Accepted (film)

Last updated
Accepted
Acceptedposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steve Pink
Screenplay by
  • Adam Cooper
  • Bill Collage
  • Mark Perez
Story byMark Perez
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Matthew F. Leonetti
Edited byScott Hill
Music byDavid Schommer
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • August 18, 2006 (2006-08-18)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$23 million [1]
Box office$38.6 million [1]

Accepted is a 2006 American comedy film directed by Steve Pink, marking his directorial debut. The screenplay was written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Mark Perez. The film stars Justin Long, Blake Lively, Anthony Heald and Lewis Black in lead roles.

Contents

The plot follows Bartleby Gaines (Long), a high school graduate who, after being rejected by every college he applies to, concocts a plan to create a fake university with his friends to convince his parents he's moving forward with his education. As more students, also rejected from other schools, mistakenly apply to the fictional South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.), Bartleby and his friends decide to run it as if it were a real institution. It was released on August 18, 2006 and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Bartleby Gaines is a persuasive senior from William McKinley High School in Wickliffe, Ohio, who, among other pranks, creates fake IDs. His gifts do not extend to grades, however, and he receives rejection letters from all the colleges to which he applies, including those with high acceptance rates.

To gain approval from his demanding father, Bartleby creates a fake college, the South Harmon Institute of Technology (S.H.I.T.). His best friend, Sherman Schrader III, who has been accepted into his father's prestigious alma mater, Harmon College, aids Bartleby and fellow reject Rory Thayer, who only applied to Yale University and was rejected due to legacy preferences; Darryl "Hands" Holloway, who lost his athletic scholarship after an injury; and Glen, an outcast who has a low GPA and failed his SAT due to not signing his name. To make the "college" seem legitimate, Bartleby convinces Sherman to give it a functional website.

When his father insists on meeting the dean, Bartleby hires Dr. Ben Lewis, Sherman's cynical uncle and a former philosophy professor at Harmon College, to play that role, and he leases an abandoned psychiatric hospital adjacent to Harmon College, which the group renovates to look like a college campus. Their plan backfires when the website, which automatically accepts any applicant, enrolls hundreds of other rejects. Out of sympathy, Bartleby lets them believe the school is real and that they will finally be accepted despite objections from his friends. After a visit to Harmon disenchants him with traditional college life, he decides to let the students create their own curriculum; this ranges from traditional topics of study like culinary arts and sculpting to more unusual courses such as meditation and psychokinesis, a subject one eccentric student wishes to study.

As the college is further developed, Bartleby creates a school newspaper (the SHIT Rag) and invents a mascot (the SHIT Sandwiches), while Lewis gives brutally honest lectures about life that draw large crowds; the students primarily spend their time partying. Meanwhile, the narcissistic and corrupt dean of Harmon College, Richard Van Horne, plans to tear down old and unused buildings on campus and construct the Van Horne Gateway, a park-like walkway similar to Yale and Harvard's, hoping to make Harmon look more prestigious and increase their number of rejected students. He dispatches Harmon's student body president Hoyt Ambrose to free up the nearby properties, but when Bartleby refuses to relinquish the lease for the South Harmon property, Hoyt tries to reveal the college as a fake. The dispute turns personal, as Bartleby has been vying for the affections of Hoyt's ex-girlfriend, Monica Moreland, since high school (Monica breaks up with Hoyt after discovering him with another woman).

Hoyt exposes South Harmon as a fake institution through Sherman, who is attempting to join Hoyt's fraternity as a legacy but is constantly humiliated and abused by them. After debasing Sherman once more, the fraternity coerces him to hand over all the files he has created for South Harmon.

Hoyt contacts all the students' parents and, with Van Horne, reveals the school is a sham. Soon after, the school is forced to close, and Bartleby is at risk of prison time for fraud. However, Sherman, who has already discovered much of Harmon College's corruption, files for accreditation for South Harmon, giving Bartleby a chance to make his college legitimate. At the subsequent State of Ohio educational accreditation hearing, Bartleby makes an impassioned speech about the failures of conventional education and the importance of seeking knowledge and personal growth through following one's own passions, convincing the board to grant his school a one-year probationary accreditation to test his new system and make the school adequate, thus foiling Van Horne and Hoyt's schemes.

