A Year of Bad Movies # 33 — “Orange County”
Orange County (2002)
Metacritic Score: 48 out of 100
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47 out of 100
IMDB Score: 6.1 out of 10
Before there was “The OC” or “Laguna Beach,” there was “Orange County.”
Whatever happened to Colin Hanks. I thought he showed a lot of promise.
A film in the highly lucrative “rich white kids with problems” genre, “Orange County” starred Tom Hanks’ son, Colin Hanks, as a rich white kid with problems.
When he is not admitted into Stanford due to a clerical error caused by his school’s guidance counselor, high school senior Shaun Brumder (Hanks) sets out to correct the mistake by undertaking a madcap-filled road trip with his girlfriend (played by Schuyler Fisk, the daughter of Sissy Spacek) and his older brother (played by Jack Black).
Like most Hollywood movies about young people facing turmoil, “Orange County” treads in easily-solved issues centered around social identity, detached parents and the greatest teen movie plot device since unrequited love for a cheerleader: academics.
But instead of getting assistance from Edward James Olmos, the educational hero of young inner city movie characters everywhere, Hanks has to rely on Jack Black as his sidekick.
Because this is an MTV movie, there’s a great alt-rock soundtrack, tons of pretty people and lots of drug references. Unfortunately, neither the yet-untapped majesty of Jack Black nor the combined might of two Hollywood spawn were able to completely save “Orange County” from the weight of teen movie clichés.
“Orange County” is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. All of the main actors are enjoyable in their roles and the lengthy list of cameos from comedy legends help support the film’s laugh-ratio.
Unfortunately, the film does not play as well for me now as it did when I first watched it as a high school junior.
It’s not the film’s fault, though. It’s me.
Back in high school, with the world’s possibilities laid out at my feet, “Orange County” spoke to the part of me who was still convinced that I could do anything if I set my heart to it. I identified with Hank’s character, a wannabe writer. I even learned a valuable lesson from the film — it doesn’t matter where you do what you do, as long as you keep doing it.
This movie-inspired lesson was a major factor in deciding where to go to school and what to study.
Now, looking back at the film seven years of disappointment later, I see the movie with a cynic’s eyes. While the movie’s lesson is no less valid, I grew angry with myself for having not actually learned the lesson I thought I did.
I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was in high school. When I realized I was not going to convince my parents to support me through film school, I told myself that I would continue to hone my craft while I went through business school. Just because I didn’t get a formal education in film didn’t mean I couldn’t pursue my dreams.
After high school, though, I only picked up a camera one more time. With school, a job and new friends tugging at my time, I made a conscious choice to leave my dreams of being a film director behind along with my high school locker combination and my letterman jacket, all trappings of a life I no longer led.
I betrayed my dreams of being a filmmaker and “Orange County” just served to remind me of this fact. Thanks a bunch, jerks.
