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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:
2
Accepted (2006) DVD Release Date:
29th January 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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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:

After having all this college applications rejected, Bartleby Gaines (Long) doesn’t know what he is going to do with his life after high school. Not wanting to disappoint his parents who have dreamed of sending their son into higher education, Bartleby fakes his acceptance to a fictional college called ‘South Harmon Institute of Technology’. When his parents want find out more about the college and visit the campus, Bartleby and his friends Sherman (Hill), Glen (Herschman), Hands (Short) and Rory (Thayer) have to actually make South Harmon real but they go a little bit too far and prospective students show up for orientation.

Setting a movie inside a college environment will always be compared to the bastion of all college movies, ‘Animal House’ but can ‘Accepted’ create a new party?

The college or university experience is one of the most influential and important moments in a young persons life. Here they will start their adult lives, make life long friends and hopefully get a degree that will lead to a better job. It is also a time of access when you discover what it is like to have to stand on your own two feet for the first time and of course the parties, drinking and everything else that goes with it. Of course this is a hotbed of ideas for movies.

With films like ‘Road Trip’, ‘Old School’ and many more, the college movie is always provides quality laughs and high jinx. Setting the standard for the genre was ‘Animal House’ with its phrat house, toga parties and classic characters that broke the mould when it came to defining the comedy genre. ‘Accepted’ tries to compete with this heady bunch but even though the idea shows potential it fails to make the grade.

The idea of creating your own college after every other institute of higher learning turns you down so your parents don’t find out is a plot that has real comedic potential. The possibilities for a new ‘Animal House’ for the new millennium were endless but ‘Accepted’ doesn’t push for the higher grades, it just stubbles along at pass level.

The cast had the potential to become the new Otter, Boon, Flounder, D-Day or Bluto but instead we have a very minor attempt to try and recreate greatness. Even though he is nearly thirty, Justin Long continues to play the teenager. As Bartleby Gaines, the man who creates South Harmon Institute of Technology or ‘S.H.I.T.’, the continuing joke throughout the movie, he is your usual confident protagonist, who goes against the College hierarchy to teach what students actually want to learn. Jonah Hill is the unconventional friend of the popular guy. Adam Herschman is the way out guy who experiments with herbs. Columbus Short and Maria Thayer are fine as the other friends and Blake Lively is suitably gorgeous as the object of Bartleby’s affects. None of these characters really make any kind of impact however.

‘Accepted’ had some much potential but misses the pass mark completely. The humour only manages to ever raise a smile and misses the chance to push the envelope like ‘Animal House’ did back in 1978. With stereotypical characters and a plot that doesn’t push itself all the way to graduation.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is good.

BONUS FEATURES

None

OVERALL

A complete lack of extras is a crime, especially when you look at the amount included in the Region 1 (North America) release. Region 2 fans of the film will feel like they have been ripped off.

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

Accepted (2006) DVD review written by: Jamie Kelwick

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