Day 3 -- Remember the Daze

Released: April 11th, 2007

Starring: Amber Heard, Leighton Meester, Melonie Diaz, Brie Larson, Lyndsy Fonseca, Alexa Vega

Writer/Director: Jess Manafort

Description: A glimpse into the teenage wasteland of suburbia 1999 that takes place over 24-hours, and the teenagers who make their way through the last day of high school in the last year of the past millennium. A glimpse into the teenage wasteland of suburbia 1999 that takes place over 24-hours, and the teenagers who make their way through the last day of high school in the last year of the past millennium.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these film have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

There are plenty of teen ensemble comedies. Some focus on sex. Some focus on drugs. Some focus on cheerleading. "Remember the Daze" finds a way to focus on all three.   

Most movies in this genre either draw back to John Hughes era, or the first American Pie, but "Daze" uses a different template. The 2007 comedy has more in common -- including part of its name -- with a cult classic from the early-90s: Dazed and Confused. The Parker Posey/Jason London comedy about the last day of school in a small, suburban town in 1976.

During the opening scenes, "Daze" borrows a lot from its inspiration. It's the last day of school in a  small, suburban town, but the twist here is that its 1999. There's even the obligatory Y2K joke. Despite the eerie similarities to Richard Linklater's classic, this movie doesn't have the same charm. It tries very hard to capture that magic, and deliver unforgettable characters, but its fails. If it wasn't for my notes, I would have forgotten the names of most of the characters. The most useless, but surprisingly captivating and interesting, was Bree Larson as the younger sister of Heard's character. I wish they would have developed her more.

Here's a list of similarity: Incoming freshman trying to impress the seniors, a kegger in the middle of a field, destroying property (trash cans instead of mailboxes), and an older character who hangs around with the high schoolers, and a lot of drug use. Similar, but nowhere near as good.

But the one thing it had going for it, and the reason I chose it, was that there were a lot of female characters that were easy on the eyes. Amber Heard was who drove me in original, but the cast was a who's who of actress that have either had past success, or would go on to become part of pop culture. At the time of release, Heard looked on her way to stared with a starring role on "Hidden Palms," but it was a few of her cast-mates that would go on to successful TV work: Leighton Meester of "Gossip Girl" fame, and Lyndsy Fonseca of "Nikita", but better know as the Great White Buffalo from "Hot Tub Time Machine."

Meester and Fonseca have minor roles, but they out-act most of the leading actors. They do the best they can with very generic storylines. Meester is the goody-two-shoes, who finally does some thing irresponsible (take mushrooms while baby sitting), and Fonseca played the in the closet lesbian in a relationship with a friend, which they use to remind us of the time period. The one good surprise was the real of the lesbian couple, when Fonseca character walked in the bathroom and started making out with Melonie Diaz's character.

Mediocre. There no other way to describe it. I would watch it again, but I wouldn't seek it out. At times it looked like the writer copy and pasted from the "Dazed and Confused" script. But he missed one key element: the music. None of the music in this movie really reminded me of 1999 -- when I graduated 8th grade, so it should have felt like a memory  -- so the nostalgia factor, which Linklater really captured, was sorely really missed.

Rating: 6/10 -- Rent Dazed and Confused if you want to see this movie done well. Also, it's a good lesson in how to not make your material look too close to its inspiration.