After I reviewed 2001s abysmal Josie and the Pussycats, I read other folks’ reviews and learned some details about the DVD for Can’t Hardly Wait, another flick from Josie’s directors. Though my dislike for Josie should have dissuaded me from any interest in their other work, one element of the DVD intrigued me: I heard it had a terrific audio commentary.

Since I’m a huge fan of those tracks, I decided that I needed to give Wait a look. The biggest downside of this choice stemmed from the fact that I needed to actually watch Wait before I could enjoy the commentary.

Based on my experience with Josie, this prospect didn’t delight me. However, while Wait fails to thrill me, I find it to offer a reasonably witty and entertaining teen comedy.

Wait focuses on the evening after graduation for some high school students. All of the action revolves around one big party that follows this event.

The film boasts a huge roster of participants, but some main characters evolve. Most of the focus falls on Mike (Peter Facinelli) and Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), the allegedly perfect couple who broke up on graduation day after four years together.

An arrogant jock who dreams of grander pastures with college women, Mike dumped Amanda so he could play the field. This humiliates her to a degree, but matters eventually backfire,

While this matter upsets Amanda, it elates Preston (Ethan Embry), the slightly-dorky dude who has dreamed of her ever since she came to their school in ninth grade. After four long years, he finally sees his chance, and he pours his heart into a much-refined letter meant to attract her. Unfortunately, he’s a bit of a wimp, and he dilly-dallies through much of the film until he can finally muster the courage to deal with her.

Preston’s cynical friend Denise (Lauren Ambrose) comes wiith issues of her own. She confronts these with Kenny (Seth Green), one of the school’s “wannabe Black” kids.

Kenny’s as white as they come, but he feigns street attitude and garb, all of which make him feel like the baddest of the bad. Unfortunately for him, none of the girls at the party agree, and his oft-stated desire to get laid goes nowhere.

Rounding out our main roster is William (Charlie Korsmo), a serious nerd who wants to get revenge on Mike for all the nasty things he did to him over the years. With his dorky friends, William conjures a plan to humiliate Mike, but he gets badly sidetracked along the way.

Although Can’t Hardly Wait tries to include some “coming of age” aspects, its heart isn’t in this form of introspection. Instead, the film works best as a giddy romp through a rowdy party.

The movie flits rapidly from character to character, and the camera rarely remains still. Instead, it prefers a “fly on the wall” attitude that combines a number of storylines within one frantic package.

For filmmakers like directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, this feels like the best way to go. As demonstrated during Josie, their talents don’t suit movies that try to have any particular message or point, so Wait works most effectively when it simply provides a gleeful skewering of high school cliques and stereotypes.

Because of that, the flick’s first half seems most compelling. The second segment tries to get deeper, but these attempts generally fall flat.

Granted, we expect content like that for this sort of film, but these elements still come across particularly well. At times, it appeared like they wanted to make an updated version of American Graffiti, but such aspirations remain beyond the directors’ reach.

However, that doesn’t mean that they can’t make a fairly fun and entertaining little romp. Wait succeeds best when it flits about rapidly.

Once the movie sticks with any single subject for too long, it becomes somewhat tiresome and bland. The chaos of the situation feels like its strongest aspect, and the film seems most entertaining when it takes advantage of that.

Ultimately, not much about Can’t Hardly Wait sets it strongly above its teen brethren, but I must admit that it definitely delivers a better flick than most in the genre. It suffers from some of the usual pitfalls, and it can be slow-paced and dull at times, but the moderate satire found in its portrayals allows it to become fun and witty at times. In the end, Can’t Hardly Wait offers an enjoyable little comedy.

Can’t Hardly Wait appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision image looked better than expected.

Sharpness seemed positive. No one would refer to this as a super-tight picture, but that reflected the source and overall delineation seemed pretty accurate and concise.

No signs of jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge haloes remained absent. No source flaws marred the presentation, and grain felt appropriate.

The flick went with a natural palette, and the tones came across as full. I wouldn’t call the hues vivacious, but they appeared pretty peppy, and HDR gave the tones added punch.

Blacks were fine, and shadows appeared smooth and clear. HDR brought extra impact to whites and contrast. I thought the movie offered a nice transfer.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Can’t Hardly Wait provided a surprisingly immersive affair that used all the channels to reasonable effect. Music accompanied most of the movie, and the songs blasted cleanly from the speakers. The tunes showed good differentiation among the channels and they added a nice element to the mix.

Effects and dialogue also showed up in the side and rear speakers, and they became a good complement to the action. A fair amount of speech emanated from the individual channels, an aspect of the mix that cropped up neatly during the film’s opening sequence; as unpictured teens set up the movie’s actions, their voices came from all around us.

Effects also used the different speakers well. These elements created a solidly realistic and convincing environment that blended together well.

Audio quality also seemed to be fairly good. Some speech displayed a bit of an unnatural echo – mainly early in the flick - but most of the dialogue sounded acceptably warm and natural, and I detected no problems related to intelligibility. Effects were distinct and accurate, and they showed no signs of distortion or other concerns.

The many tunes played in the movie also fared well. They displayed good dynamic range, with clean highs and reasonably low and rich bass. Ultimately, Can’t Hardly Wait provided a solid auditory experience that worked nicely for the film.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? The Atmos track felt a bit more immersive than the already involving 5.1 audio, though it came with a little more of an “artificial” vibe at times, so I’d deem it a wash.

The Dolby Vision image showed a nice upgrade, as it brought superior delineation, colors and blacks. This film will never offer a visual showcase, but the 4K delivered a strong representation of the source.

