A shameless Animal House (1978) knockoff by way of Ferris Bueller's Day Off(1986), this college comedy aims low and misses often.
Accepted (2006)
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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
Go right ahead and skip this one at the Cineplex. You've got my word: It won't be on the final.
Borrowing from every other college-located comedy, Steve Pink's movie is also low on originality, even though it appears to celebrate "creativity" in its low-achieving heroes.
If you can lighten up for an hour and a half, the film delivers one good laugh after another.
So, despite a few early chuckles and a few points for youthful enthusiasm, Accepted is ultimately rejected.
Although it's more amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, Accepted has a good-natured irreverence and ragged charm, thanks to a spirited ensemble cast of newcomers led by Justin Long.
Too bad what begins as a cheerfully irreverent comedy in the tradition of Animal House gets all pious when it slams fraternity culture at neighboring Harmon College.
Half-witted it may be, but as back-to-school time-killers go, Accepted's right on the edge of acceptable.
Accepted feels a little like a Montessori Real Genius. It's one of the few genuinely funny comedies in a dismal movie summer.
A 'teen' movie that operates at a higher level of wit and energy than most of the so-called adult comedies now onscreen...
A campus comedy that's as dull as bong water, Accepted is like the product of a community college filmmaking class, remedial division.
Like its underachieving protagonist, Steve Pink's teen comedy Accepted flashes just enough charm to get by but is too lazy to really make anything of itself.
... any movie that advocates individuality and rejection of conformity can't be all bad -- especially one from that bastion of soulless conformity, Hollywood.
The point is, should the writers of Accepted, writers whose main credits encompass Country Bears, Herbie: Fully Loaded and an Olsen twins movie, be making light of anyone's career trajectory?
Accepted Or, Ferris Bueller gets his B.A. In this amiable but undernourished campus comedy.
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