This is a better film than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be just Jack Black being funny, which would have been great, but Orange County and Colin Hanks surprised me. Orange County had depth.
Colin Hanks, son of Tom, plays Shaun Brumder, a high school senior who wants to study writing at Stanford. He has the grades and the talent, but he lacks help from everyone around him. His guidance counselor sends in the wrong transcripts, his mother is a raging alcoholic, his father is a rich prick, and his brother burns down the admissions building.
Hanks is persistent in following through on his dream and with the help of his brother Lance-- played by Jack Black-- and his girlfriend, Schuyler Fisk, they go though mad-capped schemes to get him admitted for the fall.
Black was very funny. He didn't have the lead role, but he didn't need to. He was a very funny supporting character like he was in Saving Silverman ( 2000 ). Fisk was also great. She was the supportive girlfriend who didn't want to lose her boyfriend.
But Hanks was the Diet Coke in this film. He portrayed a man on his own trying to acheive a dream, something that his father's characters never did. Gump had Bubba, that Castaway guy had the volleyball, but not Shaun Brumder, he did this one on his own.
As far as the DVD went, it had some great special featues, including about a dozen trailers I hadn't seen featuring Black and some featuring a high school English class. Very funny.
This is definitely a very funny movie and who knows, you might just learn something about yourself.
