Accepted (2006)

I swear, if any of you read this site semi-regularly AND watched Seinfeld, you may come to a similar conclusion as me. There was an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine goes to the video store and gets all these art house movies based on one of the employee's recommendations. Then there's one employee who picks brainless movies such as Weekend at Bernie's. Well dear readers, that employee's name was Gene. Kind of funny since I feel, and AM, like the Gene of this site and review the most braindead movies. And here I'm back again with the movie Accepted.

This is a comedy in which a group of friends from high school don't get into college, for one reason or another, and so they start their own college. This premise is very reminiscent of Camp Nowhere (1994) in such that the kids have to build their own institution to allow their wacky antics to occur and they gotta hide that fact from their parents. SPOILER ALERT Needless to say, the parents find out; thus leading to the predictable conflict and reconciliation along with the assumption of more wacky that can occur after the credits roll SPOILER OVER

I'll say this, it was an entertaining movie and it did it's job of making me chuckle. Justin Long plays the mastermind behind this scheme and does an ok job carrying the movie, however this truly is an ensemble work. Jonah Hill is humorous as the witty/talkative friend, a roll that he's pretty much made into his usual typecast, albeit the his characters' book smarts differ in each iteration. But to me, the most entertaining character is Lewis Black because I just enjoy what he does and he pretty much does that in this movie, so it's not like he's really acting up a storm. He cracks wise, and that's all I want really.

Beyond the cliched humor that kept me entertained, I enjoyed the babes in this movie. And that's to be expected of course in a movie marketed to young adults and teens. There is no nudity in this film, but they provide just enough eye candy and innuendo to keep things honest. No watch checks on this one. However I don't recommend this unless you are really sure your brain is in the open and off position.

She's the Man (2006)

Not having any knowledge of the actors or even the movie was a nice way to go into this light teen flick. Amanda Bynes plays Viola, an avid soccer player whose team lacks enough players and therefore cancels their season. When her twin brother decides to play with his band in London rather than attend the first couple weeks of school at his elite boys' boarding academy, Viola takes his place and joins the boys' soccer team.

The acting is good. David Cross plays the high school principal, a bald, petty, in-the-dark and somewhat motivating authority figure. He has a nice hearty laugh when he says he was young "back when dinosaurs ruled the earth." Other good characters are the British soccer coach, a tough looking Vinny Jones (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and the hip, gay older friend (brother?) with big city, ethnic friends.

The plot is predictable - Viola gets into an awkward friendship with a guy who think's she's a guy, too; her brother comes back; she gets found out and all heck breaks loose in the big game. She eventually reveals herself and the game goes on.

The theme of growing up and boy/girl drama is pretty standard, but Bynes is talented and gave a good comic turn to the role. The film lacks the social class tension of Mean Girls; Drumline and I imagine Bend it Like Beckham have more racial commentary, not to mention better action sequences -- She's the Man is pretty heavily white washed and most of the soccer action is weak. (Coincidence?) I think the story is based on Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Why else would the main character be named Viola?

No watch checks, but I did leave the room for a couple minutes.