boring and not funny. Sometimes the actors are so good, they can make stupid shit watchable. Like "oops, we gave the dean of admissions ecstasy but we thought it was Tylenol." It's a cliché, but the dean is played by Harold Ramis, and he actually made me chuckle. That also happened a couple of other times.
I guess Jonny knows Jake Kasden. Let's make a deal. I'll stop with my cruel tirade and artificially inflate the ratings for Orange County and Jake will get some Ruthless People jobs writing for some TV show.
Ruthless Ratings
- Direction: 10 - I used to think Kurosawa was a good director.
- Story: 9 - Even a genius like Kasden can't produce a masterpiece without a good script
- Acting: 10 - I'm not even lying that much.
- Film Overall: 10 - Look for this one on the next AFI list of great films.
- Rewatchability: 10 - Not only did I NOT surf the net and play music while the movie was on, I watched Orange County three times in a row.
- DVD Extras: 9 - I watched all of them, I'm just not talking about them so that they remain fresh for the viewer.
Special Ruthless Ratings
- Number of times you DIDN'T wish you were watching a Carrot Top movie: 97
- Number of beers you WOULDN'T need to enjoy this movie: 7
- Number of times the oppressive soundtrack made you reach for your knife: Twice. They were playing that Crazytown Chile Peppers rip off, but I think slick Jake was kind of making fun of it but in a way that the kiddies would miss. Seriously, I'm not kissing ass anymore. Bravo
