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Review: Orange County
Shaun is a brainless Orange County surfing dude until he stumbles across a novel and decides he was to use his brain and become a writer. He obsesses on Stanford, doesn't get in because of a paperwork screw-up by his moonie guidance counselor (Lily Tomlin) and, with the help of his perpetually-stoned brother (Black) and girlfriend (Fisk), sets out to gain admission to Stanford. Part of his obsession comes from a desire to get away from his hilariously and spectacularly dysfunctional family (drunken drama queen mother is played by Catherine O'Hara, remote divorced money-obsessed dad by John Lithgow).
Black is by now wonderful at playing the stoned loony, but he needs to be careful, as it's already nearly impossible to imagine him in any other role. And he's great at it. He nearly steals the movie, especially playing against the steady-as-she-goes nice guy Colin Hanks who, like his Dad, has a Jimmy Stewart quality that makes you root for him, even when he's behaving badly.
The plotting and conceit of the movie are both strange. Orange County, a wealthy suburb of LA, is held to be insipid and valueless. Although we get a peek at the dummies who Shaun befriends and who go to his high school, there is little feel at all for the actual place, one of America's early, mythic suburbs. At least at first, all Shaun wants to do is get away, though the writers eventually suggest that wanting to leave arid suburbs and go to colleges like Stanford is a mistake. Creative and interesting people should stay at home where their roots are, all the better to be inspired and keep their needy parents and girlfriends happy.
Shaun's paperwork snafu could probably have been corrected with a phone call, so all the slapstick racing around -- there's an improbably mad dash up to Stanford -- and hysteria seems a bit silly. And the ending -- well, it's original, but also goofy. It lost me.
I think for a total of 15 to 20 minutes this is one of the most inventive and original movies I've seen in awhile. In toto, it's disjointed. It seems as if Kasdan wanted to make a semi-serious, biting movie but either chickened out or was held back. Still, there are more than a few great laughs in Orange County and the parts of the film that portray a complex kid trying to figure out where he belongs while coming to terms with his insane family really work -- at moments.
I really don't want this to sound like a troll, and I really love Slashdot, and I read it every day, and Linux is a great operating system, and open source is The Way, and I've really enjoyed all of Jack Black's movies, BUT...
/., much less expect it to be posted, and I don't think I personally know anyone who would.
Is this really a Slashdot news story? I mean, I'd never submit a non-tech movie review to
Perhaps the editors could do the same thing we lowly grunts do—post stories like this in your journal.
I also saw the movie. It looked incredibly stupid in the previews but I was surprised by its quality. It's not a Lord of the Rings or A Beautiful Mind, but it is a decent flick. And you get to see Tom Hanks's clone.
Nerds don't watch movies?
I think, unfortunately, some people around here are probably wrongly assuming that all of us "losers" who read Slashdot have little or no social life, and, henceforth, the only entertainment we get is watching sci-fi and hot chick movies. Therefore, they probably think the movie reviews are pertinent information.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
Ah yes, I remember the trailer for this movie. Specifically, I remember it delaying my viewing of LoTR for another 60 seconds. I will never forgive them. Bastards.
--My purpose set, my will defined. Caress the air, embrace the skies.
there looked to be all these great scenes in the movie. Like when Shaun is making his tape for stanford and his brother comes behind with twizzlers stuffed in his nose, or when the brother is playing drums on the cereal bowl singing "you don't need collage to rock". I saw tons of movie previews like these. None of these parts are in the movie. I saw probably ten different scenes on MTV and in previews that weren't actually in the movie. I truly enjoyed the movie, but the best parts were the ones in the previews that weren't even in the movie. I found this to be very misleading. Those were the scenes that made me want to see the movie in the first place.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I remember a little piece from Dennis Miller's Washington D.C. standup special, regarding in-room hotel pay-per-view, and how when you check out the movies you ordered are itemized on your bill.
:)
"Teenage Tit Freaks -- 9 times."
I note that if the movie requires a mind and/or a non-teen viewer Katz almost always hates it. On the other hand, if it is plotless but has buxom, lithe young starlets then it usually passes his muster. To put it another way, I would trust Katz' taste in porn movies.
Get off my virtual lawn, you damned virtual kids!
I guess it may surprise some, but in most cases nerd != 1 dimensional tech person. I sort of like the fact that slashdot runs stories on a range of topics that typically appeal to people that also tend to like "geeky" things.
I still think it's interesting that many types people interested in a given topic, also typically share an interest in another seemingly unrelated topic.
For example, slashdot typically runs significant stories on space exploration / physics topics. What does linux and open source have to do with NASA? Nothing really, but for whatever reason, it seems like the majority of linux enthusiasts are also interested in physics / science stuff.
