All I Wanna Do

AllI Wanna Do (a.k.a. Strike!, a.k.a. The Hairy Bird; 1998)

Runtime: 97 minutes

Directed by: Sarah Kernochan

Starring: Gaby Hoffman, Kirsten Dunst, Lynn Redgrave, Rachael Leigh Cook

From: Alliance

Yep, it's been too long since I've seen a Rachael film so I figured I should finally watch something I recorded off of an Encore channel last month but put off until tonight.

The plot of this: this is set in the early 60's in a random Northeastern town and revolves around an all-girls school. Odette (Hoffman; there's a name from the past) gets sent there by her parents, basically because they caught her about to have sexual intercourse with her boyfriend. She has to room with the mischief-makers of the school, including Dunst, Monica Keena, and Heather Matarazzo. They end up crossing paths with the leader of the school (Redgrave) and one of the hall monitor types (Cook) who try to control those rowdy dames. When the bad girls find out that their school is likely to merge with an all-boys school, they decide to enact a plan to try and sabotage the annual get-togther where the two school's residents hang out with each other for a day, including a dance and a choir performance.

Overall, this comedy with dramatic moments (for example, Matarazzo's character deals with bullemia) is rather entertaining. I wasn't sure what to expect but I managed to enjoy it. It may sound like a “chick flick” but I say that anyone can enjoy it. There are plenty of funny moments and also some nice ones too. Depending on which girls in the cast you enjoy for hondog reasons, you may or may not feel like a pervert while watching this. Thankfully for me, the ladies I dig the most were around the age of 18 so I did not feel so bad.

Speaking of perverts, the guys from the all-boys school (including the much-beloved Hayden Christensen) acted about how you'd expect; they put together a pot of money and the guy who randomly got to pair with the girl that had the “biggest nay-nays” (i.e. boobs) got the pot. Also, one guy slow-dances with a girl at the dance and out of nowhere... well, he came in his pants! Of course I laugh at such humor. Also, apparently if a guy takes Midol along with drinking Coca-Cola, this makes him feel good. I never knew. This is all part of their plan to sabotage things; the main part is getting the guys drunk and they acted how you would expect.

Oh, and of course I liked looking at Ms. Cook. At one point she had her hair done with Jacqueline Kennedy and I approved of that look. The movie has some interesting lingo, too. For example, the phrase "hairy bird" is used a few times, along with the quite memorable "up your ziggie with a wah-wah brush." I happened to enjoy this movie and if it would have gotten a bigger theatrical release back in the day, then it probably would have gotten the attention I feel it deserves.

I'll be back Tuesday night with a special recap of what I did Saturday night revolving around a movie I talked about a few months ago.