कांट हार्डली वेट

Gotta love the awesome 90s vibes and all star cast. There isn't a plot, but it doesn't really matter. Just one raucous house party with hilarious antics and a warm fuzzy ending.

In the wake of the John Hughes teen-flick boom of the '80s, the '90s was well-stocked with a plethora of coming-of-age films aimed at teenagers. Some were better ("Dazed & Confused") than others ("Empire Records"), but regardless of where you stood on the social ladder, there was most assuredly a film tailor-made just for you. For every "She's All That," there was a "The Craft." Perhaps no film so perfectly encapsulated the late '90s vibe better than "Can't Hardly Wait," a film named after a Replacements song jam packed with music from the likes of Eve 6 and Blink-182. Arriving just one year before "American Pie" would close the decade with a definitive thrust, "Can't Hardly Wait" didn't exactly make a big splash upon release, but has proved to be one of the most re-watchable of its time and of its kind.

It's the last day of high school at Huntington Hillside and the class of '98 packs into the house of one of its more unfortunate classmates for one last hoorah. A virtual melting pot of geeks, stoners, jocks, morons and miscreants, this is a party for just about everyone. Most prominent is our lead character, Preston (played by Ethan Embry, recalling a time when the actor was known as more than "that creepy guy" from any number of horror/thrillers), who is taking advantage of the occasion to finally tell the girl of his dreams, Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt, recalling a time when the actress was the "it" girl), just how much he admires her. He's been silently stalking her through the halls, writing a long-winded love letter that he plans on giving to her tonight (because that's not creepy or anything). On the other side of the party, disgruntled nerd William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) seeks revenge against his tormentor, the insufferable jock Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli), who -- depending on who you ask -- is either a god, a role model or an a-hole.

The guest list is jam-packed with a slew of actors who were either in every other film of its era or who would go on to do bigger gigs. From Seth Green's wannabe poser, to the criminally underrated Lauren Ambrose (who turns into Green's unlikely love interest), you can't throw a cat in this film without hitting a "Hey, I know that guy/girl!" Jason Segal, Selma Blair, Jerry O'Connell, Breckin Meyer, Clea DuVall, Freddy Rodriguez, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly and Jenna Elfman, playing an angelic stripper. This film is stacked with young talent. Thankfully, none of this ever feels cluttered or disjointed. Directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont duck in and out of different social circles with ease, delivering a memorable moment just about every other minute. The film is high-energy and the cast is more than up to the task of making the sum greater than its parts. Though Green and Ambrose nearly hijack the narrative with their natural chemistry, the film truly belongs to the entire cast.

More than just a time capsule, "Can't Hardly Wait" is a great example of a teen flick done just right. The audience is never insulted, though there is admittedly more than enough sentiment on hand. Unlike the aforementioned "American Pie," the film never goes for gross and never cheapens its characters. These feel like real people having a real experience. Though it didn't have as big an impact as it should've, chances are, if you came of age during the late '90s and saw this film, it's an undeniable part of your DNA at this point. Insanely re-watchable, even those of us in our '30s and even '40s (!) will find it worth revisiting from time to time, unlike our actual high school experiences.

Yeah, yeah. It is the girl, it is the boy, it is the crazy one, it is the geek, it is the popular one, it is the party. I know all those things that most of the time come along in the package of a teen movie. But this film is really one good piece. I can't say great, but I can't also say bad.

Here, unlike many teen comedies, we get to meet the characters. To know details and things about them, because they aren't comic creatures. They aren't one dimensional, you know? It always happen that some characters just got to be there, and don't have much development, but some others do. And it's not easy to create much development for one night only, because there is only a party.

This guy, Preston. He is totally mad for this girl, so that he thinks they are meant to be. And maybe they really are. And this girl, is so trapped in her world (no matter what that world is), that she's not looking anywhere else. And if she looks, it might be too late. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ethan Embry are more than alright for this characters. She (Hewitt)is gorgeous, and she doesn't need a lot of effort to play Amanda's part. It's just the part of a gorgeous girl. He (Embry) is impressive. In his eyes you can see that he has been left aside, most of the time. Embry gives some kind of depth to his characters, even if he doesn't have to. I liked him in "White Squall" and I understand him here.

