The Corner Penthouse

Accepted (2006), not to be confused with the Mae Whitman movie Acceptance (2009), is making its Blu-ray debut thanks to Mill Creek. Read on to find out more about it...


Accepted (2006) is the story of Bartleby "B" Gaines (Justin Long). When every college turns him down, Bartleby decides to make one up: the South Harmon Institute of Technology. At S.H.I.T., the students teach the classes, the dean lives in a trailer in the back, and Bartleby's on the way to scoring with Monica (Blake Lively), the girl of his dreams.


A lot of raunchy and rowdy high school and college movies came out in the early-to-mid 2000s in the wake of the success of American Pie. Accepted is one such film, but it's a little different from the rest. While there are moments of young women in bikinis, and some moments of wacky hijinks, these are fairly far and few between. Also, unlike its Pie predecessor, this film is rated PG-13, so there is no nudity. That said, Accepted is a rather fun film that light-heartedly looks at the value, or lack thereof, of a traditional college education.


In addition to its prescient message about college, Accepted features a stellar cast of future stars. This was the film that introduced me to my favorite firey-haired female with the cute butt-chin, Maria Thayer. She plays Rory Thayer here (perhaps her own twin sister), and would later take the lead in the films Annie Claus Is Coming to Town (2011) and Night of the Living Deb (2015), as well as memorably play opposite Chris Elliott in the 2011-2014 series Eagleheart. The other notable cast members are Justin Long (Galaxy Quest), Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street), Blake Lively (Gossip Girl), Robin Lord Taylor (Gotham), Lewis Black (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated), and Hannah Marks (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency). All involved play their roles perfectly and help to make this film better than it sounds on paper.


Accepted is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:32:55. Audio languages include English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The film includes English SDH subtitles.


Here's a list of all of the bonus features that can be found on the Blu-ray disc.

• Audio Commentary with director Steve Pink and actors Justin Long, Lewis Black, Jonah Hill, and Adam Herschman.
• Adam's Accepted Chronicles (11:02) - A tongue-in-cheek look at actor Adam Herschman preparing his role as Glen that really overstays its welcome. The joke would have worked better at half the length.
• The Making of Accepted (10:10) - Also known as "Reject Rejection: The Making of Accepted", this is a light EPK-style featurette that doesn't really tell you anything about the making of the movie because it's too busy trying to be funny.
• Campus Tour - A series of five videos that play back-to-back and are not selectable individually: Half Pipe (1:02), Pool (1:03), Party Hall (1:16), Common Room (1:22), and BKE Fraternity (1:19). The names for these videos come from the 2006 Universal DVD, where they were presented as highlights on a map of the campus; hence the DVD's original name of "Self-Guided Campus Tour" which makes no sense on the Blu-ray since it lacks the context of the map menu screen.
• Deleted Scenes (12:59) - Thirteen scenes (by my count) that are shown back-to-back with no identifying titles and no chapter marks. Nearly all of these are really extended scenes.
• Gag Reel (8:12) - Funny moments from the shooting of the film.
• Easter Egg: Extended "Ask Me About My Weiner" Scene (0:51) - In this brief extended version, Sherman (Jonah Hill) actually tells Bartleby (Justin Long) and Monica (Blake Lively) about his weiner while wearing the film's iconic hot dog costume.

As far as I'm aware, this is the very first Easter Egg on a Mill Creek Blu-ray. The Girls, Guns and G-Strings: The Andy Sidaris Collection DVD set had Easter Eggs, which may have been the first Mill Creek DVDs to have them. HOW TO FIND THE EASTER EGG: To avoid spoiling it for you, you will need to highlight the next section of text to read it. Go to the Bonus menu, highlight "Audio Commentary", press LEFT to highlight the red dot to the left, then press ENTER.


Although Accepted is making its Blu-ray debut with this release, it was previously released on HD-DVD and DVD back in 2006 by Universal. I am saddened to report that both of those releases contain some bonus content that is not included on this Blu-ray:

• MISSING: HD-DVD Exclusive Picture-in-Picture Content: Video Commentary, Production Photographs. (credit: DVDCompare)
• MISSING: Music Videos: "Hangin' on the Half Pipe" (3:13), "Keepin' Your Head Up" by The Ringers (2:07).
• MISSING: DVD-ROM MP3s of David Schommer's Score:
  1. "Uncle Ben's Theme"
  2. "B Goes to BKE"
  3. "B & Hoyt Showdown"
  4. "Party at BKE"
  5. "Monica Goes to S.H.I.T."
  6. "B Kisses Monica"

The music videos were, likely, not included because either Universal lost the rights to the music, or it would have cost Mill Creek too much for the music rights. Same for the MP3s (which I am providing to you in this 11MB zip file), though ROM content is less worthwhile to do on Blu-ray since (I believe) so few people have Blu-ray drives in their computers. Heck, these days, it seems that most laptops don't even come with DVD drives!

The REAL loss here, especially for me (since I own the DVD and am not missing out on the music-based content), are the two picture-in-picture features from the HD-DVD. Since Mill Creek is not including them, these two bits of content, which actually sound like they are worthwhile features, are relegated to the graveyard of a dead format. Lost forever to the ravages of time, unless Mill Creek reads this and does a "Special Edition" Blu-ray of Accepted somewhere down the road... which is highly unlikely.


The Accepted (2006) Blu-ray is well worth a purchase, especially given Mill Creek's budget pricing.



All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. This item has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.