Accepted (Steve Pink). 90 minutes. Opens Friday (August 18). For venues and times, see Movies, page 92. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Forget CGI. Suspension of disbelief is easily the best producer of special effects in film. It allows Rob Schneider to win the hottie, permits a world-renowned superhero to disguise himself by donning glasses, but mostly it helps us to appreciate movies like Accepted . A ridiculous premise that even Jessica Simpson wouldn’t buy can’t dampen our enjoyment.
The film borrows heavily from guilty-pleasure flick Camp Nowhere, starring Christopher Lloyd, in which a group of social-outcast kids form a make-believe summer camp without rules or counsellors except for token grown-up Lloyd as the pretend manager. Accepted is about a group of social outcasts who create a fictitious university (South Harmon Technical Institute) led by Lewis Black, whose anarchist approach echoes Lloyd’s.
What this movie lacks in originality it more than makes up with acting. Justin Long , already a proud member of the stupid-smart film community, not to mention current Mac computers shill, leads the bunch as a likeable slacker who gives great one-liners. Jonah Hill transforms the fat loser best friend cliché with his deadpan delivery, and Adam Herschman excels as the freaky cooking savant.
Wildly improbable yet hard to dislike, Accepted deserves the requisite teen flick staple: the slow clap.
