August 20, 2002 -- Teen comedies are generally abyssmal in quality, and they usually have a very high level of ranuchy, bodily function jokes, but, such movies continue to make money, so they continue to be made. "Orange County," happily, is an exception to the rule. It is a better-written, better directed version of the genre with few raunchy jokes. Instead, it has genuine wit to go along with the usual pratfalls and it has warm-hearted characters.

Jake Kasdan (son of Lawrence) directs this opus about a high school student, Shaun Brumder (Colin Hanks of "Get Over It," he's the son of Tom Hanks), who is an underachieving surfer dude, hanging out at the beach with his buddies, Lonny Munsack (Brett Harrison), Arlo (Kyle Howard) and Chad (RJ Knoll). One day, Lonnie dies in a surfing accident. This causes Shaun to re-think his life. He reads, and re-reads Marcus Skinner's acclaimed novel, "Straight Jacket," and suddenly, he knows what he wants to do with his life. He wants to be an author. He sells his surfboard and gets serious about his studies. He graduates with honors and gets a high SAT score. He is all set to attend Stanford, where Skinner (Kevin Kline) teaches, but his college career is sabotaged when his high school transcript is mixed up with that of a less accomplished student by his befuddled high school academic counselor (Lilly Tomlin).

Then Shaun's brother Lance (Jack Black of "Shallow Hal"), who is constantly stoned and hung over, gets and idea. They will drive to Stanford and straighten the mess out with the dean of admissions. This sets off a hair-raising road trip (Lance is driving) and a comedy of errors of mythic proportions. Just about everything that can go wrong does go wrong. At every turn, Shaun's dysfunctional family seems to sabotage his attempts to get out of Orange County and go to college. Only his girlfriend, Ashley (Schuyler Fisk of "Snow Day"), remains steadfast in her support of him (and even she wants him to stay). His fuzzy-headed mother, Cindy (Catherine O'Hara of "Best in Show") and his indifferent father, Bud (John Lithgow) are of no help. Lance, of course, does more harm than good.

Hanks, Black and Fisk are all very good in this warm-hearted comedy of errors, and the supporting cast is solid with such veteran comic actors as Chevy Chase, Tomlin, Kline, Harold Ramis, Ben Stiller and Lithgow providing quality support. The funniest scenes in the movie involve Shaun's literature teacher, played by Mike White, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie (the versatile White also wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed "The Good Girl"). White is hilarious as a literature teacher who is a lot more interested in movies, television, and movie star gossip than literature. The dynamic Jack Black is also a dominating presence in the film. He reminds me of the immensely talented John Belushi, and he's a better singer.

The cinematography, by Greg Gardiner ("Men in Black II") seemed uneven, but that may have been because of the digital transfer to video (I saw this film for the first time on DVD). The final epilog scene in the film was shot by award-winning cinematrogapher John Toll ("The Thin Red Line"). The epilog scene was added after the rest of the film had been shot, but it works well, so do some other scenes that were shot after the end of the scheduled filming. While the movie does suffer from some of the usual problems of teen comedies (adults that are too stupid to be believable, for instance). This film is definitely a cut above the average for such films. This movie rates a C+. Some people have chosen to attack this film because of the nepotism it represents. Why attack talented people like Jake Kasdan (who also directed the very good detective comedy "Zero Effect") and Colin Hanks, when critics should be attacking the less talented people in Hollywood who would not have gotten into the business without connections? There is so much nepotism in Hollywood it is easier to list the actors and directors who made it on their own (like Harrison Ford) than to single out the ones who have connections.

The DVD has some pretty nice features on it, even though the image quality seemed hit and miss. Features include feature commentary by Jake Kasdan and Mike White. These guys are talented, but they sound like a couple of high school kids discussing a prank. The talk is informative, however, even if the two do get a bit giggly at times. There are four deleted scenes (but not Jack Black's deleted sex scenes Kasdan said were too hot to be included in the film). There are 15 promotional spots, called interstitials, including more hilarious bits with Mike White playing the high school literature teacher. The dual-layered DVD comes in widescreen anamorphic format, with English Dolby (TM) Digital 5.1 and English and French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround audio tracks. English subtitles are also available, along with closed-captioning.

Click here for links to places to buy this movie in video and/or DVD format, the soundtrack, books, even used videos, games and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.