Director: Harry Elfont ,Deborah Kaplan
Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt,Ethan Embry,Lauren Ambrose,Seth Green
As much as I wanted not to like this movie, I ended up enjoying it. Don’t listen to the critics, who naturally hated it because it lacked “a plot,” “good scriptwriting,” and “character development”—who needs these anyway? The point is it was entertaining, and that’s all that matters.
This movie basically consists of a setting, with no plot as far as I could tell. It follows the events at a high school graduation party at some high-strung girl’s house, where it seems that the entire class has shown up to party. Naturally the scene is complete chaos, with nerds, jocks, skaters, goths, winners, and wannabes all joining forces for one night of drinking and partying. Superimposed on this wild scene is the mission of one graduating senior, Preston Myers (Ethan Embry), to win the hand of his high school crush, Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt), whom he has been pining for in silence since freshman year. There were some other funny “subplots” (a generous term) involving a nerd gone wild, a wannabe trying way too hard to be popular (Seth Green), a creepy second-cousin, and an angel-stripper played by Jenna Elfman (not quite what you think…remember, this movie is only rated PG-13!).
Can’t Hardly Wait is one of those movies with a bunch of actors that you’ve seen before but can’t quite place. I did figure out a few of them: the annoying yearbook girl is the girl from “Clarissa Explains It All” (a.k.a. Melissa Joan Hart); the drummer in the band is Stacey Dash’s boyfriend in Clueless; one of the jock guys’ girlfriends is the girl from Poison Ivy III (don’t ask me how I knew that); and the washed-up former high school “hottie” character was in Jerry Maguire, and I think somewhere else, too…
This movie did have some seriously annoying aspects to it, though. For one, the spoiled little rich kid factor was off the charts. I wish one of my friends had a beautiful abandoned mansion! Number two, when has there ever been a high school graduation party where everyone is invited? Even open invitations don’t draw kids from all walks of life, but this movie brings everybody together as one happy family—yeah right, like jocks and skaters could ever share the same room together. And third, has there ever been a high school with this many hot girls? And I suppose the girls in the audience drool over all the hottie guys in this movie, too—a little eye candy for everybody. But I guess if I can overlook the complete lack of a plot, then I can overlook these minor details as well.
Basically, if you’re a stuffy movie critic, this is one of the worst movies of all time, but if you’re a teenager, it just about hits the spot. Don’t expect real life to be anything like this flick, especially considering the fact that most of the stars in the movie are in their 20’s. Also, if you have even half a clue, you will probably be sickened by the blatant stereotyping in this movie, but if you can ignore that—and a bunch of other problems—you might actually like it.
