Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Directors:

Harry Elfont
Deborah Kaplan

Writers (WGA):

Deborah Kaplan (written by) &
Harry Elfont (written by)

Release Date:

12 June 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

For the class of 1998, the last night of high school is the first night of the rest of their lives.

Plot:

Multicharacter teenage comedy about high school graduates with different agenda of life on graduation night.

Plot Keywords:

Party | High School | Graduation | Letter | Nerd

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Jennifer Love Hewitt	...	Amanda
Ethan Embry	...	Preston
Charlie Korsmo	...	William
Lauren Ambrose	...	Denise
Peter Facinelli	...	Mike
Seth Green	...	Kenny
Michelle Brookhurst	...	Girl Whose Party It Is
Alexander Martin	...	Exchange Student
Erik Palladino	...	Cousin Ron
Channon Roe	...	Jock #1
Sean Patrick Thomas	...	Jock #2
Freddy Rodríguez	...	Jock #3 (as Freddy Rodriguez)
Joel Michaely	...	X-Phile #1
Jay Paulson	...	X-Phile #2
Brian Hall	...	Real Homeboy

Also Known As:

The Party (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for teen drinking and sexuality, and for language.

Runtime:

100 min | Argentina:101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS (as Sony Dynamic Digital Sound)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14A | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | France:U | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #35793)

Filming Locations:

Dutton's Bookstore - 11975 San Vicente Boulevard, Reseda, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Filming the final scenes of the party meant a chaotic destruction of the house. Directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont gave the go-ahead to completely trash the place. This involved the cast and crew pulling out drawers, dropping food all over the floor, messing up the carpets, and someone spray painting "This Party Sucked" on the front door. This all happened in one hour. The yearbook that Melissa Joan Hart uses in the movie is from a Philadelphia-area high school named Plymouth-Whitemarsh. The students' pages shown in the movie are really the teachers' pages in the actual yearbook.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Amanda takes a bite of the strawberry pop-tart, she places it back on the middle of the desk. When the camera returns, the pop-tart is at the end of the desk and falls off.

Quotes:

Matt, Watermelon Guy: [holds up a watermelon] I filled this with seven bottles of vodka last year! This has been in my freezer since last September...
[everyone grabs at the watermelon and it drops on the floor, splattering into many pieces]
Matt, Watermelon Guy: Nooooooooo!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Chuck: Chuck Versus the Cougars (#2.4)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Lucas With The Lid Off

One of the better teen comedies.

Again, like the many, many teen comedies to come before it, CAN'T HARDLY WAIT has you watching as the teenagers run around, crack jokes, yell at each other, scream, drink beer, and kiss and fall in love. Yes, it's all very mushy and romantic. Not so much in this movie...

Like 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, this movie doesn't really concentrate on the romantic elements until later in the film, which I like. It is more original and gives the movie more flavor. This is why most of these teen romance flicks are not really big at the box office. Its because they are predictable, they have been done a thousand times before and because everyone knows how it will turn out. That is why horror movies are always big. Because at least with a horror movie you usually have to figure out who the masked killer is or something like that. But with these boring teen comedies, you always know how it will turn out. This movie is different.

You never really know what is going to happen, because this movie takes the honor of having a very large cast of characters and follows each of them very specifically, developing a story and history for each of them. The cast includes Ethan Embry, Seth Green, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Melissa Joan Hart, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Jenna Elfman, Breckin Meyer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Brandon Williams, Jaime Pressly, Liz Stauber, Clea DuVall, Brian Klugman, and Jerry O'Connel have parts in this movie. Many of these people only have small cameos, but all are hilarious in this delightfully funny teen romp.

CAN'T HARDLY WAIT gets 5/5.