Can't Hardly Wait 1998

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Kaplan and Elfont provide a real public service by showing how underage binge drinking can boost bookish students' social lives. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: For all its nonstop energy and high spirits, Can't Hardly Wait allows its characters to emerge as fully dimensional individuals; they've been written with care and perception and played with equal aplomb by a roster of talented young actors. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Fortunately, some of the appealing young performers -- who include Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose and, especially, Seth Green -- manage to emerge from the film's generic suburban-teen backdrop. Read more

Melanie McFarland, Seattle Times: The majority of the film is mired in magazine cliches and tired gags. Oh, look, the foreign exchange student only knows how to say he's a sex machine, haw! And the nerd's getting drunk! Hoo! Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Flip through any yearbook, and you'll find the stock characters who amusingly populate the teen-age comedy Can't Hardly Wait. Read more

Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader: It's not supposed to be a revelation--just a pleasant rendition of a teen-comedy trope. Read more

Stephen Thompson, AV Club: The film deserves credit, both for its breezy pacing and its uncommon tendency to make its characters smarter and geekier than they might have been. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: A high-spirited, synthetically raucous house-party comedy. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Manages to serve up new rock, eighties dance music, rap and Barry Manilow -- a combination custom-made to annoy audiences of all ages. Read more

Dave Kehr, New York Daily News: There are signs that Can't Hardly Wait once had more serious aspirations... But in the final edit, at least, it's the dumb, broad slapstick that prevails, short-circuiting identification with the characters before it can begin. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The title seems unexpectedly appropriate, as it accurately summed up my feelings about sitting in the theater and anticipating the arrival of the end credits -- I couldn't hardly wait. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie lumbers ungracefully from romantic showdowns to Deep Conversations to bathroom humor. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The directors get good performances from a talented cast. Read more

Emanuel Levy, Variety: A failed attempt to recapture the exuberant magic of such highschool movie classics as American Graffiti, this is a loud and boisterous comedy, in which the entire action is set during an interminably long graduation night. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: John Hughes must be spinning in his grave. Read more