76 - Can't Hardly Wait

Connection To JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS - where to start the directors/writers Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan as well as the actors Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison, I'll cheat a little bit and go for Elfont and Kaplan rather then any of the actors.

I'll always have a soft spot for teen comedies even though now it's been 12 years since I last could call myself a teen - though I'm probably close to the ages of some of the actors that tend to be cast for teen, maybe even younger in some cases (wasn't Stockard Channing like 60 when she made Grease - I like Stockard Channing I don't know why I am picking on her), every few years or so comes one that I end up really liking such as Clueless, Mean Girls or Easy-A (these are examples and not the complete list)

This is a preface I perhaps I could have put at the beginning of a teen movie I've already covered, but hey ho, and while I don't believe Can't Hardly Wait is a classic of the genre, the film deserves to better known then it is -

The film mostly takes place over 1 night at a party - a very PG-13 party... literally, scenes and characters where cut to to tone it down the characters include crying drunk girl (Jennifer Elise Cox) and Stoned Girl (Amber Benson), who both still can be glimpsed briefly in the final film.

The film is basically about a high school graduation party and it's various misadventures of the characters who attend it, we have Ethan Embry whose liked Jennifer Love Hewitt for years and plans to pour his heart (in a letter) at the party, her very recent ex-boyfriend Peter Facinelli is also at the party and is trying to convince his friends to dump their girlfriends, we have Lauren Ambrose's snarky friend who gets stuck in the bathroom with gangsta wannabe Seth Green (the two used to be friends) and we have geek Charlie Korsmo vowing to get revenge on Facinelli. These are the principal stories but there are lots and lots of characters seen many of them are familiar faces which I'll get to in a bit.

All these characters are enjoyable to see on the screen and particularly in two of the strands go exactly the way you expect but it's not a bad thing at all, among the other actors who pop include Jaime Pressly, Selma Blair, Jason Segel, Freddy Rodriguez, Erik Palladino, Sara Rue, Clea DuVall, Breckin Meyer, Donald Faison, Jenna Elfman, Jerry O'Connell and Melissa Joan Hart, who I like a lot is stuck with one of the weaker minor-subplots of desperately trying to get her yearbook signed, there's also the other minor-subplot of the girls house who is trying to stop is getting wrecked that is also on the weak side.

It occured to me that with Green, Segel and Benson in the cast - that is all her 3 major TV love interests in one film (Kennedy didn't count), besides that Paige Moss appears who in Buffy was the the lead to Green/Hannigan spiting up (Channon Roe, Nicole Bilderback, Clea DuVall and Eric Balfour all have appeared in Buffy too)

Overall very cool teen movie, I actually prefer it to American Pie, which is the year after and ends with a graduation party so there's a link there and would sooner revisit this, I enjoyed many of the characters even those that make fleeting appearances, so I recommend the film.

75 - Josie and The Pussycats

Connection To SIN CITY - Rosario Dawson

I feel like I should put this bit first before I go any further - I have so much affection for this movie. When I first saw this movie it was love at first sight.

The fact that the IMDB rating is 5.3 and a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (which I guess is the exact same score) makes me think only a small number of people will think it's average will some would have gave it a poor score, whilst others have give it a high score.

I know I heard of the Hanna Barbara cartoon before seeing the film for the first time I can't really remember if I ever saw it, me thinks it must have been on Cartoon Network or similar at one point in the UK and I have seen it (but to be fair certain Hanna Barbara cartoons can merge together).

While the film takes digs at advertising and the like, you could make an argument that it would have hit the nail right on the head if they didn't use actual real companies but still I guess it adds a sense of realism in the film that's not really there otherwise.

The film opens with the boy band Dujour (featuring Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison) performing Backdoor Lover, which does indeed sound like a genuine boyband song from around the time the film was made in 2001, on a plane ride to Riverdale, the boys tell their manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) that they noticed an hidden message strange in their recording, Wyatt decides to parachute out the plane and let the plane crash, in which he lands in Riverdale's home town and needs a new group to latch on, it's then he comes across the girl band then called The Pussycats and begins use them as the new vehicle for doing sublime messages to youngsters.

The pussycats are played by Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val and Tara Reid as Melody - and Say what you want about Reid and the subsequent decade plus but she's absolutely adorable here as the air-headed Melody, I am not saying the makers of Victorious took the character for Cat but you can't certainly see the similarities. I liked the relationship between the three girls and the jealousy of Val towards Josie is built up well throughout the film.

The film villains are Cumming and Parker Posey, I enjoyed them and it seems like there was having a lot of funny going a bit OTT, though the film is usually better when the Pussycats are the screen, Posey has an awesome scene with a Senator. The best Pussycat related scene is probably the TRL scene.

Overall, the songs are catchy (I really like Pretend To Be Nice) and it's very funny even now after multiple viewings, the girls are pretty too look at and like I said have great chemistry, it's just a shame it didn't set the box-office alight and we got a sequel. I still love this film some 12 years after first seeing it.