MovieChat Forums > Can't Hardly Wait (1998) Discussion > Is there no way this movie would be made...

Is there no way this movie would be made today?

posted 6 years ago by TMC-4 (19392)
8 replies | jump to latest

Not necessarily because of any political correctness issue. I think that Can't Hardly Wait is so popular today because it reminds us of more cheerful and "simpler times" back in the '90s (i.e. post-Cold War, pre-9/11). It's one of those movies that comes every few years that perfectly encapsulates how high school/teenage life was (in this movie's case, roughly 1997-2001). Can't Hardly Wait is really just a '90s version of a John Hughes teen movie.

But with that being said, I think because we may have likely become more cynical and pessimistic, that it's easier to pick part what may be most troublesome about the plot, namely:
*Preston is pathetic, creepy stalker and not just a dogged nice guy after the girl of his dreams

*Preston and Amanda in reality (and not a fairy tale) wouldn't stay together for long

*How gullible must Amanda be to be immediately won over by this strange, secret admirer's "love letter"? What exactly did Preston write that was so enchanting that it won her heart? Something like that would probably be written off as corny.

[–] seal412 (335) 5 years ago

Social Media changes everything. She would look up Preston on FB and figure out who he is. Teen movies seem to have died out and not resurrected as large as they were.

[–] captainbucky (15252) 5 years ago

My pile shakes as I hit 80 on the open road

[–] strntz (10790) 3 years ago

Try preparation H...

[–] TMC-4 (19392) 5 years ago

There's also the part where some girl offhandedly calls Mike a "fag" after Amanda tells him off. We're supposed to cheer at his humiliation.

I also don't know if the subplot involving Denise and Kenny being locked in the bathroom would work when they could just call somebody on their cell phones for help.

[–] daveyh (581) 3 years ago

that's easily resolved - no signal/service in the bathroom.
Anyway, I think the OP is tryna say that it's not the outdated language or technology, it's more to do with attitudes now. Preston's behaviour was considered romantic then but just plain creepy now. Likewise no-one would buy the happy ending ("they are still together"), and instead be focusing on what a mistake it would be for Amanda and how unrealistic a relationship would be between 2 very different people who barely knew each other when they got together.
And this outlook is perfectly rational and logical. I guess in the 90s, as the OP says, there wasn't the cynicism or criticism there is now and people just took it for the sweet love story the writers intended. Unless they didn't and they wanted to leave Preston's behaviour (and Amanda's) down to interpretation over the years, in which case, hats off to them.

[–] strntz (10790) 3 years ago

There's also the part where some girl offhandedly calls Mike a "fag" after Amanda tells him off. We're supposed to cheer at his humiliation.

Is it the word "fag" that's offensive, or that someone correctly pointed out that Mike was one but it was hurtful to him? In any case, they could have used "douche" or "dick" and it would have been just as funny, and Mike would have been just as deserving.

[–] TMC-4 (19392) 2 years ago

Also, I don't think that if Can't Hardly Wait was made today, that Preston would have any real reason to encounter Jenna Elfman's "angel stripper" character. For one thing, why would the two of them (especially Elfman's character) need a payphone when they could simply use their cell phones?

I also don't know how Kenny and his buffoonish cultural appreciation of hip-hop would fly today. Granted, Kenny is called out by Denise over being a white kid who is desperately trying something that he at all isn't. Plus, Kenny being so preoccupied with wanting to have sex with the first girl that he encounters at the party, is extremely creepy and pathetic (even though, again that's the admitted point in the movie), especially in a post-Superbad world. Kenny just looks like a borderline sexual predator.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GenreKiller/Film

[–] Nina (525) 3 years ago

Unfortunately not. Great teen movies were just made in the 90s.
No guy would ever write a anonym love letter.