“Accepted” 2006 Movie Review
Accepted is a comedy and drama film released in 2006 which was also the first feature film that Steven Pink has ever directed. The film gathered a very respectable line of casts such as Justin Long, who is well-known as the voice of Alvin in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, Jonah Hill who is a very respected actor in the comedy-genre, and Blake Lively to name a few. The story takes place in Wickliffe, California while the film was shot in Los Angeles and Orange and revolves around a fictitious college called Harmon University.
The plot centers on Bartleby Gaines, a recently-graduated high school student who spent his days doing pranks and creating fake IDs. However, despite his clear wit, he wasn’t able to get accepted into any university. Because of the immense pressure from his family, he decided to create a fake college along with fellow rejects, Hands and Rory. Together, they turned a run-down mental facility into a make-believe college called South Harmon Institute of Technology or S.H.I.T for short. The plan was going well until people, who also didn’t get accepted anywhere, claimed they got accepted into the fake college. And so, the journey of how one student founded a college out of nothing began.
While this movie has generally gotten bad reviews on the Internet, there are several positive notes that can be taken from this film. Although the story was dry and predictable, it did provide us with some good laughs therefore I’d say it did a decent job as a comedy film. However, the plot did not allow the actors to reach their full potential and it wasn’t anything that I’ve never seen before. Despite all that, I really appreciate the dynamics between the characters even though they were underdeveloped and also Bartleby Gaines’ character and his evolution, his growth throughout the film where in the beginning he was just a naïve boy who thought only of himself and by the end he became a leader who thought of others and developed a critical thought process; in short, he was, by the end, a university student. What the film had succeeded to do extremely well is the delivery of its message or moral lesson which is anything is possible if you put your heart into it to name an example.
Overall, this is a good movie if you are just looking something to past the time and have a good laugh and it can also serve as material for research on the education system. It isn’t my favorite film but is a movie I would watch my mates while relaxing. On that note, I think this movie is a bit tad complicated for younger audience therefore I would recommend this movie to teenagers and adults.