Most of the BD’s extras repeat here, and we start with two audio commentaries. From the original 1998 DVD, the first presents directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan plus actor Seth Green and producers Jenno Topping and Betty Thomas. Based on what I read elsewhere, Green’s contribution promised to offer the most fun. At the start of the track, he speaks with a British accent for no apparent reason. This provokes a couple of remarks from the others and he stops after a fairly brief interval.

This aspect of the commentary disappoints me because I hoped Green would carry his gag to a greater extreme. The sheer weirdness inherent in his decision delights me, and based on what I read elsewhere, I thought he’d continue to annoy the others to a much greater degree.

As it stands, the accent doesn’t turn into much of an issue, and it took little for him to cease. I was seriously disappointed when he quit.

Despite that letdown, I really like this track. The commentary for Wait easily offers one of the whiniest I’ve ever heard, but I mean that as a compliment.

The vast majority of these recordings offer far too much happy talk and praise. To be certain, this one gives us a little about how talented some of the participants were, but for the most part, it delivers a gleefully crotchety track.

Throughout the piece, the speakers tell us what they did wrong and pointed out errors. They also discuss all of the changes they had to make to get their “PG-13” rating, and they clearly wish that these hadn’t occurred.

They rag on each other to a degree, and they spill dirt about absent collaborators. All of this gets wrapped in a lively, coherent package that rarely ceases to be entertaining and irreverent.

We also get a “10 Years Later” commentary with Elfont, Kaplan, Green, and actors Donald Faison, Peter Facinelli and Joel Michaely. All sit together for another running, screen-specific chat where they discuss cast and performances, updates on various participants, music, characters, and various related thoughts.

Add in a healthy dollop of margaritas and we get another rollicking commentary. Maybe a little too rollicking at times, as the participants tend to talk on top of each other.

Still, there’s a lot of energy on display, and the alcohol makes things playful and lively. Though not as informative as the original track, we get a reasonable amount of fresh material about the flick and just have fun during this enjoyable piece.

Huntington Hills Class of ’98 Reunion runs 26 minutes, 43 seconds as it presents notes from Michaely, Kaplan, Elfont, Facinelli, Green, Faison, casting director Mary Vernieu, and actors Freddie Rodriguez, Jay Paulson, Ethan Embry, Nicole Bilderback, Victor Togunde, Jenna Elfman, Jennifer Lyons, Michelle Brookhurst, and Tamala Jones.

The show looks at cast, characters and performances. Just like the commentaries, “Reunion” provides a boisterous look at the flick.

How often do you find featurettes that include extended observations on the lead actress’s breasts and jokes about giving performers herpes? It’s too bad that some prominent actors like Jennifer Love Hewitt and Lauren Ambrose fail to appear, but the program entertains and informs nonetheless.

The Making of a Teen Classic goes for 14 minutes, 28 seconds and includes comments from Kaplan, Elfont, Jones, Embry, Togunde, Bilderback, Green, Faison, Lyons, Rodriguez, Facinelli, Michaely, Paulson, Brookhurst, and Elfman.

We learn about the origins of the project and the development of the script and story, more performance notes and the atmosphere on the set, and various anecdotes from the shoot.

“Making” fails to live up to its title, as it doesn’t give us a real “making of” program. Nonetheless, it throws out many more interesting facts and becomes another enjoyable show.

Up next, The Life of the Party lasts nine minutes, 29 seconds and features Rodriguez, Bilderback, Elfman, Green, Faison, Michaely, Embry, Lyons, Paulson, Jones, Kaplan, Elfont, Togunde, Brookhurst, and Facinelli.

The participants discuss their own high school graduation party experiences and their current perspectives on parties. It’s the least consequential of the pieces, but it’s entertaining enough.

Already found on the prior release, six Deleted/Alternate Scenes fill a total of seven minutes, 25 seconds. These include “’Pop Tarts?’” (0:25), “Extended Dendrophillia” (0:50), “Alternate Trip McNeely” (2:39), “Alternate Jail Scene” (1:39), “Extended Party Bust” (0:48) and “This Party Sucked” (1:04).

Since the original commentary alluded to cut footage but the old disc provided none, I looked forward to these. Unfortunately, they’re all pretty dull.

The two alternate bits aren’t very different, and the extendeds add little, though “Bust” does let us see more of drunk, crying girl. “Sucked” and “Tarts” are pretty forgettable as well, so don’t expect much from these unused sequences.

The 4K gives us an additional 10 Deleted/Alternate Scenes. These occupy a total of 11 minutes, 15 seconds.

Most of these extend existing sequences, though some fresh material arrives as well. In particular, these expand drunk crying girl in an entertaining manner.

Should any of the segments have made the final cut? Probably not, as 100 minutes feels right for a film of this sort. Nonetheless, the “new” scenes offer amusement.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find a surprisingly interesting music video for Smash Mouth’s “Can’t Get Enough Of You, Baby”. The clip uses the standard format; we find a mix of lip-synched performance footage from the band and snippets from the movie.

However, the “live” segments show a bright and fun Sixties look, and they seem entertaining and vivid. In addition, the video includes a cameo from Jennifer Love Hewitt, who looks especially hot.

Note that the 4K drops a subtitle commentary and a 90s trivia game.

Can’t Hardly Wait isn’t a classic, but it offered a reasonably bright and amusing teen flick. Members of that age group will clearly like it best, but old folks like me can still derive some enjoyment from it. The 4K UHD provided good pucture and audio as well as a fun set of supplements. After more than 25 years, Wait remains amusing.

To rate this film visit the original review of CAN'T HARDLY WAIT