Accepted

Reviewed by: Sandra Kraisirideja - 08.18.06

For a teen comedy, "Accepted" is relatively tame. Blame its PG-13 rating, which means the movie is low on cursing and nudity' a bummer of fans of Lewis Black and Blake Lively who are both featured in the film. If that weren't enough the movie is opening the same day as "Snakes on a Plane."

With a cast of relative unknowns, "Accepted" is a marginally good comedy that may have a better shelf life once it hits the video store shelves. While its interesting to see Justin Long--the guy in all those clever Mac ads and a favorite side-kick of Vince Vaughn's out on his own, this will not be his breakout role.

The barely-believable plot, involving a high school senior (Justin Long) who invents his own college to fool his parents until he can get into a real school, follows a textbook path. Inventive teen who's a bit of an outsider makes up a larger-than-life lie that, surprise!, ends up working better than he imagined. There's even a nemesis in the form of a power-hungry college dean who enlists the help of an elite fraternity to eliminate the school. It's like "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Animal House."

The weak script includes a lot of cliché dialogue, including an end scene where Long must face a line-up of dour-faced school administrators who are threatening to shut-down his school. The outcome comes as no surprise.

My recommendation would be to wait for DVD when, hopefully, the filmmakers will have enough sense to put in all the really good stuff they had to leave out to keep it at PG-13.