Accepted - Review

Discuss this movie on our message board!

Rated: PG-13

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Release Date: 2006-08-18

Starring: Justin Long, Blake Lively, Lewis Black, Adam Herschman, Jonah Hill, Mark Derwin, Columbus Short, Kellan Lutz, Maria Thayer

Directed by Steve Pink

Produced by Tom Shadyac, Michael Bostick

Written by Mark Perez, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage

Visit the movie's Official Site!

Reviewed by Josh Tyler : 2006-08-06 22:02:39

College comedies haven’t changed much since the eighties, and Accepted isn’t interested in being an innovator. It’s the same story over and over again. A group of lovable losers set up the perfect college experience only to have it foiled by good looking frat boys or an uptight college dean. The losers fight back with all the wacky antics they can muster and everything is wrapped up in 90 minutes with an impassioned speech from the lead loser about the importance of their slacker dream. Can’t we all just get along?

We get it. Good looking people hate ugly people. It’s not enough that good looking people are statistically more likely to get better jobs, find better mates, and make more money than the rest of us. Apparently they have to hate us as well. Since they seem to get all the breaks in life while we get absolutely nothing maybe it’s us, the uglies of the world, who should be pretty pissed off.

But Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) isn't pissed off at being ugly, he’s angry because he didn’t get accepted to college. Apparently he’s never heard of Community College, so he starts his own school, funded with the money his parents think they’re paying him for tuition. He calls it the South Harmon Institute of Technology, which officially makes the school S.H.I.T. Bartleby is a Shithead, and soon all of his loser friends want to be Shitheads too. Bartleby rents an insane asylum next door to the real Harmon College, renovates it enough that it’ll pass as a University when inspected by unwary parents, and then hires his best friend Shermon’s Uncle, a washed up college professor turned conspiracy theorist played by comedian Lewis Black, as his stand-in Dean.

If there’s a highlight to the film it’s Dean Lewis and his wild rants about the failure of society and the futileness of higher education. In fact, scrap the script and give us a Lewis Black concert movie and you might really have some. The rest of the movie is pretty predictable stuff. The frat boys from the real school next door get jealous and go to war with South Harmon, Bartleby lusts after the head frat boy’s hot girlfriend; Shermon gets hazed and ends up in a hot dog costume begging people to ask him about his wiener. Eventually the S.H.I.T. hits the fan and Bartleby’s school for losers is put in jeopardy. Guess who comes out on top in the end?

Justin Long isn’t bad as a comedic lead. He’s good at walking into doors and tripping over couches, but the guy may have a serious typecasting problem. He’s been kicking around Hollywood in teen comedies for awhile now, but he’s really gotten people’s attention recently in those rather great Mac computer commercials. Though you might have known his work pre-Mac, it’s hard to look at him now and think of him as anything other than that guy from those commercials. Maybe he should have picked a less creative advertising campaign to star in, something really lousy that people would be more likely to forget. Now he’s the Mac computer guy, which puts him up there in a class with the Dell computer guy. As an actor, that’s probably not a good place to be in.

Accepted is a harmless enough college campus comedy. It takes a tired old recipe and follows all the usual steps accurately. I guess that’s not much of endorsement. The movie comes with a few funny moments, but probably not enough to justify going out of your way to verify their existence. Skip it, and catch Lewis Black in one of his guest stints on “The Daily Show” instead.

Latest Movie Reviews:

Thumbnails Gallery for Accepted

Social Bookmark This Article

Blinklist

Del.icio.us

Digg

Furl

Slashdot

Facebook

StumbleUpon

Yahoo!

Propeller

Comment on “Accepted”

Note: This website is not intended for use by minors. The views expressed in this comments section are not necessarily our own. Comments that we deem to be poorly worded, off topic, or threatening will not be published. For free, uncensored discussion visit our forum.

Noriko Takaya Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 15:29
I've seen this film before. In fact, we've *all* seen this film before, haven't we, this side of Animal House? The problem is, I have no idea how anyone could do it differently.

Josh Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 22:59
Well, I think Old School came up with a fresh twist on it.

It can be done, but Accepted isn't trying. You're right, you've seen this movie over and over and over again.

whydoyoucare Says:
August 20th, 2006 at 00:34
Well, I have never heard of a movie like this maybe I'm not old but I loved it! I saw this movie with three friends they all freaked out they loved it as well, but that's just me.

bob Says:
September 6th, 2006 at 00:22
jim you really should let heidi see this show, its a very educational appropriate movie and im sure she and jessica would have a blast watching it!!!

Noah Baker Says:
September 14th, 2006 at 09:21
This movie was the best movie ever shown in theaters. I mean they were called shit heads how funny is that

Jambum Says:
September 23rd, 2006 at 22:11
this movie was frikkin awsome!! wohoo 2 thumbs up

Cool \\\'n\\\' Casual Says:
December 18th, 2006 at 14:24
Hello!
I loved the movie! Justin Long was awesome. I have seen all the eighteen episodes of the 'Get a Mac' commercials (over and over again) but I really had no problem disassociating Long with the Mac character. And it is very funny. It has such classy dialogues as "Bartleby, this is bad! This is serious! This is so much worse than that time we stole your mom's birth control pills and Lizzie was born!" It's great in the context of the movie.
Maybe I liked it because I hadn't seen any similar movie before, but I fail to see how that can be a problem. There are only that many new ideas you can come up with for a movie script. You should be able to present it well and should have some good actors. I think the movie is a success in every regard. And unlike most teen comedies, it is not vulgar - something I really appreciate.

jomomma Says:
January 5th, 2007 at 00:49
this movie was the bomb.
Glen was my favorite character. he was an idiot, but hilarious!

doverocker Says:
October 24th, 2007 at 12:09
Accepted is a great movie is there going to be a second one that would be amazing because of how great Accepted was I think it would be cool if there was a second one just to tell us about the further success.

Cris Says:
May 18th, 2008 at 20:26
I wish that this was real! As soon as i had finished watching the movie i was excited because it's one of those movies where even thought it Probally could never happen it's Pretty cool tot hink about it. I am just trying to figure out a couple things... Who wrote it? Whats his Adress? And Is there going to be Second one? Because i would like to see what happends next. I never get tired of watching this movie iv'e seen it atleast 10 times and i still cannot stop laughing.. If anyone has this Info please post it.

Back to Accepted

Accepted - Review

Social Bookmark This Article

Comment on “Accepted”

Leave a Reply