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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.
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.
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?
A well-crafted lie appears unquestionable - Dama Mahaleo
Why don't you buy their cd and support their band and not rip them off!
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."
you should start your own weblog
Boy, that should be the catchphrase here. That and "pot. kettle. black."
Guess what? Slashdot started life as a big weblog -- Taco's weblog. OK, it wasn't a "read my journal" blog, it was a "hey, look what I think is interesting in the science/technology world plus a few other things thrown in" blog. And it turned out to be so succesful that people like you hit reload on their browser at least 5 times a day while at work or wasting their lives in their parents basement, and feel some strange desire to post comments.
And then, at some point, the editorial staff of this glorified (and cool) weblog decided that movie reviews might matter to some people. So here's Katz's take on a movie. Perhaps you may have noticed he does the same thing every week. Repeat: It's not a journal entry. It's a movie review. It's a regular feature, too.
So what are you complaining about? That the editors decided to have weekly movie reviews? That the movies that Katz picks don't quite match up with your interests? That you don't like Katz's writing? That you might have to actually use your judgement and decide not to read some of these movie reviews yourself, rather than obsesive-compulsively reading every last slashdot article? Or that you might have to learn to use the topic/author filtering boxes in the preferences?
If so, perhaps you should start your own weblog, and read it instead of this one. That way, you won't have to be inconvenienced by the presence of any content that doesn't match your individual expectations.
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
...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
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...
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aphex
I Steal Music!