Trying to get into college can be a very stressful process for many students. Sometimes students don’t think about what they will do if they don’t get accepted into the college they want to go to. The new movie Accepted explored how a few students in that situation handled it.
Bartleby Gains had been rejected from several colleges but he was sure he was going to get into the last school he hadn’t heard from yet. His best friend Sherman Schrader was going to be going to Harmon College, the same college his father had gone to. Bartleby was shocked when he received a rejection from his last college. His parents, Jack and Diane, weren’t happy with him. Two of Bartleby’s friends, Rory and Hands, also found themselves without a college to go to. Bartleby came up with the idea of creating a fake college, South Harmon Institute of Technology. He got Schrader to create a website to fool Jack. Hands and Rory also got involved and they leased a former mental hospital to serve as the college. They managed to fool their parents and then were shocked when students showed up. Everyone had been rejected from other colleges, and Bartleby just couldn’t tell them there wasn’t a college.
Accepted was not the first movie to deal with college in some way. I haven’t seen any other movie where a group of students actually created their own college. At first Bartleby saw it as just a way to get his parents off his back about the fact that he’d been rejected from all the colleges he had applied to. Once all the students showed up, it was like a huge party for a while until Bartleby got the idea to ask people what they wanted to learn. After that, there were some unique classes going on and the students were learning things even though it wasn’t a traditional college. I did think that was interesting.
Accepted was set in the town of Harmon and Harmon College was mentioned several times as well. I live in Ohio and have never heard of either, so I think the town and college were created just for this movie. It did seem like Harmon College was meant to be a more expensive, even ivy league type of college. Dean Van Horne from Harmon College compared the school to Yale and Harvard. I think it was supposed to like Bowling Green University or Ohio Northern University, two very expensive colleges in the state. The only real college in Ohio that was mentioned was Ohio State, and that was only by showing that Bartleby’s last rejection letter came from there.
The plot of Accepted was very straightforward. Bartleby created a college and then kept working on how to keep other students and parents from learning the truth. There really weren’t any surprises, making the movie predictable for the most part. I still thought it was entertaining. There was a bit of a message to the movie, but it didn’t go overboard with it and beat that message into the ground like some movies have done. The movie wasn’t trying to be serious, so people in the mood for a serious movie shouldn’t bother with this one. This is a movie to watch just to be entertained.
I thought that Accepted was a good comedy. It made me laugh many times and I thought it was entertaining. Some of the jokes that were in the movie were a bit silly. That didn’t bother me, but other people might find the movie too silly. There were several jokes related to the name of the college, South Harmon Institute of Technology, and to what word the first letters of each word of the college spelled out. There were many jokes involving that word, which might bother some people. One of the school colors was even brown and that played into some of the jokes. The jokes were funny, though there probably could have been a few less with that particular word or variations of that word. Many of the characters did swear throughout the movie, mostly using the one word made from the name of the college in some way. If I remember right, the word that rhymed with luck was used once. I didn’t think the swearing was excessive, but some people could feel differently. This really wasn’t a movie for younger children.
Bartleby was the main character in Accepted. Most of what was going on in the movie was connected to him in some way. He really was surprised that he had been rejected by every college he applied to and desperation drove him to creating the fake college. He wasn’t a bad person even though he did things he shouldn’t have. I thought that Justin Long was really good in the part. He’s older than Bartleby was supposed to be, but he was still believable in the part. He had a fairly important part in Galaxy Quest and has made several other movies, like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Herbie: Fully Loaded since then.
Sherman Schrader and Bartleby had been friends for years. Sherman was accepted at Harmon College and was a legacy at a fraternity, meaning they had to let him in. Sherman tried desperately to fit in and gain acceptance from the members of the fraternity that treated him horribly because he wasn’t good looking and popular. Sherman helped Bartleby with some things related to setting up the college even though he really didn’t want to get involved. Jonah Hill was fine in the part. Sherman’s uncle Ben acted as the Dean of the college and ended up teaching. Rory was a girl that had been obsessed with getting into Yale for most of her life and didn’t know what to do when she wasn’t accepted.
Hands was one of Bartleby’s friends. He lost his football scholarship after he hurt his knee. He discovered he had artistic talent during his time at South Harmon Institute of Technology. Glen was a bit strange and probably missing several marbles. He liked to cook bizarre things. The rest of the students were flat characters and really not developed much. That didn’t bother me too much. Jack and Diane, Bartleby’s parents, were only around in a few scenes. Monica had gone to school with Bartleby. She was nice to him, though was oblivious to the fact that he was interested in her. She changed some once she started college and she appreciated Bartleby more.
Main Cast
Lewis Black - Uncle Ben
Ann Cusack - Diane Gaines
Mark Derwin - Jack Gaines
Anthony Heald - Dean Van Horne
Adam Herschman - Glen
Jonah Hill - Sherman Schrader
Blake Lively - Monica
Justin Long - Bartleby Gaines
Columbus Short - Hands
Maria Thayer - Rory
Steve Pink - Director
Accepted was a fun, entertaining movie overall even though it was a bit silly at times. This wasn’t the best comedy I’ve seen, but it was enjoyable. People need to remember that this wasn’t meant to be a serious movie to enjoy it.
This is a movie that I would have given three and a half stars if I had that option here. Since I don’t, I rounded up to four stars.
From the producer of Bruce Almighty and Liar Liar comes a whole new school of thought: Accepted. When every college turns him down, Bartleby B Gaines ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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