Can't Hardly Wait

1998
PG-13
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

55K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer0:29

Romantic Comedy Teen Comedy Teen Romance Comedy Romance

A complete graduating class, consisting of beautiful girls, geeks and promising footballers, assemble at a rich classmate's residence for a party. Interesting developments follow at the get-... Read allA complete graduating class, consisting of beautiful girls, geeks and promising footballers, assemble at a rich classmate's residence for a party. Interesting developments follow at the get-together.A complete graduating class, consisting of beautiful girls, geeks and promising footballers, assemble at a rich classmate's residence for a party. Interesting developments follow at the get-together.

Directors
- Harry Elfont
- Deborah Kaplan
Writers
- Deborah Kaplan
- Harry Elfont
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

55K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,275

370

Directors
- Harry Elfont
- Deborah Kaplan
Writers
- Deborah Kaplan
- Harry Elfont
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 nominations

Trivia
This was Charlie Korsmo's first on-screen appearance since Hook (1991). He was attending MIT when he was offered the role.

Goofs
When Amanda comes down the stairs her hair is done. In the next shot when she reaches the bottom of the stairs coming in to the yard, her hair is very flat. Then Preston says "Amanda, I love you" she turns around and her hair is done again.

Quotes
[after drinking his first beer and spitting it out]
William: Nobody drink the beer, the beer has gone bad!

Crazy credits
After all the credits are done rolling Mike Dexter yells out "I'll kick everyone's ass in this room" which he said earlier on in the film.

Alternate versions
In order to receive a PG-13 rating, a number of scenes were deleted altogether from the final print. The missing scenes are:
All of the scenes involving a character called the Crying Drunk Girl (Jennifer Elise Cox) who is so drunk that she has subtitles for when she speaks and she is the key to what is going on in the movie. Her missing scenes of dialogue are:
After Preston and Denise talk with the Yearbook Girl, the Crying Drunk Girl walks up to them and says, "Thush bezt weveram sisu gizem chext ear." (subtitle translation: "This is the best party ever! I'm gonna miss you guys next year!) She group hugs them and walks away where Preston says, "There's one at every party."
After Preston walks away from the Exchange Student at the backyard pool, the Crying Drunk Girl walks over to the Exchange Student and says to him, "Idlik tach yre enis!" (I'd like to touch your penis!)
When Kenny and Denise suddenly get locked in the upstairs bathroom and scream "NOOOOO!!!" the tracking shot from the bathroom door leads down the steps directly to the Crying Drunk Girl who somehow hears them and she says "Yerd dum shelling yers chairs." (Did anyone hear that? Somebody's yelling for help upstairs!) But since no one can understand her, no help comes to Kenny or Denise.
When Amanda is talking to the Stoned Guy and the Watermelon Guy about who Preston is, the Crying Drunk Girl stumbles over to Amanda, leans on her shoulder, and says: "Snow stun shy is shy sumber shess sing." (I know who Preston Meyers is. I can give you his phone number, his address, anything.) Unable to understand her, Amanda just shrugs her off and walks away.
During the police raid, one of the cops is talking to the Crying Drunk Girl on the front lawn of the house who asks her to stop crying and speak clearly and she says, "I allred tdya, mnwans is mray hunds, ive at seveithg nolfok. (But I already told you! My name is Mary Hampson and I live and 1781 Norfolk!) Unable to understand her, the cop puts in her in a police van with Kenny's two Homboys and others who include the Hippy Girl, the Headbanger and others.
Also deleted was the scene involving the Stoned Girl (Amber Benson) who is glimpsed holding a banana as William walks through the kitchen to taste his first beer. It takes place in between the scenes where Kenny hits on Ashley and Jana where he sees her leaning against a dining room shelf and talks to her, but all she says is "Okay" everything he says. Then another girl walks in and thanks Kenny for finding her and says that Stephanie (the name of the Stoned Girl) just took three thingies of herbal ecstasy is so out of it. The girlfriend helps the Stoned Girl to her feet and they leave, leaving Kenny alone and downbeat.
Also deleted was the original opening which takes place in a bookstore the day before the graduation where Preston is talking to Denise about his desire for Amanda and his plans for going away to college.
When Kenny and his two homeboys first arrive at the party, Kenny plays around with a large sheepdog, named Mr. Tuxford, at the front door who belongs to the Girl Whose Party It Is, who jumps onto Kenny licking his face where he pushes the dog away who runs out the front door and the Girl runs after him.
There is more dialogue after when Kenny and Denise are released from the upstairs bathroom where the Girl Whose Party It Is continues yelling at Kenny and about the destruction they brought to her house as they are walking down the stairs where the house is now completely deserted and ransacked, and then the Girl's dog runs into the house and she drops to one knee and hugs the dog while Kenny takes this distraction to walk out and follow Denise.
A scene where the Watermelon Guy holds up a large watermelon and says "This was in my freezer since September and I've poured six bottles of vodka into it and I've been saving it for this time!" When all the guys around him grab at it, the watermelon falls on the kitchen floor splattering.
A scene in the "make-out room" where Mike Dexter enters looking for Amanda in the basement lit with dim red light and he turns on the basement lights revealing a dozen or more scantly clad boys and girls necking and shirtless William is among them with one of the Groupies and another girl. William gets up, puts on a blue band shirt, turns the lights back off and follows Mike upstairs after saying he remembers what he was supposed to do tonight.
During the raid when the Yearbook Girl tries getting her yearbook floating on the swimming pool after William throws it in, she falls head first into the pool. She climbs out and runs into a group of kids running from the cops and falls back in the pool again. Then the Reminiscing Guy appears, pulls her out with of the pool as her savior with her yearbook and they make their getaway.
More scenes with William and the Stoned Guy who put marijuana in the mini dinosaur and inhales from the mouth and then gives it to William for a try.
As Preston is walking away from the trash cans after throwing away his letter to Amanda, he passes by a car where a girl's leg is sticking out of a window and the unmistakable sounds of lovemaking are heard from the car.
An extended scene with Kenny and his two Homeboys in the convenience store where they are talking while they are bringing their stuff to the cash register to purchase.
In the scene where the Hippy Girl is tasting a marijuana brownie with the Hippy Guy, she tells him that he's supposed to melt the weed in with the butter, not put it in the mix and then says: "these brownies suck!" and then throws it in the direction of Denise.
The final scene at the diner is expanded with a shot from the Yearbook Girl and the Reminiscing Guy looking at some romance between them, the shot moves to the next booths where they show the band of the bass player, drummer, guitarist and lead singer trying to make sense about the night before, to the Foreign Exchange Student and the Crying Drunk Girl having found each other and both talking in incoherent, nonsense language and understanding each other, to at least two other booths, including the Girl Whose Party it was, before stopping at the booth with Mike Dexter and his jock friends.
The final parts of 'where the characters are now' were changed. The original Kenny and Denise part originally read: Denise dumped Kenny later that day. Denise went to NYU, where she found a whole bunch of people just like her. Bored at it all, she dropped out and started shooting photo covers for Rolling Stone Magazine. She currently directed the latest music video for Wu-Tang Clan.
The original Kenny bit read: Kenny went to UCLA and found a bunch of people just like him. Unable to compete, he reinvented himself as an eco-conscious vegan nudist. He currently lives with a cult in Northern California.
Other character bios read: William's friends, Geoff Piccirilli and Murphy Pelan, did not go to college. They created a comic book called Citizen X about a man with no identity, no Social Security number, nothing, who uses his anonymity to infiltrate numerous conspiracies involving the government, aliens, and the abduction and subsequent probing of them and other innocent people by extraterrestrials. They are currently dating no one.
Another character quote reads: Amanda's cousin, Ron, is currently in prison.
The Girl Whose Party It Is was also featured and it reads: The Girl Whose Party It Was, Molly Stinson, dropped out of college her freshman year to work as an intern for her role model, Martha Stewart. Three months later, she was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. She is currently working as a librarian.
The Crying Drunk Girl's character read: The Crying Drunk Girl, Mary Hampson, attended college for nearly two years, then dropped out to become a tour guide at the White House, a job she still holds. Her favorite times at work is leading groups of school children in an enthusiastic rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Connections
Edited into Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity (1999)

