So maybe this isn’t the most original movie in the world. It’s a little like Animal House, a little like Revenge of the Nerds and a lot like Old School. It calls to mind elements of Real Genius, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder and PCU, which starred a then-unknown Jeremy Piven and seems to be playing somewhere on cable television 24 hours a day _ even though it came out in 1994.

And maybe its premise isn’t the most plausible: A bunch of slackers and weirdoes form their own college, where "liberal" doesn’t even begin to describe the liberal arts education. Doesn’t matter. Accepted is a lot more fun than you’d expect from a comedy coming out in the dead of summer.

Directed by Steve Pink from a script by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage and Mark Perez, and featuring a performance from the infinitely likable up-and-comer Justin Long, the film has a certain subversive elan that keeps it light on its feet _ until the very end, that is, when it turns self-righteous and takes itself way too seriously. Blake Lively, Jonah Hill and Lewis Black co-star.

By: Christy Lemire, AP