25th July, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Accepted (2006) DVD Review
Accepted (2006) DVD Credits:
Accepted (2006) Directed by:
Steve Pink
Accepted (2006) Written by:
Mark Perez, Adam Cooper, Bill Collage
Accepted (2006) Cast:
Lewis Black, Blake Lively, Justin Long
Accepted (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Accepted (2006) DVD Release Date:
14th November 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Accepted (2006) Synopsis:

High school senior Bartleby "B" Gaines (Justin Long) is on his way to scoring eight out of eight rejection letters from colleges--which isn't going to go over big with Mom and Dad. At least he's not alone in the exclusion. Several of his crew of outcast friends are in the same, college-less boat. So...how does a guy facing a bleak career please his parents and get noticed by dream girl Monica (Blake Lively)? Simple. Open his own university. B and his band of misfit freshmen take "liberal" arts literally when they fool their parents and peers and create the esteemed South Harmon Institute of Technology. They clean up an abandoned psychiatric facility, employ a buddy's brilliant?but subversive--uncle (Lewis Black) as the dean and create a fake web site as their campus calling card. Bam! South Harmon, the alternative school of higher learning, is born. Just as they are settling in, B and company realize they've done their jobs too well. Dozens of other college rejects show up for classes at this less-than-lofty institute. Under the scornful eyes of the privileged students from the neighboring college, B and his friends forge ahead with maintaining a fake, functioning university. Their efforts to explore alternative education result in a battle between the South Harmon co-eds and the "sister" school snobs. With his future in the balance, it's going to take more than just sleight of hand to keep B out of jail as he strives to get the girl, impress his parents and just become...Accepted.

Accepted (2006) DVD Review:

Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) isn’t accepted into any college, but to avoid angering his parents he makes up a college and forges an acceptance letter. Things begin to spiral when his parents want to see the college and meet the Dean. After fooling the parents with a fake website and an abandoned mental institution Bartleby thinks things are under control, but suddenly other students begin arriving. They have all been accepted because there is a button on the website that says acceptance is one click away. This doesn’t explain how they received acceptance letters without anyone sending them, but this is just one of many holes in the plot.

The plot devices used in Accepted may seem familiar because they have been used many times, and recently by a much more successful college comedy; Old School. A snooty Ivy League villain wants to take control and buy the location of the fake school, ultimately foiling our “heroes” of their scheme. The problem with our hero is that he is a bit of a tool. We are supposed to root for the leading guy to win the girl, and as is often the case “the girl” is already dating an extremely handsome and popular frat guy. The difference is that he seems to be a sincerely nice guy until our “hero” is a complete jerk to him in order to make the girl laugh, which she does. This also makes the leading girl seem shallow. It is almost as if we are just expected to be on the side of Bartleby merely because he is the main character, even though he is not very likable.

Justin Long has had a short career but already has worked with some of the best names in comedy right now. Accepted seems to be his proof that he can be the leading actor for a change, and he seems to be trying to use what he learned from Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Ryan Reynolds, but this just makes much of his performance a cheap imitation. I could imagine each of these actors in his role and it was far too easy to imagine Long not starring in the film. This doesn’t bode well for his success as a leading man. Long tries to throw in the occasional random slapstick humor as well, almost as if to prove that he can do all kinds of humor. This obvious display of ability is not that funny because it doesn’t fit in the story and it certainly doesn’t seem to fit with the character, leaving the obvious conclusion that they only fit with the amateur leading actor.

Many of the scenes seem loosely improved, which often leads to large holes in the plot. Certain facts are inexcusably left out and dialogue contradicts the script itself. There doesn’t seem to be much order, but somehow it still manages to remain entertaining, if not frustrating to any audience member thinking about what they are watching. The biggest hole in the story is that all of the students who were rejected from every other school seem to live in a world where Community Colleges don’t exist. This is necessary to give Bartleby his cause to fight for, but like the house built upon sand the plot is not at all sturdy.

There are plenty of special features but they are predictably average. The gag reel is filled with Long thinking he is much funnier than he is and the deleted scenes are a bit more stupid fun but nothing to get excited about. There is also a making of featurette and other random bits here and there, but it doesn’t really make a difference.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Accepted (2006) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development