I guess I'm way, way off topic on the movie review, but I guess my point is something like, "if you don't like a story headline, don't read it." It's most likely posted here because it will appeal to a number of other slashdotters.
My guess is that Slashdot get's paid to post these 'reviews'.
Well, duh.
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
At least N'Sync didn't get a cameo in this movie.
Ebert doesn't do technology stories, so why does Katz continue to write crappy movie reviews. Stick to your crappy technology stories instead. By the way, good job ripping off Ebert's review. Anybody notice that Jon's reviews always come out a day or two after Ebert's.
Where next though? Has "Ocean's 11" any relevance to Slashdotters? SFX and CGI are interesting as well as techie topics, but there are other places to go to talk about movies just for their own sake.
Kuro5hin has a voting system open to all registered users for the front page. Maybe this is needed here on Slashdot.
See my journal, I write things there
Is it possible that Katz is just a construct, sent back from the future by MS to distract the /. crowd from attacking Windows with all possible strength?
Orange County is a ... county, NOT a suburb.
There is the City of Los Angeles, and there is the County of Los Angeles.
Orange County is next to the County of Los Angeles, but it is NOT a suburb of the City of Los Angeles.
I live in Orange County and it takes me an hour and a half to get to LA...
Oh, did I mention that Orange County is NOT a suburb of the City of Los Angeles.
Christopher McCrory "The guy that keeps the servers running" chrismcc@gmail.com http://www.pricegrabber.com
Was LoTR a tech movie? That got tons of coverage on here, and nobody had a problem with it. I've seen the movie. It's OK. Besides Jack Black (who is excellent), there is nothing really special about the rest of the movie. Y'all should just wait for it on video.
This will be my determining factor whether to download the movie in DivX or go pay to see it. Is there any Tenacious D music in the movie? For those of you who don't know who Tenacious D is, Tenacious D is Jack Black's band (well two guys with guitars). I would recommend you go download some Tenacious D music right now!
Visit BobtheKing.com it's perhaps the best thing I've ever made to waste your time with.
Remember the tractor tire smashing into Bill Paxton's pickup's windshield in the Twister trailer? Not in the movie. This fact was even lampooned on (IIRC) SNL around the time Twister was released: "Right!.... Left!... Cow!... The tire that was in the trailer but not the movie!"
And then there was the funny exchange from the Major League trailer: "That ball wouldn't have been out of a lot of parks." "Name one." "Yellowstone." That little gem actually made it into Major League II.
These are only the first two instances I can think of... but there are plenty more.
What really chaps my ass, though, is when they put a song that catches my ear in the commercials for a movie, and then the song is not in the movie or on the soundtrack, and doesn't get any/enough radio play so I can ever find out what song it is. Thanks to CDNow's samples, and Napster/Morpheus nowadays, though, I no longer have to waste $20 on the soundtrack CD, only to find out that the song I bought it for, isn't even on there.
~Philly
/. is not Jon's personal weblog. Are these stories likely to make the
- Let me tell you how much having your wisdom teeth pulled sucks.
- So I went on a date last night.
- I have this great idea for a perpetual motion machine
- I just discovered this really great author. His name is Assimov or something.
Really, it's not that we all don't like you, Jon, it's just that you obviously have a lot of subjective things to say, and you should start your own weblog. Personally, I don't thikn it's stuff that matters.....and it's certainly not 'news for nerds.'
Kevin Fox
Well, science is geeky. Sci-fi movie and book reviews are geeky. Giving Jon Katz a forum to post whatever the hell he wants is just lame. I'm not saying the site shouldn't be open to items of peripheral geekiness, but at the same time, there have to be limits. We don't need an Ask Slashdot discussion on cat litter, even though most of us have cats. From what I've seen, the movies Jon Katz reviews aren't particularly geeky movies, nor does he write said reviews from a perspective different than you'd find in any newspaper (Joe Queenan you're not, Mr. Katz). In fact, you probably can find reviews of these same movies in just about any newspaper. What's nice about Slashdot is that it concentrates worthwhile geek/nerd news into a single place--news that I'd have to dig through a thousand hardware sites, mainstream news sources, press releases, etc to find otherwise. On the other hand, I can get movie reviews anywhere, and without hardly any trouble at all.
For at least as long as I've been reading Slashdot, Jon Katz has posted op/eds and stories investigating many of the social implications of emerging technology and current political trends, that have an impact on both our freedom to use technology and the industry itself. He's gone beyond speculating about the technical limits of supercooled processors, or the Quake 3 engine, to look at some of the things that actually make a dent in our lives.
And for at least as long as I've been reading Slashdot, readers have posted their opinions of Jon Katz, and why he can go to hell, or why his opinion sucks, or some other complaint. Almost all of them request that he take his writing elsewhere, that he is not welcome with their morning news and cup of coffee.
