Concept

The story takes place at a high school graduation party in the late 1990s and in a style much like that of the high school movies of the 1980s. The idea of setting most of the movie at a party was based primarily on concerns to keep production costs low and was also inspired by the movies of John Hughes and the party scene in Say Anything.... Principal photography for Can't Hardly Wait started in October 1997, and ran for 26 days.

The cast had a week of rehearsals before filming. Its total domestic gross was $25,605,015, more than double its production budget.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 42% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's consensus reads, "Occasionally clever and moderately intelligent, Can't Hardly Wait also contains too many cheap laughs, recycled plotting, and flat characters." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "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".

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Can't Hardly Wait has freshness, comic invention and an engaging romantic spirit."

Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club wrote: "But 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."

Emanuel Levy of Variety called the film a "mediocre attempt to recapture the exuberance and candid portraiture of such high school movie classics as American Graffiti, Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused." Levy praised the cast but was critical of the "uneven script and rough direction". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, and wrote: "The kind of movie that somehow succeeds in moving very, very slowly even while proceeding at a breakneck pace. It cuts quickly back and forth between nothing and nothing... It doesn't have the zing of life and subversion that the best high school movies always have."

Awards

In 2012, Entertainment Weekly ranked Can't Hardly Wait number 44 on its list of the 50 Best High School Movies of all time.

  • MTV Movie Awards
  • Best Female Performance: (Jennifer Love Hewitt) Nominated
  • Young Artist Awards
  • Best Performance in a Feature Film — Leading Young Actress: (Jennifer Love Hewitt) Nominated

Sequel

On May 25, 2019, on Danny Pellegrino's Everything Iconic podcast, Jennifer Love Hewitt revealed that she is developing Can't Hardly Wait 2 with plans to direct it herself. The concept revolves around the reunion of the original high school gang from the 1998 film.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and DVD on November 17, 1998. On September 30, 2008, it was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray as the "10 Year Reunion Edition" to commemorate the film's 10th anniversary. The re-release included bonus features not on the original release. Mill Creek Entertainment reissued the DVD and Blu-ray on June 17, 2014, and October 30, 2018, respectively with the latter format billed as the "20 Year Reunion Edition". The film was released on 4k UHD Blu-ray on August 20, 2024, by Sony Pictures.

Music

Soundtrack

Can't Hardly Wait: Music From The Motion Picture is the soundtrack of the film which was released on May 26, 1998, by Elektra Records. It peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Other music featured in the movie but not on the soundtrack includes:

  1. "London" – Third Eye Blind
  2. "Mandy" – Barry Manilow
  3. "Caress Me Down" – Sublime
  4. "Romeo and Juliet" – Dire Straits
  5. "6 Underground (The Umbrellas of Ladywell Mix # 2)" – Sneaker Pimps
  6. "Open Road Song" – Eve 6
  7. "I'll Make Love to You" – Boyz II Men
  8. "Wooly Imbibe" – Soul Coughing
  9. "Walkin' on the Sun" – Smash Mouth
  10. "Cold Beverage" – G. Love & Special Sauce
  11. "Ode" – Creed
  12. "How Do I Make You" – Jennifer Love Hewitt
  13. "Don't Leave Me This Way" – Thelma Houston
  14. "All Mixed Up" – 311
  15. "More Human than Human" – White Zombie
  16. "Inside Out" – Eve 6
  17. "Get It On" – Kingdom Come
  18. "Bust a Move" – Young MC
  19. "Groove Is in the Heart" (The Deee-Remix) – Deee-Lite
  20. "The Mac" – Dr. Freeze
  21. "Funky Cold Medina" – Tone Lōc
  22. "Ghost Radio" – Brian Setzer Orchestra
  23. "Lucas with the Lid Off" – Lucas
  24. "Love Hurts" – Nazareth
  25. "Waiting for a Girl Like You" – Foreigner
  26. "Sugar Cane" – Space Monkeys
  27. "Funk #49" – James Gang
  28. "When Will I See You Again" – The Three Degrees
  29. "Only You" – Yazoo

Certifications

References