The rational character is Denise. She doesn't want anything to happen but she hasn't even tried. Ambrose gives simply the best performance of the movie. And Seth Green made me laugh. His character, Kenny, wants anything to happen, but he has looked to much, and needs to stop a little bit. As for William, well, he is that neutral character, he needs some new things in his routine. His life has been the same for too long. Many things could happen in this party.

All the rest of the cast is in and out, going and leaving, talking, remembering. High School is ending, it must be enjoyed, I think.

Last, but not least: there's fate...

After a while, it's hard to remember back to that immortality of youth that this movie captures in a very clever way. The number of now famous actors and actresses who pop up in this epic is amazing. The characters are well polished: The jerks are jerkier, the nerds are nerdier, the jocks are even more jocked up, and as a boy who remembers what it was like to love the most popular girl from afar, the pain you suffered with that love was of a white hot intensity that the hero of this movie could not let go, much to his betterment, and to my loss (I didn't go, and she never knew).

Brilliant.

I am a product of the 80's slasher film and the teenage film generation. Films in the 80's like Fast Times, Wild Life, Revenge of the Nerds and Ferris Bueller's Day Off and such, were films that may not have been classics to the critics, but to a fifteen year old boy, they were our Citizen Kane. They taught us how to pick up women, how to attempt to have sex, how to skip school and why to skip school. They taught us that parents and adults really don't understand us and that kids really aren't that bad, we just want to have a bit of fun before life gets too serious. We have all been through emotions and experiences like the ones that those movies preach about, so it is easy for us to relate to what those films are trying to say. And it makes it that much more fun to relive those experiences ten years later. Can't Hardly Wait is the closest to an 80's teen film that I have seen in quite some time. Compared to films like the aforementioned Never Been Kissed and even She's All That, this movie is a classic.

The film was written and directed by Harry Elfont and Debra Kaplan, and if they are not about my age ( late 20's ) they certainly are lovers of 80's teen films, because it shows here that they did their homework. Some of the scenes in this film are complete homages to great 80's films like Sixteen Candles ( the two geeks on the roof ) Wild Life ( a huge party where some of the characters grow up and learn a bit about themselves and each other) and even Say Anything ( a not so popular guy in love with the school hotty.) It seems to me that Harry and Debra are lovers of the films that made growing up in the eighties so much fun.

The story is about a party on the day of the completion of exams. Here we meet all the major players in the film. And yes, they are all contrived, but that is what a film like this is about. They were not trying to re-invent the wheel here, they were trying to stick to a formula that made so many movies work. You have Amanda Beckett ( Hewitt ), the prom queen that just got broken up with by the star jock named Mike Dexter ( played with so much zeal by Peter Facinelli, look for him to have a future in Hollywood ). Then you have Preston ( Ethan Embry ) who is not necessarily a geek but he is far from a popular jock, think of Dawson. Anyway, he has loved Amanda for all of highschool and now he is finally getting the guts to tell her of his undying passion for her. You also have William Lichter, who is the school geek that comes of age in the party. He does all the things that you would expect a typically written geek in a film to do--- get drunk, have a public display of wildness that gets people to see him in a new light, and of course, in here it is his karaoking to Paradise City ( which is one of the film's funnier scenes ) and of course get laid. As I said, this movie sticks to a very popular formula. Don't look for a film like this to say new and something profound about today's youth. This movie is here to entertain and that is it. And it does that well.

Also you have Kenny Fischer ( Seth Green ) as a very white guy who thinks he is black to cover up his insecurities, and his friend from public school named Denise. Needless to say many issues are going to be raised at the party and some of them are hilarious.

A great cameo is turned in by Jerry O'Connell who plays Trip McNeely ( the ultimate jock name ). He was idolized by all the cool kids when he went to their high school. Now he is in university and according to him , in a converstion with Mike Dexter, he tells him that " guys like me and you bro are a dime a dozen. Chicks are a lot different in college. They care about the environment and things and they all date guys that are in pre-med. " It is a very funny scene.

What makes this movie so much fun to watch is that it is reminiscent of an 80's film. And that is the highest compliment that I can give it. Because, just like they don't know how to make movies like Halloween and Nightmare On Elm Street anymore, they sure as hell don't know how to make films like Breakfast Club, The Sure Thing and Secret Admirer. But this film comes really close to being like those. And if you remember those ones as films that were some of your favorites when you were sixteen, see this, it will make you laugh and entertain you, and that is an accomplishment on its own.