I'm not writing this to support the presence of goofy teen flick movie review on Slashdot. But judging from the way he's received, what did you expect? He's clearly come to the conclusion that, at least about important things, geeks must not like to think very much.
And I don't blame him.
"First you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
...as far as I see is that the movie was lousy with Macs. The main character had what looked like an LC II. For all the cash that family seemed to have, you'd think he'd have a better computer. The principle had an Apple Studio Display behind him. I saw one of the old clamshell iBooks as well as an old bondi iMac that the college counselor used.
Also, as a Jack Black fan, that was the only reason I went to see the movie and, after the preview made it seem like Jack Black was a major co-star and had a major role in the film, I was extremely disappointed with how minor his role in the film was.
So, what I want to see, is the sequal that takes place in a year after his girlfriend has dumped him (it took her about 10 minutes to find a frat party and start chatting up some preppie frat guy who obviously has a thing for jailbait 17/18 year old girls) and he feels like complete shit for turning down admission to one of the most prestigious schools in the country for his girlfriend who obviously didn't love him enough to even consider a long distance relationship and so he can keep hanging out with his stoner friends and live at home well into his twenties like his waster brother? Give me a break.
Also, what about Bob? His mom was still married. His dad is going back to his ex-wife who is obviously just as unfaithful as his new ex-wife. I mean, she slept with a guy while her husband was in the house and flaunted him all over the place the next day.
Disappointed overall. But still okay.
Blatanly plagurized material straight from the FAQ just because yall haven't seemed to have read it, or are ignoring it entirely.
Why did you post story X?
Slashdot is many things to many people. Some people think it's a Linux site. To others, it's a geek hangout. I've always worked very hard to make sure that Slashdot matches up with my interests and the interests of my authors. We think we're pretty typical Slashdot readers... but that does mean that occasionally one of us might post something that you think is inappropriate. You might be interested in my Omelette rant.
Personally, I have a pet peeve when people post comments saying things like "That's not News For Nerds!" and "That's not Stuff that Matters!" Slashdot has been running for almost 3 years, and over that time, I have always been the final decision maker on what ends up on the homepage. It turns out that a lot of people agree with me: Linux, Legos, Penguins, Sci (both real and fiction). If you've been reading Slashdot, you know what the subjects commonly are, but we might deviate occasionally. It's just more fun that way. Variety Is The Spice Of Life and all that, right? We've been running Slashdot for a long time, and if we occasionally want to post something that someone doesn't think is right for Slashdot, well, we're the ones who get to make the call. It's the mix of stories that makes Slashdot the fun place that it is.
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 6/26/00
"The Omelette"
Let me try to give you an analogy for Slashdot's homepage. It's like an omelette: it's a combination of sausage and ham and tomatoes and eggs and more. Over the years, we've figured out what ingredients are best on Slashdot. The ultimate goal is, of course, to create an omelette that I enjoy eating: by 8pm, I want to see a dozen interesting stories on Slashdot. I hope you enjoy them too. I believe that we've grown in size because we share a lot of common interests with our readers. But that doesn't mean that I'm gonna mix an omelette with all sausages, or someday throw away the tomatoes because the green peppers are really fresh.
There are many components to the Slashdot Omelette. Stories about Linux. Tech stories. Science. Legos. Book Reviews. Yes, even Jon Katz. By mixing and matching these things each and every day, we bring you what I call Slashdot. On some days it definitely is better than others, but overall we think it's a tasty little treat and we hope you enjoy eating as much as we enjoy cooking it.
Answered by: CmdrTaco
Last Modified: 6/14/00
Yes, but why can't Katz at least post reviews on movies that aren't so damn mainstream and overhyped already?
I mean, come on! If I wanted a review of orange county I could get it in my local paper.
LOTR I can definitly see being reviewed on slashdot. But this?
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Why is it that every movie review posted on /. receieves a flood of 'why the hell is this on /.?!??' posts?
If the article doesn't interest you, skip it. I'm sure a good amount of daily slashdot readers are interested in knowing whether or not they should spend the zillion bucks to go see a movie. And believe it or not, nerds don't go see only tech movies.
End mini-rant.
Just from the advertising I'm sick of this obviously lame piece of crap. I can't believe somebody here went to see it, let alone REVIEWED it!
My god, I just realized something:
I find myself ONLY reading Katz stuff for the comments. I don't read anything he writes but I love reading all the colorful commentary that is provided down here by fellow slashdot users.
What is this world coming to...
-
aphex
I Steal Music!
I don't like it when people put limits on themselves (as opposed to reconizing they have limits). The kid will have done far better to choose the most challanging environment he could grow in.
