REVIEWS

"CAN'T HARDLY WAIT"

I was SO beyond wanting to hate this movie. BIG time! I absolutely HATE movies like this. You know, the "hip, cool" movies. The ones like "Empire Records" (where the cool record store people feel sorry for the kid pointing a gun at them because he just wants to fit in, so they make him an honorary record store worker) or "Reality Bites" (where they supposedly prove that the era of "The Brady Bunch" is over because "Mr. Brady" died of A.I.D.S.). UGH!! Well, I was dragged to the movie, and I somehow managed to not hate it as much as I wanted to. As a matter of fact, some parts were damn near pretty good!

The movie stars Ethan Embry, who will forever be burned in my brain as that really annoying loud guy in "Empire Records" (but back then, his name was Ethan Randall). His love interest in the movie (and the only reason why I didn't absolutely refuse to see the movie) is Jennifer Love Hewitt. I figured that if the movie sucked as much as I thought it would, at least I'd have Hewitt to look at. The thing is, she isn't the most appealing one in the movie. That role went to Lauren Ambrose. Mind you, she isn't the hottie that Hewitt is, but her character in the movie was witty, intelligent, and just enjoyable to watch. The movie also features Seth Green (the red-headed, freckle-faced guy that's been seen a lot lately, especially in the TV version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), and he's great here as the hip-hop homie-g who isn't NEARLY as cool as he thinks he is. Charlie Korsmo (the kid in "Dick Tracy" and "What About Bob") is the geek in the movie. I feel horrible saying this, but he was very well-cast. There are a couple of cameos, but I'm not sure if they'd be considered cameos because most people know that they're in it.

The movie was written and directed by the team of Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan. This is their first time as directors, but they wrote "A Very Brady Sequel" together, a movie I don't like to admit that I really enjoyed. As directors, I think they're pretty good. As writers, they're good for the wacky stuff, but I think they took themselves too seriously at times. I mean, Ethan Embry's character was so pathetic over Jennifer Love Hewitt, I kinda wished she'd tell him off. I mean, he was worse than how Nicolas Cage was to Meg Ryan in "City of Angels." And that's BAD!!

There was some really clever stuff in the movie. I love the way the characters were explained in the beginning. But my biggest complaint is that the stereotypes and clichéd characters were unoriginal. We've seen them all before.

In the end, I think what saved this movie was the acting, especially by Seth Green and Lauren Ambrose. They have some great moments together, and I kinda woulda liked to see more of them. But they're not as "Hollywood"-looking as Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ethan Embry. Just more interesting (Sorry, Jennifer).

Scale of 1-10: 6