After more renovations, the college reopens with more students enrolling, including Sherman and Monica, and Bartleby's friends joining the faculty. Bartleby finally earns the approval of his father, who is proud his son now owns a college. Van Horne walks to his car in the parking lot, only to watch it suddenly explode. Bartleby watches in astonishment as the eccentric student from earlier makes his interest in psychokinetic explosions a reality.

Cast

Release

Accepted debuted at #5 at the U.S. box office, grossing $10,023,835 during its opening weekend, trailing behind Snakes on a Plane , Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (in its third weekend), World Trade Center (in its second weekend), and Step Up (in its second weekend). [2]

By the end of its theatrical run on October 19, 2006, the film had grossed $36,323,505 domestically and $2,181,504 internationally, resulting in a worldwide total of $38,505,009. [1]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, Accepted holds an approval rating of 38% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The critical consensus reads: "Like its characters who aren't able to meet their potential, Accepted's inconsistent and ridiculous plot gets annoying, despite a few laughs." [3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews." [4] However, audiences were more favorable toward the film, with CinemaScore giving it a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. [5]

Michael Buening from AllMovie rated it 3 out of 5 stars, acknowledging its humor and charm despite its flaws. [6]

Home media

Accepted was released on DVD on November 14, 2006, available in both widescreen and fullscreen formats. The DVD included special features such as deleted scenes and a gag reel. Additionally, it was released in the now-discontinued HD DVD format. [7] A Blu-ray version of the film was later released on January 19, 2021.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Black</span> American comedian and actor (born 1948)

Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, and cultural trends.

<i>Revenge of the Nerds</i> 1984 American film by Jeff Kanew

Revenge of the Nerds is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Ted McGinley, and Bernie Casey. Its plot chronicles a group of nerds at the fictional Adams College trying to stop the ongoing harassment by jock fraternity Alpha Betas and its sister sorority, Pi Delta Pi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theta Tau</span> American engineering fraternity

Theta Tau (ΘΤ) is a professional collegiate engineering fraternity. The fraternity has programs to promote the social, academic, and professional development of its members. Theta Tau is the oldest and largest professional engineering fraternity and has a membership of more than 50,000 men and women who study engineering in all its various branches on over 100 college campuses.

<i>Hardcore</i> (1979 film) 1979 American crime drama film by Paul Schrader

Hardcore is a 1979 American neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader, and starring George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, and Dick Sargent. Its plot follows a conservative Midwestern businessman whose teenage daughter goes missing in California. With the help of a prostitute, his search leads him into the illicit subculture of pornography, including snuff films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton College</span> Private college in Kirkland, New York, US

Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in the Clinton, New York, area. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its charter as Hamilton College in 1812, in honor of Alexander Hamilton, one of its inaugural trustees, following a proposal made after his death in 1804. Since 1978, Hamilton has been a coeducational institution, having merged with its sister school, Kirkland College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarkson University</span> Private university in Potsdam, New York, US

Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4,000 students in 2024. studying toward bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in each of its schools or institutes: the Institute for a Sustainable Environment, the School of Arts & Sciences, the David D. Reh School of Business, the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering, and the Earl R. and Barbara D. Lewis School of Health Sciences. The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Military Academy</span> United States historic place

The Michigan Military Academy, also known as M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by J. Sumner Rogers and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy. Some journalists have referred to the school as the Second West Point. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Orchard Lake Schools Historic District.

<i>Old School</i> (2003 film) 2003 film by Todd Phillips

Old School is a 2003 American comedy film directed and co-written by Todd Phillips. The film stars Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Will Ferrell as depressed men in their thirties who seek to relive their college days by starting a fraternity, and the tribulations they encounter in doing so. The film was released on February 21, 2003, received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $87 million worldwide.

