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Accepted (2006) Universal Pictures 1 hr. 30 mins. Starring: Justin Long, Lewis Black, Adam Herschman, Blake Lively, Jonah Hill, Mark Derwin, Kellan Lutz, Columbus Short, Maria Thayer, Ann Cusack, Hannah Marks Directed by: Steve Pink This film is rated: PG-13 Accepted Rating:  
E-MAIL FRANK OCHIENG So admit it...you were anxiously awaiting another goofy and implausible teen comedy involving silly-minded college kids, low expectations, exaggerated high jinx and every inspired sight gag and recycled bits of mayhem conceivable, right? If so, welcome to the horrid Animal House knockoff Accepted. Director Steve Pink takes us back to school in a dimwitted and slightly demented comedy that’s just banal business as usual. Unfortunately for Accepted, the movie’s make-the-grade spunkiness as a collegiate cut-up has been emphatically Denied. Pink, who wrote the screenplays for the wonderfully inspired John Cusack comedies Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity, sags as a helmer because evidently he doesn’t take much initiative in fueling this synthetic “party-hearty” cockeyed college comedy. Basically, this is a by-the-numbers farce that merely combines past pithy academia gems that echo the sentiments from fare such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to the Revenge of the Nerds flicks. There are some healthy chuckles to be had in Accepted but for the most part the movie wants to be nonsensical and nuanced in its tedious, wacky appeal. But sometimes it takes more than transparent irreverence to make a “hollow higher education hoot” an easy breeze of hilarity. As for the plastic-stretching premise, here’s the deal: Bartleby “B” Gaines (Justin Long from the defunct NBC-TV series “Ed”) is a high school student who’s rejected after trying to get admitted into eight different colleges. Feeling pressure from his pushy parents (Mark Derwin and Ann Cusack), Bartleby needs to show them that his plans for college are sincere. But if the real colleges deem him an academic pariah then he’ll just have to make due with his latest scheme—coming up with a fake college that will accept him as a college-bound applicant. Soon, Bartleby’s ploy to invent a college that will accept him takes on a perverse life of its own. His few friends (and fellow college applicant losers) sign onto this hatched plan. Thus Bartleby and his buddies must make their fictional college—South Harmon Institute of Technology (please note the snickering acronym)—appear legitimate. So the cohorts turn an abandoned mental hospital in the neighborhood into the college building and its surrounding campus. They even concocted an eye-catching Web site promoting South Harmon Institute of Technology as an optional venue for continuing one’s education. Before you know it, Bartleby and his crafty crew have attracted hundreds of would-be applicants looking to go to school. Certainly Bartleby and his company take certain liberties to ensure the secured existence of their make-believe college as the adventurous place to be. Predictably, the college courses are a running joke. And Bartleby even hires his disillusioned uncle (comedian Lewis Black) to pose as one of the faculty members. Plus, what would a teen movie about twisted rebellion and redemption be with a rivalry involving stuck-up, over-achieving students wanting to challenge the low-grade bunch at Bartleby’s manufactured alma mater? What else can you say about Accepted besides the gimmicky angle of wayward outcasts looking to break through the mode via the same retread of raucous banality you’ve seen countless times before? Pink and screenwriters Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Mark Perez jump through hoops to infuse this nutty narrative with its lackluster underdog convention. What could have been a riotous slap-in-the-face about academic politics and the pressure of being on top of the learning tree morphs into another sophomoric spectacle looking to stick its tongue out for fleeting attention. This is nothing more than a 90-minute foolish frat party that chugs along. It’s a shame because Accepted could have breathed some fresh air into the Slacker-oriented malaise about misguided youth and their ambivalence toward the Establishment’s expectations of them. As the leader of his band of schooling scamps, Long’s Bartleby Gaines has an impishness that occasionally radiates but the moronic material never lets it completely shine through. Black, a tremendously talented and acerbic comedian, is wasted as the off-kilter elder statesman of this gregarious group of detention hall drones. Sadly, he’s eerily (and awkwardly) reminiscent of the late Rodney Dangerfield’s knee-slapping turn as the mischievous Thornton Mellon from the devilish eighties campus comedy Back To School. However, there are three strikes against Black: he’s no Rodney Dangerfield, he’s pigeonholed in an anemic teen beer-chugging flick and he deserved better than being compared to Dangerfield or his masterful work in the aforementioned Back To School. As for Long’s/Bartleby’s feeble-minded followers, they look like they fell off the casting couch as leftovers from an upcoming Nerds sequel. Sure, it’s nice to be Accepted if the circumstances are clicking on all cylinders. Still, with trying to gain acceptance, there’s always a steep price to pay in the long run. Click here to comment on this review or post your own thoughts. Frank Ochieng © TheWorldJournal.com |
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