North Hollywood

North Hollywood doesn’t break any new ground; on the contrary, all it does is perpetuate the stereotype that skaters are narcissistic jerks with low IQs. Michael (Ryder McLaughlin), the protagonist, is so spontaneously unpleasant that when he gets his face punched in less than 10 minutes into the movie, we just assume he must have done something to deserve it. As is customary in teen comedies, the hero has exactly two (2) friends and one (1) romantic interest (all of whom are played by actors in their mid-to-late 20s). Moreover, one of the friends is Asian and the other African-American; I guess we could call this ‘equal opportunity friendship.’ As for the romantic interest, Rachel, she is played by Miranda 'iCarly' Cosgrove. All of these characters are supposed to be high school seniors, but that dog won’t hunt, Monsignor; Miranda is adorable and I love her, but at 28 years old, she could have gone to college twice over already. Speaking of college, Michael and his father Oliver (Vince Vaughn) are at odds over the former's future; Oliver reasonably thinks Michael should focus on his studies, while Michael says he's going to be a college student/aspiring professional skater. Now, Michael doesn't have enough common sense to take a shower without flooding the bathroom, and the handful of times we see him skate – let’s just say it’s too bad they don’t make skateboards with training wheels. All in all, the ideal occupation for Michael would be crash test dummy.