Accepted

A well-intentioned lie spirals out of control in this formulaic teen comedy with an ’80s flavour. The amiable Justin Long plays Bartleby ‘B’ Gaines, who invents the South Harmon Institute of Technology (SHIT, ho ho) to convince his parents he got accepted to college. Turns out they want to see more than just a letter, so Bartleby and his fellow rejects must create a fake college. As students actually start enrolling, B’s enterprising spirit is put to good use, but will it impress hottie Monica (Blake Lively)? The inspirational speeches and lesson-learning montages are bland and derivative, but the likable cast deliver some good one-liners. ‘Battle Royale’ is mooted as a solution to the hundreds of unwanted students, while the fake Dean is a disgraced professor whose pleasingly cynical outbursts include the theory that colleges indoctrinate students ‘into a life-long hell of debt and indecision’. A watchable comedy, but hardly a worthy successor to ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’.