Orange County (2002)

Directed by: Jake Kasdan | 82 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Schuyler Fisk, Bret Harrison, Kyle Howard, John Lithgow, Chevy Chase, Kevin Kline, Ben Stiller, RJ Knoll, Catherine O’Hara, Mike White, Lily Tomlin, Lillian Hurst, George Murdock, Olivia Rosewood, Carly Pope

‘It’s not just a movie. It’s a state of mind,” headlines the “Orange County” movie poster. Given the headline by comedian Jack Black that is also on the poster, you don’t have to take this pretentious statement entirely seriously. When the film was sadly overshot, it turned out that the makers had every right to use this statement. It has become a wonderfully fresh film that takes a run-up to cliché, but then manages to avoid it very cleverly. Entirely in line with production company MTV Films, the story develops super fast, without being portrayed excessively fragmented.

At the helm of ‘Orange County’ is just 29-year-old Jake Kasdan. He is the son of Lawrance Kasdan (writer of ‘Return of the Jedi’, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and more recently ‘Dreamcatcher’ and director of ‘Body Heat’, ‘Silverado ‘ and ‘The Big Chill’) and had little startling on his list of achievements for this film. But the fact that making film is in the blood really splashes off the screen. Looking forward to the next films of his hand.

The actors who play along are all wonderfully on track. Leading actor Colin Hanks is strongly reminiscent of a young Dustin Hoffman (just like this actor in ‘The Graduate’, Hanks lets everything ‘get over him’ in ‘Orange County’) and of course also resembles father Tom Hanks. Catherine O’Hara (“Home Alone”), who plays his girlfriend, seems promising for the future. Comedian Jack Black (‘High Fidelity’, ‘Shallow Hall’, ‘School Of Rock’), can show up as a drowsy brother and of course steals the show with his physical humor. John Lithgow (known from the successful television series ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’) plays the father and also Lily Tomlin (‘Blue in the Face’, ‘Short Cuts’), Harold Ramis (writer of and starring in ‘GhostBusters’ and screenwriter of, among others, ‘Analyze This’ and ‘Analyze That’), Chevy Chase (‘Cops and Robbersons’, ‘Fletch’, ‘Fletch Lives’, ‘Memoirs of An Invisible Man’), Ben Stiller (‘There’s Something About Mary’, ‘Meet The Parents’, ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’) and Kevin Kline (‘A Fish Called Wanda’, ‘In And Out’) show up. In short: there is no shortage of comic talent in ‘Orange County’!

The wonderful atmosphere that characterizes the film is excellently extended in the many extras on the DVD. We get to see many glimpses of the town of Orange County, based on richly shot extra meters of film. Jack Black in particular appears to be in top form. During ‘video recordings’ that he and his brother shoot to convince the admissions committee, he pulls out the strangest stitches in the background. Seeing is believing.

Although it may sound like this: ‘Orange County’ has not become a flat comedy, but rather manages to distinguish itself from the dozens of American shit and pee jokes or films that have to rely on other films that have been tearing down on the big screen in recent years. be thrown. It has become a sharp feel-good movie that offers a bright future for lead actor Colin Hanks and director Jake Kasdan.