Orange County (Widescreen)

Basically, Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks), is trying to get into Standford University to become a professional writer, but his dysfunctional family and moronic guidance counselor seem to be preventing him from doing so. Now, I've been hearing a lot of critics complaining about Colin's style of acting, and quite frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Colins, for a new actor, is great in this movie, kinda like my brother and I are around our family (he plays the whole "why does all this crap happen to me; God must hate me" role very well, and it's hilarious). I especially like the scene where he argues with his guidance counselor, exclaiming "because you are a moron!" when she doesn't quite grasp his frustration with sending the wrong transcript to Stanford. Lily Tomin, who plays this guidance counselor, is hilarious the brief time she is on screen, and made the confrontation between her and Shaun that much more enjoyable. Shuan's family, however, takes the cake in this movie.

Like I said earlier, your chest will hurt from laughing whenever Black, as Shaun's stoner brother, is on screen (though he could have been on more). He nearly kills Shaun and his girlfriend while driving down the road high on drugs and discussing his job idea to open up a Hawiian clothing store (hilarious scene!). Catherine O' Hara plays Shaun's drunken mom who wants the world to revolve around her; she also does a brilliant job with her given material. Jon Lithgow (3rd rock from the sun) is always funny; he could be starring into space and you'd crack up. Also, the dean of admisssions to Stanford is quite funny, played by Harold Ramis. He is given some exstacy instead of pain killers (by accident), and he plays a drugged dean very well (I was laughing quite hard at that part!) The only character that bugged me was Shaun's animal-obsessed girlfriend (played by Scuhyler Fisk). Her role is not only lousy, but, as an actress, she tends to suck the funny out of Colin whenever she is on stage with her sappy and predictiable lines (ex. "When you prayed to get into Stanford, I prayed that you wouldn't." Noooo........really? Like we didn't see that coming from a mile away!) Infact, she pretty much stunk the whole movie, and I don't see her being in many movies after this one. Overall, however, this is a brilliant comedy that the critics underrated (as they always do) and that everyone should have the pleasure of at least seeing, if not owning.