Movie #366 - Can't Hardly Wait

Can't Hardly Wait
1998 - Rated PG-13 - 1 hr 40 min
Directors: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan
Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green, Freddy Rodriguez,  Sean Patrick Thomas, Donald Faison, Jaime Pressly, Selma Blair, Jason Segel, Chris Owen

Oh, high school. This movie came out the year before I graduate high school, so the whole party-before-college premise rung true for me at the time.  Jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, and X-filers alike can revel in this movie's accurate rendering of high school in the 90s.  And what a cast... so many great bit parts played by actors who have real careers now!

See if you can spot Selma Blair. Or how about Jason Segel?  Yep, that's him all right!  This was fun to revisit after so much time has passed.  Not only could I still remember my favorite lines, but finding all these "new" faces in the crowd became a game for me. 

Anyway, it's no Oscar winner, nor does it have the kind of original plot that keeps you riveted.  The characters are stereotypes, the acting's okay, but the real joy here is in what it represents for me.  If you didn't graduate high school in the late 90s, this might not strike the same chord for you.

Movie #291 - I Love You, Man

I Love You, Man
2009 - Rated R - 1 hr 45 min
Director: John Hamburg
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Sarah Burns, Jaime Pressly, Jon Favreau, Jane Curtin, JK Simmons, Andy Samberg

Who doesn't love this movie? Paul Rudd's so adorably awkward that you can't help but laugh.  And the modern bro-mance is forever captured here on film.  The twist on the rom-com is clever and the relationship between our two "bros" is fun and realistic. It may not be heavy on the thinking, but it's a good laugh.

It's also nice to see the Hulk working again, sleeper holds and all.  The Lou Ferrigno subplot is one of the best parts of this movie, as well as the Rush concert cameo.  There's enough here to make this a great comedy, even if the plot is a tad bit predictable.  But hey, isn't using two dudes in a rom-com enough of a twist to keep things interesting?