Can't Hardly Wait | | Cast : | Jennifer Love Hewitt | | Director : | Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 12, 1998 | | DVD Released Date : | May 22, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 29, 2005 | | Summary | Where's the directors cut? | Content
 | If you listen to the commentary, there is so much talk about how awesome the movie could have been. I love the movie, but all the talk about the crying drunk girl, stoner people and spike watermelon kinda leaves you wanting more. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 14, 2005 | | Summary | Would that it were so! | Content
| This is not a particularly great movie except for one thing. It restores the balance of karma by trying to put all the wrongs from the average high school to right.
The setting is a high school graduation party. Everyone shows up but nothing turns out as expected. The geek winds up with the girl of his dreams. The nerd becomes stud for a night and the most popular guy in school while extracting long deserved vengeance from the jock who tormented him for four years. The jock reaps the bitter harvest of what he has sown and winds up as a loser. The least popular girl in school finds love. All the wrongs are righted. It is a fantasy of the first order in this respect.
This film is good for a few laughs. It is nothing to get all excited about except for those of us who did suffer through high school. For us, it is a vicarious thrill to see all of the wishes fulfilled. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for Jennifer Love Hewitt to show up on my doorstep but it is nice to wonder about such things. I'll probably die of old age before my school bully runs out of money from his pro football contract but it's nice to think it could be otherwise. That's what this movie is all about wish fulfillment for those of us who were not of the IN crowd.
The acting and entertainment rate 3 stars. The concept and wish fulfillment get 5 (only because more is not an option). I split the difference at 4.
Enjoy and think of what could have been.
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| Rating | | | Date | March 18, 2005 | | Summary | coming from her biggest fan... | Content
| this is my favorite movie. i think it is really funny and has a good story to it. i admit that there are some stupid parts, but i think every movie has those. i think anybody who went to high school can relate to this movie. it has all of the hs stereotypes as characters. its one of those movies that makes you laugh, but it also has parts where you feel bad for the characters. i think jenna elfman and melissa joan hart give off excellent cameos and cant forget about jerry o'connell either. i think ethan embry (preston) does a great job in this movie and i think they did a terrific casting job as far as jennifer love hewitt playing amanda beckett, "the dream girl". you havent lived until you have seen this movie :) |
| Rating | | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | Lauren Ambrose and a great soundtrack are not quite enough | Content
| "Can't Hardly Wait" is the "American Graffiti" for this generation of actors and actresses. Not because it is a classic coming of age film that will be remembered fondly for years and years but because you will recognize a dozen of familiar faces that have become a whole lot more familiar since this movie came out in 1998. Talking strictly in television terms that is Jennifer Love Hewitt from "Party of Five," Ethan Embry from "FreakyLinks," Lauren Ambrose, Freddy RodrÃguez, Eric Balfour and Peter Facinelli from "Six Feet Under," Seth Green, Paige Moss and Amber Benson from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Selma Blair from "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane," Nicole Bilderback from "Dawson's Creek," Donald Faison from "Felicity" and "Scrubs," and I am sure more, but that list is more than enough to prove my point. Oh, Jenna Elfman from "Dharma and Greg" and Melissa Joan Hart from "Sabrina." Should not forget those two.
This is one of those movies when a senior class has a big blow out to celebrate graduation and some house gets totally trashed while the parents are away. This year the party is at the house of Molly (Michelle Brookhurst), who is identified in the credits as "Girl Whose Party It Is." The major development is that Amanda Beckett (Love Hewitt), the prom/queen cheerleader has broken up with jock boyfriend Mike Dexter (Facinelli), which has inspired Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) to have hope. He has loved her from afar for all four years of high school. An aspiring writer, Preston wrote a love letter to Amanda as a freshman and tonight he thinks fate is telling him to give her that letter. After all, Barry Manilow's "Mandy" is on the radio.
The other three characters who would be seated at the dais are Denise Fleming (Ambrose), who is Preston's friend and apparently the only sane member of the senior class, William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo), the class super brain who comes to his first party armed with a chart that will help him figure out how much to drink and remain sober, and Kenny Fisher (Green), who has come to the party for the sole purpose of having sex that night and who talks like a black rapper despite the fact he is really, really white. He is not alone in this regard, although he will not run into some real African Americans who are not amused by their antics. Actually, "Can't Hardly Wait" is one of those movies where they try really hard to be amusing and it rarely works.
Granted, part of the problem is that I am at the age where when I watch a movie like this I cannot help but have nightmarish visions of it being my house being destroyed by a teenager kegger. I should identify with Preston, since I did my fair share of pinning for high school girls from afar, but there is so much going on that he gets lost in the proceedings. Besides, Jennifer Love Hewitt gets the top billing but the stand out performance is Lauren Ambrose, which is exactly as it should be if we are talking most talented actress and most interesting character.
I was leaning towards at least enjoying this film on its own terms, but then there was a scene where a blast from the past shows up at the party. Trip McNeely (Jerry O'Connell) and has a "deep conversation" with Mike Dexter, his heir as it were, and pretty much dumps a "meaningful message" into the film. I am not sure if it is too little too late or insult to injury, but it is one of those. That means that "Porky's" is a better film than this one (and funnier too). "Can't Hardly Wait" has a better soundtrack, which should not be the main reason for recommending a film, but in this case it is the truth. Still, as long as Lauren Ambrose is in a film you have a reason to see the DVD and not skip ahead directly to the CD. |
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