`CAN'T HARDLY WAIT' PARTIES ON.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic Mix old cliches and a dash of new, instant stereotypes, add alcohol, and crank up the music. That's the recipe for ``Can't Hardly Wait,'' a teen party comedy that people too young to have seen better versions of the same thing will probably think gets it right. Actually, in spite of its derivative superficiality, the movie throws a decent enough party. It has some funny gags, it moves along at an agreeable clip, and as the night in question stumbles toward pass-out time, the camerawork gets appropriately sloppier. Game young actors embody their prefab roles with all the conviction they could be expected to muster. And the one good idea freshmen writer-directors Harry Elfont and Donna Kaplan came up with - that these graduating high schoolers come to the party wearing fake adolescent identities, but leave stripped down to truer, better selves - gives this otherwise frivolous endeavor a trickle of self-esteem. Basically, there's a big, unsupervised, end-of-school blowout at some frantic girl's house, everyone goes, gets humiliated hu·mil·i·ate tr.v. hu·mil·i·at·ed, hu·mil·i·at·ing, hu·mil·i·ates To lower the pride, dignity, or self-respect of. See Synonyms at degrade. and tears up the place. It boasts neither the polished nostalgia of ``American Graffiti'' nor the raucous subversiveness of ``Dazed daze tr.v. dazed, daz·ing, daz·es 1. To stun, as with a heavy blow or shock; stupefy. 2. To dazzle, as with strong light. n. A stunned or bewildered condition. and Confused,'' but there have certainly been teen comedies with less going for them. Bottom line: If there are chunks of your formative years that you don't remember too clearly, you were probably at bashes like this one. Among the hundreds of attendees, the honored guests are: Preston (Ethan Embry Ethan Embry (born June 13, 1978) is an American actor, aka Ethan Randall.[1] Embry was born in Huntington Beach, California to Karen (Daugherty) and Charles Rendall.[2] He started acting in 1991, at age thirteen. ), a sensitive, aspiring writer who sees tonight as his big chance to approach the girl he's been pining for since freshman year; Amanda (``Party of Five's'' Jennifer Love Hewitt), the homecoming queen and Preston's object of affection, who has just become available; Mike (Peter Facinelli Peter Facinelli (born November 26 1973) is an American actor, perhaps best-known as the star of FOX's 2002 television series Fastlane. Biography Facinelli grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, in a family with a rich Italian-American heritage[1]. , doing a wicked sendup of Tom Cruise's mannerisms), the egotistical campus sports star who's dumped longtime squeeze Amanda so he can play the field at college; and William (Charlie Korsmo) who, with his ``X-Files''-worshiping fellow nerds, has plotted an elaborately stupid revenge against the bullying Mike. There's also Preston's friend and anti-social smart girl Denise (Lauren Ambrose), who gets locked in an upstairs bathroom with the ridiculous Kenny (Seth Green), a white suburban kid who affects the attitude of an inner-city gangsta Noun 1. gangsta - (Black English) a member of a youth gang AAVE, African American English, African American Vernacular English, Black English, Black English Vernacular, Black Vernacular, Black Vernacular English, Ebonics - a nonstandard form of American English . Other guests fade briefly in and out of focus, Jenna Elfman makes an amusing cameo cameo (kăm`ēō), small relief carving, usually on striated precious or semiprecious stones or on shell. The design, often a portrait head, is commonly cut in the light-colored vein, and the dark one is left as the background. as a strip-teasing angel, and, for reasons best left unexamined, the music of Barry Manilow  This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.You can assist by [ editing it] now. achieves a kind of cosmic significance. But the main show here involves watching the six key characters mutate mu·tate intr. & tr.v. mu·tat·ed, mu·tat·ing, mu·tates To undergo or cause to undergo mutation. [Latin m and recombine re·com·bine v. To undergo or cause genetic recombination; form new combinations. in both predictable and unlikely patterns. Indeed, ``Can't Hardly Wait'' has something of a high-school science project feel in the way it tosses a few basic elements together, introduces some simple narrative catalysts and then waits for the sparks and smells to go off. But you could also say it's like cinematic party punch, laced with too much mind-numbing stuff to actually be good but definitely capable of getting the job done. THE FACTS The film: ``Can't Hardly Wait'' (PG-13; language, sex, alcohol abuse). The stars: Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, Jenna Elfman. Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan. Produced by Jenno Topping and Betty Thomas Betty Thomas (born July 27, 1948) is an American actress and director in television and motion pictures. She was born Betty Thomas Nienhauser in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. . Released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: One hour, 36 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Three Stars. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Denise (Lauren Ambrose) and Preston (Ethan Embry) have a talk before going their separate ways after high school in ``Can't Hardly Wait.'' |
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