10/27/06 Accepted

Accepted (2006), directed by Steve Pink

watched w/ Leslie, Kristin; theater (Blue Ridge Cinema, Raleigh, NC)

Leslie's friend Kristin has come to town to visit us, and what better way to entertain friends than to hit the dollar theater and pick a ridiculous comedy to have you rolling in the aisles. Well, at least laughing until you pee your pants...well, cracking up. Whatever, sometimes you just need a good laugh and there doesn't need to be any rhyme or reason why! Stop your judging, we can love silly sophomoric comedies too, you judges! While the world is firmly engrossed with high-grossing tales of crude humor and collegiate excess (a la "American Pie" or "Old School" type flicks), some lesser-hyped fare gets looked over in its "run-of-the-mill" approach to the same jokes. However, I feel like this one may stand on its own as a sort-of modern day "Animal House" feel. What do you get when you have a bunch of rejects that don't want to be the world's doormat anymore? Sometimes there are tears and lots of heavy drinking, but in other instances you will see the willpower (and devious nature) to throw a big middle finger to the system's powers-that-be and give them a taste of their own medicine. Cliché enough for ya?! When high school burnout Bartleby (the hipper Apple dude from those Apple vs. PC commercials) finds out he's been rejected by every major university that he's applied to (and so have a handful of his "average" friends), his crew thinks up a scheme to keep their eager parents at bay with questions of their future academics. They create a bogus website & mailings accepting the kids to the illustriously illegitimate college of South Harmon Institute of Technology. Yes, that's right, the acronym is S.H.I.T. There is one major problem with the "well-thought-out" plan though, not only do the parental units buy it, but so do hundreds of aspiring students who log onto the site only to be equally accepted too! Oh boy, now the crew has to find a makeshift facility to house the students, create a genuinely unique curriculum to appease their appetites, enlist the help of washed up cynic professor Uncle Ben (Lewis Black), show parents around at a fake parents' day tour, and all the while throw the biggest campus parties in the history of academia! Tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Bartleby must keep up the charade if he at all hopes to win the trust of his new girl Monica (yeah, good start with a big-time lie buddy!); and make life easy for his friends Rory, Hands, Glen and poor Sherman who's fortunes to land at prestigious Harmon College fall flat with his attempts to fit in a the snobbish fraternity (ask him about his wiener). Basically this movie may end up teaching you a thing or two about life, lying, cheating, the Man & the system trying to keep us down, corruption, politics, academics, relationships...naw...mostly it will be about ignoring all that real stuff and letting yourself at nothing for an hour & a half. Oh and don't do drugs. Take this degree and shove it!

3 out of 5 stars