Sept. 26, 2002 – With a title like "Stealing Harvard," it surely can't be all bad. You've got to admit, it gets your attention.
Maybe the movie folks should have stolen Yale; if some of the critics are right, they couldn't have done worse. Well, here we go. The title derives in a fittingly plebeian way: John (Jason Lee who was super as the lead singer in "Almost Famous") is all set to marry his girlfriend Elaine (Leslie Mann) and treat her to a $29,000 wedding, when suddenly he is confronted with a debt he contracted long ago to put his niece through college, ergo the title. Elaine somehow has settled on the $29,000 figure to set up housekeeping, including the wedding.
His no-good pal Duff (Tom Green) convinces our hero that the only way out of his dilemma is to embark on a life of crime, which involves much farce and fumble. So far, the movie could be salvageable, but don't bet your schoolbooks on it just yet.
According to Roger Ebert, the movie is "about as lax and limp a comedy as I've seen in a while, a meander through worn-out material."
But let's stop — remember, even a blind pig roots an acorn sometimes. And Chris Hewitt of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution thinks he has rooted one here. He says the plot "barely matters," something Ebert would second. What matters, Hewitt says, is the movie's "strong cast and clever script."
So, grab your popcorn and take your options. Directed by Bruce McCulloch, "Stealing Harvard" is rated, oh dear, PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and drug references.
It is playing at Sunny Isle Theaters.
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