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Concept movies. Wow. You got to love them.
You know what I'm talking about: Those great movies, usually having those ensemble casts with few marquee names and mostly no-names. Take those important staples such as Independence Day, Volcano and Armageddon, just to name a few from the disaster genre.
But maybe blowing stuff up is not your thing. For some, there is 1993's low-grossing (but cult classic) Dazed and Confused, a blissfully brainless tale about youth and excess.
Well, Can't Hardly Wait has Dazed written all over it.
This movie stars Jennifer Love Hewitt (the one credited big name in the film) and a bunch of other people. It is about drinking and raising hell, there are cops involved, there is coming of age, etc.
Basically, take Dazed, change incoming seniors to outgoing graduates, subtract the pot and the freshmen, and you have Can't Hardly Wait. However, that doesn't mean don't go see it, because it is hilarious.
This film focuses on one night in the lives of six people: Preston (Ethan Embry), the scholarly yet fairly popular guy; Amanda (Hewitt), the most popular girl in school; Mike (Peter Facinelli), the football captain, etc.; Kenny (Seth Green), a gangsta wannabe; William (Charlie Korsmo), the class geek; and Denise (Lauren Ambrose), Preston's best friend .
So, Preston is heading to Dartmouth the day after graduation, never having gotten next to Amanda. He has loved her since freshman year, and wrote a letter (with several hundred revisions) telling her so.
Amanda, however, has never received said letter; Preston has never given it to her because she has been with Mike from day one of high school.
Well, Mike just broke things off with Amanda because he thinks he'll get so much more in college.
So, Preston goes to the big graduation party in hopes of finally spilling his heart out to her, and he drags Denise along.
Kenny goes to the party - with two of his "homies" - with one mission: to get some. William is plotting to go to the party to set Mike up to be publicly humiliated in front of the entire class.
Time passes, Kenny accidentally locks himself in the bathroom, William tries alcohol for the first time, Denise discovers Kenny in the bathroom, Mike tries to get his friends to dump their girlfriends, and without giving anything juicy away ... well, chaos ensues.
The tunes in this movie are pretty good, stretching a span of several years, and just wait 'til you see what happens during Guns 'N'Roses' "Paradise City."
I know Dazed and Confused, I've seen it many times, and this is not Dazed and Confused - but it's just about as much fun.
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