expect an uneasy feeling of recycling.
Accepted (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:107
Fresh:38
Rotten:69
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Like its characters who aren’t able to meet their potential, Accepted's inconsistent and ridiculous plot gets annoying, despite a few laughs.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for language, sexual material and drug content
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Aug 18, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $36,300,285
Synopsis: High schooler Bartleby Gaines ("B" to his friends) is on his way to scoring a perfect eight out of eight college rejection letters-which isn't going to go over big with his parents. At least, he's... High schooler Bartleby Gaines ("B" to his friends) is on his way to scoring a perfect eight out of eight college rejection letters-which isn't going to go over big with his parents. At least, he's not alone-several of his posse of oddball friends are in the same, college-less boat. What's a guy, facing down a lifetime career as a convenience store clerk, going to do? Created his own college, of course. B calls in some friendly favors-has a techie bud build a website, convinces another friend's burnout uncle to pose as the dean and organizes a clean-up/building party at a local abandoned mental hospital-and South Harmon Institute of Technology is born. Just as B and his fellow South Harmon classmen are settling into their charade, they realize they've done their jobs too well as dozens of other college rejects show up for classes at this off-the-radar institute. Under the scornful eyes of the privileged students and faculty from the neighboring college, B and friends forge ahead with maintaining a functioning (and fake) university. Their effort to keep up the use quickly escalates into a battle between the have-nots of South Hamon and the have-snots of their "sister" school-higher learning has never stopped so low. Accepted is produced by Tom Shadyac (Bruce Almighty) and Michael Bostick and is directed by Steve Pink (writer of High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank in his feature film directorial debut). It is written by Mark Perez, Adam Cooper & Bill Collage. -- © Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Justin Long, Blake Lively, Mark Derwin, Columbus Short
Starring: Justin Long, Blake Lively, Mark Derwin, Columbus Short, Maria Thayer, Ann Cusack, Lewis Black, Anthony Heald, Jonah Hill, Adam Herschman
Director: Steve Pink
Director: Steve Pink
Screenwriter: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Mark Perez
Producer: Michael Bostick, Tom Shadyac
Composer: David Schommer
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Accepted
It's merely the latest entry (and a regrettably PG-13 rated one at that) in the "slobs vs. snobs" comedy subgenre that dates back to the far superior Animal House.
If -- for whatever incomprehensible reason -- you're searching for a movie with maximum ennui value, this is that movie.
Unfortunately for Accepted, the movie's make-the-grade spunkiness as a collegiate cut-up has been emphatically Denied.
Even the characters in the movie are saying at the beginning, 'This is crazy. This will never work.' And I’m like, you know what? You’re right. It never will. Not for one second. Even in a whacky comedy like this.
Slackers, Rejoice! Makes the comedy honor roll for being inventive and riotously funny.
I went in expecting that "Accepted" would flunk its PG-13 comedy course within minutes. Was I ever surprised to discover that it's sometimes clever, and surprisingly gentle -- a formula to be sure, yes, but an enjoyable one all the same.
You have to cheer a film that chooses the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" as its anthem and not something by Matchbox 20.
One could argue that you shouldn't expect a teen comedy to offer a nuanced depiction of the role of education in public life, but in response I'd refer you to Election and Clueless.
...restores your faith in low budgets and dumb ideas. It reminds you both can be fun.
Nothing happens in this film that you don't expect to happen, and it's that lack of originality that causes the film to drag in spots. But it's still a perfectly fine, little film whose earnestness and cast chemistry ultimately won me over.
There's really no reason this film should have been made. None whatsoever. It's not original, nothing above and beyond anything else that's come out on the same subject over and over again at least three times a year for a generation. It's not better than
Here's the final mystery about Accepted: Why title a movie that so readily invites the headline Rejected as a critical riposte?
Think about it too much and the whole thing falls apart; sit back, relax, and don't analyze it and the movie is pretty darn entertaining.
Amiably banal and instantly forgettable, it gets a barely passing grade largely for just showing up.
Even though it outright plagiarizes many plot points and gags of that generational classic, Accepted can't make the leap from contrived to genuine comedy.
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