Soundtracks
Can't Hardly Wait
Written by Paul Westerberg
Performed by The Replacements
Courtesy of Sire Records
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User reviews293

Review

Featured review

7/10

Oh look, it's the 90s!

Wow, Blink 182, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, Tupac RIP references, Dharma (but not Greg) {Jenna Elfman}, that guy with the high pitched voice from Empire Records (Ethan Embry) and OMGZ!!! is that the little kid from Hook (1991) all grown up (Charles Korsmo)? Looks like this one's about the late 90s, and it's a decent example of a prime vintage.

I can't really explain the nostalgic value of seeing Jerry O'Connell drop in for a cameo, seeing Selma Blair get hit on by Mike Dexter, seeing Sabrina herself Melissa Joan Hart run around like a kid with ADHD and seeing Breckin Meyer ask us if "Anyone ordered a Love Burger?" But it is magic. And if you look really carefully, there's Jaime Pressley and Jason Segel, present at the role call as well.

When they were making this film they were looking for more than a fast hit, casting some popular young actors in a clichéd situation involving a party after the last day of High School. They made a film that encapsulated the time perfectly. Not just the fashions and attitudes, but the way movies were being made, and the way popular culture viewed the world. This movie was accurate to the time by showing its characters to be shallow, materialistic and oblivious. It didn't have anything to say about 90s teen culture, but caught what it was. While I don't give the film credit for its clichéd characterizations, I do give it credit for the way these clichés engage with each other into a coherent, though predictable whole.

The main story being told involves Amanda Beckett, who has just been dumped by her jock boyfriend Mike Dexter. Nerdy classmate Preston Meyers, flanked by his nerdy friend Denise Fleming, decides that this is the night, at the end of High School Party, to confess his love for Amanda. And that's pretty much it. There are a lot of subplots and minor characters but it all happens around the main narrative.

Ethan Embry, as Meyers, is pretty funny, Korsmo, as a vengeful nerd seeking revenge on Mike Dexter for a life time of cruel pranks is actually pretty good. Lauren Ambrose is decent as Denise, but her character is annoying and quite hypocritical. Most of the cast come across well in limited screen time, and some good cameos and funny scenes fort the trailer, with a theme by Smashmouth "I can't get Enough of you Baby," and it was a minor hit at the time it came out.

More than a decade later, Can't Hardy Wait is the ultimate nostalgia fix. It looks like a 90s movie, follows all the conventions of a 90s movie and is made like a 90s movie. Not intelligent, but still entertaining. I'll admit a personal bias, but still recommend it if you are a fan of the era.