Glory Daze (1996)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written and Directed by Rich Wilkes
Starring Ben Affleck, Alyssa Milano, Sam Rockwell, Megan Ward, French Stewart, John Rhys-Davies, Matthew McConaughey, Brendan Fraser and Matt Damon

Released by: Columbia-Tristar
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Skip it.

Jack (Affleck) and his buddies are just two days away from graduating college, and the reality that they are facing--yet again--is that all the friends that they've made are splitting up and heading off in different directions. Man, what a bummer, right? Well, Jack's not going to take it lying down...unless he's got someone in the bed with him...with lots of beer. Because we all know that the combination of the two makes the troubles of the world go away forever, right?

Wrong. If it did, I would have been curled up in the bed with each arm around a keg while I was watching this one. I really don't believe any amount of narcotics could have softened the blow of how bad this one was. Filled with all the cliches of the Gen-X Genre of films, including Affleck's goatee (we'll rag on him more in a minute) and college students who...never seem to go to class. The funny thing is: it was made only a year before Affleck and Damon won their Oscar. Granted they won their Oscar for writing, but it was this Oscar that helped to launch their acting careers. I know everyone's got to start somewhere, but it just hurts sometimes to remember exactly where. And what the hell is the deal with Affleck wearing a Vanilla Ice haircut (without the blonde streak)?

Milano provides just slightly below average work in this movie, and it was blatantly obvious that she was there because she's always been cast as the cute one. If there is anyone who stands out in this movie, it's Rockwell. This movie would lead me to believe, had I seen at the time it originally hit cinemas, that we should expect to see wonderful things from him very soon. And, I would have been right, as his career is showing.

There's nothing else besides the film on here. No retrospective with Affleck and Damon (or anyone else for that matter), no interviews, not even a ten-minute featurette of "blowing smoke up skirts" to slake your thirst for features. No commentary or anything from the writer/director either, but hey--if you were busy making money off of a Vin Diesel franchise (XXX) would you give an earlier film like this a second thought? Hell, no.

Just forget they wasted the celluloid on this one. It's just not worth it to even rent the blasted thing. We should just be glad that Affleck was able to move on to more important movies...like Pearl Harbor.