<i>I Am Charlotte Simmons</i> Novel by Tom Wolfe

I Am Charlotte Simmons is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University. Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students at North Carolina, Florida, Penn, Duke, Stanford, and Michigan. Wolfe suggested it depicts the American university today at a fictional college that is "Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, and a few other places all rolled into one."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigma Pi</span> North American collegiate fraternity

Sigma Pi (ΣΠ) is a collegiate fraternity with 232 chapters at American universities. As of 2021, it had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 118,000 alumni. The fraternity is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

LaMont Smith is a former 1996 Olympic Games gold medalist in the men's 4x400 meter relay for the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Thayer</span> American football player and announcer (born 1961)

Thomas Allen Thayer is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL) and United States Football League (USFL). He played in the NFL for the Chicago Bears and the Miami Dolphins, and won a Super Bowl as a member of the 1985 Chicago Bears. Prior to his NFL career, Thayer played in the USFL for the Chicago Blitz, Arizona Wranglers and the Arizona Outlaws from 1983 to 1985. He is currently the color commentator on WMVP for Chicago Bears broadcasts.

<i>The Brotherhood of the Bell</i> 1970 film

The Brotherhood of the Bell is a 1970 made-for-television movie produced by Cinema Center 100 Productions and starring Glenn Ford. The director Paul Wendkos was nominated in 1971 by the Directors Guild of America for "outstanding directorial achievement in television". David Karp wrote the screenplay based on his novel that had been previously filmed as a Studio One episode in 1958. This version aired as a "world premiere" CBS Thursday Night Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Nutty Professor (character)</span> Fictional character

The Nutty Professor is a fictional character portrayed by Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor and its respective sequel, and by Eddie Murphy in the 1996 version and its 2000 sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Julius F. Kelp is an awkward and shy but intelligent and lively chemistry professor. Sherman Klump is a jolly, kind-hearted science teacher at Welman College. Murphy also played the rest of Klump's family in the sequel. Lewis was not fond of Murphy's characters, due to excessive fart jokes in the films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texnikoi</span> Honor society at Ohio State University, US

Texnikoi (TNK) is an honorary organization for students in the College of Engineering at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1924 and recognizes both academic achievement and campus and extra-curricular involvement.

<i>AmerAsian</i> 2009 film by Roger Lim

AmerAsian is a 2009 feature length college relationship drama was initially completed, but re-entered post-production in January 2009 for additional shooting. Directed by Roger Lim, it was intended as to be the first film of a trilogy that was never produced. It stars Lim as Eric Young and Evlin Lake as Monica Donovan. It also introduces Bobby Dodge as Coach Donovan, Shannon Gayle as Kimberly, Andrew Plummer as Sean, and Jason Lombard as Daryl Walker.

<i>All American</i> (film) 1953 film

All American is a 1953 American film noir drama sports film directed by Jesse Hibbs and starring Tony Curtis and Lori Nelson.

<i>F the Prom</i> 2017 American film

F the Prom is a 2017 American teen comedy film directed and produced by Benny Fine and written by him, Rafi Fine, and Molly Prather. In the film, two estranged best friends reunite due to unfortunate circumstances and conspire to destroy the senior prom. The film stars Danielle Campbell, Joel Courtney, Madelaine Petsch, and Cameron Palatas, with Meg DeLacy, Nicholle Tom, Richard Karn, Jill Cimorelli, Luke Bilyk, Brendan Calton, Michael Chey, Adan Allende, Diamond White, Cheri Oteri, and Ian Ziering in supporting roles. It was released online and on-demand on December 5, 2017 to widely negative reviews.

<i>White Lie</i> (film) 2019 Canadian film

White Lie is a 2019 Canadian drama film written and directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas. The film stars Kacey Rohl as Katie Arneson, a university student who fakes a cancer diagnosis for the attention and financial gain, but gets caught up in having to maintain her lie.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Accepted (2006)". Box Office Mojo .
  2. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for August 18-20, 2006". Box Office Mojo .
  3. ↑ "Accepted (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Accepted Reviews". Metacritic .
  5. ↑ "ACCEPTED (2006) A-". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  6. ↑ "Allmovie's review of Accepted". www.allmovie.com.
  7. ↑ Tom Woodward. "News: Accepted (US - DVD R1 - HD) - DVDActive". Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.