Because he's a part of this site. If all you jokers want to start up your own geek site and keep your stories all 100% Linux based/MS Bashing go for it.. Start your own damn site. I come to read everything that revolves around my "geek" life, and this INCLUDES almost 99.9% of the movies Katz has reviewed on here. I dont agree with him a whole hell of a lot, but at least he's consistant to my "nerd" life, and probably (gee, look how many people come here!) more lives. So piss off you tossers. Go start your own nerd site and leave this one alone..
That's really scary ... I just realised I do the same!
...
You've got to wonder where the value is when the replies are more fun to read than the actual article
This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time.
Counties sorted by (Gore+Bush)*log(Bush/Gore)
Gore, Bush, County, State
338047, 466232, Orange, CA
173705, 286843, Tarrant, TX
415514, 525679, Harris, TX
445196, 89377, Brooklyn, NY
1291805, 541208, Cook, IL
1598375, 812154, LosAngeles, CA
Seastead this.
There are options to block out specific types of stories, or specific authors- set it to block out JonKatz or Movies, and you'll never see a movie review again. Now stop trolling and get a better hobby.
Go see a movie or something.
Username taken, please choose another one.
Tenacious D allows taping of their shows so spreading their live music, in any medium, as long as no money changes hands, is legal.
A list of some of Tenacious D shows in ciruclation is here.
Don't assume that just becuase a band exists means they don't allow their music to be traded. In addition, trading legally recorded shows IS supporting the band as it helps spread the tunes to listeners that may have never heard the band before.
He looks and acts sooo much like his dad that it's scary!
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
Wow, Jon. What a wonderfully botched sentence. Were you also a brainless Orange County surfing dude, by any chance?
Wait, that's nowhere near Orange County...
That Chris Rock -- he's a real comedian isn't he?
Hey -- I've got one that's even more hilarious!
A teacher in the San Diego school district, we'll call her Caetlyn O'Malley, childless woman who had dedicated her life to teaching teenagers (ESL) in San Diego, was talking to her vice principle, who we'll call Marta Sanchez, about the problem with all the illegal immigrant kids in her class.
Marta looks to Caetlyn and through a contemptuous smirk says, "You're all just giving it away."
To which Caetlyn replies with the cheerful smile of a Leprechaun with her impenetrable riddle, "Right, up until we start building camps!"
At which point Marta Sanchez suddenly turns white.
You think that was the punch line? Actually -- here's the punch line:
That actually happened around 1991 -- I knew Caetlyn O'Malley.
Jim Bowery -- San Diego County resident 1983-1994
Seastead this.
Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
I kinda halfway been waiting for a /. review of A Beautiful Mind, which has been out for three weeks now, but Orange County just came out this weekend and gets reviewed right away? Is everyone at /. smoking crack?
It's not so much that this isn't a geeky topic. It's more to the effect that most of the movies I've seen JonKatz review have been the sort of movies that Beavis and Butthead would just love. Don't get me wrong, as I love *good* comedies, but this doesn't qualify, I'm sorry. Plus I would find them incredibly irritating, and I would much rather gouge my eyes out than pay $8 to see it.
So to say the least, this geek would really rather not see these reviews, thank you very much.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
... or he's been listening only to the "we hate Katz" roar and not discovering where that roar comes from.
I'm going to go out on a limb and speak not just for myself, but for everyone who has the same visceral reaction against most of Katz's "social commentary" articles. I say "visceral" specifically because my first reaction is an uncomfortable feeling in my gut that is similar to the feeling I get when in the presence salesman who's overpromising.
In short, the stories of Katz's that irk me say nothing.
It's much more than that though that gets to me - certainly the "yet another Outlook-enabled virus found" story adds very little useful information - it's the style in which Katz says his nothing. It screams of the overpolished language of an excited journalist trying to "capture the feeling of the movement". This style ends up completely obscuring any other message, substance, or information that the article might have once contained. The end result is that I get the story of the intrepid reporter, out reporting his bold new story that the establishment doesn't understand. Lost is the underlying reality, lost (or never present) are serious sociological considerations. What I'm left with is a bunch of speculative drivel and the overriding story of the reporter.
And I get that story every damn time. Once was really much more than enough.
It's nice to see that Katz has backed off in his writing style. If he can return to social commentary without riding the intrepid reporter horse, it might go better for him. I'd hate to think that the slashdot editors would assume that the anto-Katz reaction reflects a fundamental unwillingness to discuss those issues among the slashdot audience. (Though I would also contend that the slashdot medium does not lend itself easily to considered discourse, but that discussion is for another post)
In short, when we rail against Katz, we're not shooting the messenger because he carries an unpopular message. We're shooting the messenger because he arrives empty-handed.