Quite Acceptable Comedy

My wife was flipping around the channels yesterday afternoon and managed to settle on HBO, more than enough time for the start of a film we had seen previews for last year but never got around to seeing in the theatre. The film was the 2006 comedy Accepted, which is sort of one part Animal House, one part Revenge of the Nerds and one part Risky Business. In short, a recipe (for me) that seems to work quite nicely.

The story is about high school graduate Bartleby Gaines (played by Justin Long) who is in a tough position with his parents - he hasn't been accepted by any colleges. With time running out, he comes up with a desperate plan - to make up a college, complete with acceptance letters, website, etc. Trouble is, as what happens any time one makes up a doozie of a lie, his parents then want to see him off to the school (as all good parents would - especially when they are paying $20K a year to educate their child). So, he and his other not-bound-for-college friends locate a facility, get it into some semblence of a condition and attempt to pass it off for the real thing. Thus, the South Hampton Institute of Technology is born.

Now, I went to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) so the acronym is an instant register to me. In fact, our school was really in the southern part of the town of Henrietta, a suburb of Rochester, so we often jokingly used that same acronym back in the 80's to describe our school.

My wife and I really enjoyed the laughs in this one. Yes, it is a rather simple comedy which gets it humor from oddball situations and some collegiate cliches. But, for the frame of mind we were in for a Sunday afternoon, it really worked well.

A couple of standouts in the cast, for us, include Anthony Heald and Lewis Black. Black, who plays Dean Van Horne of the nearby school Hampton College,has been a favorite of ours since he played assistant principal Scott Guber for five seasons on Boston Public. Black, who plays Uncle Ben - the ma Bartleby pays to be the dean of his made-up school, is a very sharp witted comedienne whom we have enjoyed for many many years from specials on Comedy Central.

If you get a chance and are in need of some good, mindless laughs, I recommend checking this film out.