Orange County
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 11, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
15
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Arriving amid the traditionally withered harvest of January releases, Orange County is peachy. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's the new year's first happy surprise. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The movie is hipper than its L.A. establishment credentials would suggest. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
It's one of those movies like "Ghost World" and "Legally Blonde" where the description can't do justice to the experience. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyManohla Dargis
This genial comedy is as unambitious and, at times, as funny as its high concept. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldCharles Savage
Even if the whole of Orange County is less than the sum of its parts, Jack Black is not the only thing to like about this movie. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Delivers an unexpected sweetness.
60
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
Not only harmless, but actually quite funny and charming. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Starts out deliriously funny but allows sentimentality to squeeze it to a pulp by the time it's over. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A feebly pleasant surprise: It's not as cheap, loud and sleazy as it might have been, but it's also too eagerly well-meaning and indistinct to really stick. It's a piece of mildly entertaining, inoffensive fluff. Read full review
60
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A fine group of comic performers manages to keep the screen worth looking at despite the obsessively one-note nature of this curious matchup between MTV Films and producer Scott Rudin. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
For my money, what keeps it bearable is mainly the mugging of the older folks -- not just Jack Black, who steals the show in a part seemingly inspired by John Belushi, but Catherine O'Hara, John Lithgow, and cameos by Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin, and Kevin Kline. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Under different direction, Orange County might have drawn a savvy cult audience that would appreciate the black-comedy possibilities of Shaun's idolatry of a certain writing professor (Kline), the homoerotic overtones inherent in best-buddydom and pyromania as a sexual turn-on. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
This is a picture with a perfect sense of proportion: There's a mini-Hanks, a mini-Spacek and a mini-Kasdan in a mini-comedy that's minimally entertaining. Read full review
50
USA TodayMike Clark
Every performer puts vigor into an otherwise limp exercise, as if word were out that this would be the last comedy ever made about late-adolescent concerns. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Were it not for the high profile names of "Hanks" and "Kasdan", this would be a perfect candidate for a direct-to-video release. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The gags and subplots, rather than adding up to sustained hilarity, compete with each other. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
An almost successful comedy. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Hardly the idiosyncratic Mickey Finn you'd expect from the men behind 1998's underrated "Zero Effect" and 2000's discomfort-splooge "Chuck & Buck." Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Ultimately it lacks even the conviction of its own nastiness. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
It's a movie at war with itself. The first half, more or less, is witty about California culture, or the lack of it, in a "Clueless" kind of way, which is a very good way.
40
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
This ORANGE is a lemon. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Black delivers the best line (“Do you want me to get naked and start the revolution?”), and Lithgow scores a giggle for calling his ex-wife “coyote ugly” to her face, but neither of them can disguise this lemon. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Flat as a Moravian cookie, flat as a sailor's wallet after a month in port, flat as the average European's impression of the Earth in A.D. 800. Read full review
38
New York PostJonathan Foreman
In any case, the presence of O'Hara, Kline, Ramis, Black, Tomlin and John Lithgow (who plays Shaun's father) serve mainly to underline the feebleness of the screenplay and the slackness of the direction. Read full review
30
Washington PostRita Kempley
Strictly a vanity vehicle with a mess of star babies on board. That would be just fine if it didn't take us down the same old cul-de-sac. But it does, and with a vengeance. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It should have been a cut above the usual teen comedy. But it touches the same old bases in the same old dumb ways. Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
The movie is less than nothing special. The movie veers between pretentiousness (oh, the plight of the instant, start-up Artist) and vacuousness. Read full review
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