Movie Review: Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) seen on DVD

Comedy: some scenes may not be suitable for young children; sexual content and language throughout

The movie follows a group of high school students following graduation who plan a party as word spreads that the most popular girl in school is now single leading to most of the men vying for her attention.

The movie begins with a voiceover from many of the graduating students who have heard rumors that Amanda Beckett, (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt,) has just broke up with her boyfriend. A party is planned to celebrate the end of high school which most of the men hope she is able to attend, but none more than Preston. A flashback shows him arriving late on the first day of school due to missing the bus where Amanda had also shown up late. After realizing that they sit next to each other in class and eat the same thing for breakfast, (pop tarts,) Preston believes that it is fate for him and Amanda to be together until another student named Mike Dexter is tasked with giving her a tour of the school during which he asks her out successfully thus ruining Preston’s chance with her.

Preston is shown to be depressed over never having the chance to be with her and says he may not attend the party if she does not attend it. He later changes his mind when his friends convince him to go. As Amanda arrives at the party, she ignores Preston until he decides to retrieve a letter he wrote her back when the two were in school and tries to give it to her to read. However, when he sees her in an intimate moment with another guy, (not realizing it wasn’t consensual on her end,) he gives up believing he has once again wasted his chance with her. He trashes the note which in turn lands on the ground and goes flying when the trash can gets knocked over and through a series of events, the note lands in a bowl right where Amanda is sitting. He decides to take a drive in his car to drown his sorrows when he learns that the radio station is allowing questions to Barry Manilow as to how to cope when the girl of your dreams is lost. Through several attempts to get through on the phone, he gets nothing but busy signals until he is interrupted by a woman in an angel costume just as he gets through. She forces him off the phone as she believes her emergency is more important than his, (to call a taxi after her car broke down.)

Meanwhile back at the party, Amanda looks for Preston and ends up on the receiving end of sexual harassment from the other party guests. As she makes her way outside, she finds Preston who attempts to explain that the note was from him. Unfortunately, Amanda dismisses this as more sexual harassment, (not realizing it’s Preston,) and tells him off before leaving. When she sees his picture in a yearbook, she makes every attempt to find him now realizing he was the one who wrote the letter. She is unable to locate him at the party and it ends without the two finding each other.

The next morning, Preston realizes that he must accept the fact that he and Amanda will never be together although he is able to maintain a positive attitude despite this, admitting that it just wasn’t meant to be.

As he is about to leave the train station, (as he was moving before the events of the film took place,) he bumps into Amanda and after the two share a conversation, he picks up his bags and attempts to leave only to run back and share an intimate moment with Amanda. The caption then reads that Preston was able to catch another train seven hours later with him and Amanda now as a couple. The caption ends by saying that Amanda writes him every day as the credits roll.

This was a movie that I was really looking forward to viewing. I found the DVD copy of it at a thrift store but never really had a chance to watch it. In the meantime, I obtained this website where the purpose of it was to write movie reviews. Well, this movie was too good not to review. I’m a big fan of rom coms as well as being a fan of things from the 1990’s as this was the decade I was born. I find that they don’t make movies like this anymore. Most movies nowadays are too predictable and not as good as they were back then.

I have to take issue with who they chose to play the “hot girl” in this movie as Jennifer Love Hewitt just doesn’t fit the bill as far as I’m concerned. As a matter of fact, there were only about two names in this movie that I recognize, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Seth Green who plays a side character in this movie.

I also found that the bully in this movie was too soft and defeated easily. After being rejected by Amanda, he pretty much allows himself to be laughed at without really defending himself where I would think most bullies, (especially one who has lost a chance at being with the hottest girl in school,) would have acted like the stereotypical bully and beat up others who made fun of him and was hostile towards them, etc. I find he gave up too easily.

It was well worth the wait to see this movie. I would definitely recommend it.

Movie rating: 10 out of 10