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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Accepted

As promised here is the first review of the first movie that the Paisley and I decided to watch: Accepted. This 2006 film stars Justin Long, Lewis Black, Blake Lively and Jonah Hill and Ann Cusack.

Bartleby (Long) doesn't get accepted to any of the colleges he applies to and his family is quick to bill him as a do nothing loser. Poor fucker. I feel bad for him...........almost. His genius only-works-in-the-movies plan is very cool but in reality would never work.

Bartlelby and his friends create a fake college so that he can save face with his family, going as far to use tuition money from his dad to lease on an old psych hospital as the front for his made up school: South Harmon Institute of Technology. You got it. S.H.I.T.

When Bartleby's closest friend Sherman screws up the made up website, they find that they now have several students enrolled and a lot of tuitition money rolling in. With no intention of coming clean they use the money to fix up the building and actually turn it into a school for others just like them: rejected rejects.

This gem of a film is brought to us by Steve Pink. Writer, director, actor and producer. A good friend of John Cusack, some of his better known works are Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity, and America's Sweethearts.

My personal favourite performance in this is film is by comedian Lewis Black as Sherman's uncle and the newly elected dean of students at South Harmon Institute of Technology.

Things start to go terribly wrong (as easily predicted) when the gang is found out. Seems the legitimate South Harmon College wants to purchase several derelict buildings in the area to expand their grounds. In true predictable plot fashion they do their best to discredit Bartleby and his friends and expose them for the frauds they are.

If you haven't seen it I don't want to go any further and spoil it for you. I can say that this really is an enjoyable movie even if it is predictable.

Mr E30 Favorite Quote: Sherman "Let's start this fake college. Then, we'll go start a meth lab somewhere. It's a gateway crime. That's how these things start."

Now for some guest review notes from Paisley Penguin:

As Mr E30 stated there are some far fetched plot points in this film (but what film doesn't have that).  I mean really, how many of you either get your first semester tuition as a personal check from your parents or have 100% of it ready to go.  My time at the Jr. college and my first year of university was paid for by a college fund but my parents did not just hand over a check for everything.  And, I had to get student loans and grants for the other two years I attended.  Yet, all these rejects have the money and just hand it over to some dude their age - no questions.

Conversly, the wide range of students at South Harmon bring about great supporting characters.  The delivery guy/army reservist paying his way through the GI Bill.  The former stripper turned fashion student.  My personal favorite is Glen, the wacked out weirdo who loves to eat and heads up the state of the art kitchen and culinary program.  Because at South Harmon, the teachers are the students. 

There is no way that five teenaged rejects can turn one derelict psych hospital in to a passable college with $10,000 and a  lot of sweat equity.  There are permits and building codes not to mention an 18 year old kid getting a lease for the property?

What I do love about the movie is the way the "college" evolves for the undecided.  Young adults who are expected to go in to higher education after high school but have no idea what they want to go to college for.  That was me.  I spent 1 1/2 years in a Jr. College and 3 years at Washington State University.  I did not graduate because I had no real direction.  In fact, I'm still wondering.  At least my student loans are paid off.

Paisley Favorite Quote: Glen "I got fired for making a shrimp slushy. Cause I got hungry and thirsty."

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