Being from New York, I’ve only California dreamed. Orange County may seem like a million miles away from everything I know, but the film is a testament to the fact that every person and every town has the same problems and dysfunctions.
Colin Hanks – yes, his dad is Tom – plays perfect teen Shaun Brumder. He’s the smart class president who scores perfect on his SATs. His only goal now is to get into Stanford. Easy, right? Well, not when a link in the chain comes apart.
Shaun does everything and anything that he can in order to get into Stanford after everything seems lost. There is plenty of the wackiness that we’ve all come to expect out of our teen screen romps and there are some well-written scenes that have real bite.
In the end, Orange County tries to push the envelope but then just takes the path often traveled by similar films. Jack Black as Hanks’ brother has the room to roam, but with such a thinly written character he isn’t able to reach into us and pull out our funny bone. Orange County isn’t all sunshine.
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