Stealing Harvard (Ws Dub Sub Dol)

Starring:Tammy Blanchard, Seymour Cassel, Dennis Farina, Mary Gillis, Tom Green (III), Bobby Harwell, Richard Jenkins, Gabe Laskin, Jason Lee, Ken Magee, Leslie Mann, John C. McGinley, Jeanette Miller, Megan Mullally, Chris Penn, Ashlynn Rose, Lorna Scott, Martin Starr, Zeus (II)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

In Stealing Harvard, the charming Jason Lee (Chasing Amy, Almost Famous) wastes his talent playing John, a nice guy who once rashly promised his niece that he would pay for her college education. Now she's been accepted into Harvard, and though John has just the right amount of money in the bank, that money is meant to buy a house for himself and his fiancée Elaine (Leslie Mann, Big Daddy). Afraid of disappointing his niece, John enlists his friend Duff (Tom Green, Freddy Got Fingered, Road Trip) on a spree of inane criminal escapades that go wrong. Lee is an engaging actor, but he can't make the half-baked gags of Stealing Harvard funny. Similarly wasted are Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), Dennis Farina (Out of Sight, Snatch), Chris Penn (Reservoir Dogs, Short Cuts), and others. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Gets Even Better Each Time..........2006-03-19

Okay, sure, it was just a normal teenish comedy the first time I saw it in the theatures... wasn't too funny, but was entertaining. Then I got it as a gift. W O W ! Every time I watch it, it gets funnier and way more entertaining then the first. It's a blast reciting the lines along with Tom Green and most of the time I end up laughing before the funny part even happens because I remember how great it is! "I need my cheese John.", "I'm not liquid John, I'm not liquid." What a classic movie. You can't get much better from Green then: "All right American cattle. Nobody does anything stupid and you can all go home to your precious tv dinners." Or how about my personal favorite: "Okay. I see what's going on here. You think you're mister real estate. Well that's just great. Let me ask you this - do you have kids? Good. Oh, three of them. Well, that's even better, because I want there to be an audience when I come over there, take you out into the street and beat the livin' bejesus outta ya'. (slams down phone repeatedly)" Not only does this movie have dozens of excellent laughs, it has amazing music in it. Such as the end song "Nothing Frequency" by Autopilot Off. I also remember a great song, "Party Hard" by Andrew W.K. and a Barenaked Ladies song, just off the top of my head. I swear, you'll love it more and more as months pass, trust me... "Oooooooooh yeah........come to Steve"

"I'm not liquid, Jon. I'm not...liquid!".......2005-10-08

This movie is hilarious. Jon Plummer (Jason Lee) made a promise to his niece when she became eliminated from an elementary school spelling bee that he'd pay her way to college. Unfortunately, he told her that to make her feel better, so now that his niece is all grown up, and he promised to pay for her tuition, he has to figure out a way to get $30,000.

To be honest, Tom Green's character "Duff" had me laughing all throughout the movie. Yes, you read correctly. Tom Green is funny in this movie. I know, I know. He's an acquired taste, but in this movie, he's actually watchable (I've always thought he was somewhat watchable, and yes, I have seen "Freddy Got Fingered" twice -- out of boredom, of course). I recommend this to Tom Green or Jason Lee fans!

Decent, Funny.......2005-09-02

This is a surprisingly funny movie. Tom Green is kept from being annoying and actually comes across as a very funny and lovable moron. Jason is great playing the guy who is trying to do the right thing (See "A Guy Thing"). Funny and Entertaining, you will not be dissappointed with "Stealing Harvard."

"I was hungry so I decided to heat up a brick of cheese.".......2004-07-18

Comedy is hard. Just ask the people who made Stealing Harvard (2002). Directed by Kids in the Hall alum Bruce McCulloch, starring Jason Lee and Tom Green, Stealing Harvard provides some (some, meaning not nearly enough) funny and charming moments, but really not enough to carry the film. At the time of writing this review, there are over 100 used copies for sale here, and the lowest price is under a couple of bucks. That should tell you something...

Anyway, the film is about a character named John Plummer (Lee) and an off the cuff promise he made to his college bound niece when she was younger, a promise that just happened to be caught on video tape, and one where he told her that if she ever got into college, he would pay for it...well, it's many years later, and she does get into college, Harvard, in fact, and now she needs $30,000 to make up what isn't covered by herself and her scholarships. John does have the money, but problem is, it's earmarked for him and his fiancée Elaine, played by Leslie Mann, to buy a home and get married. In an effort to find another way to come up with the money, John turns to his friend Walter P. `Duff' Duffy (Green), a half-wit with a penchant for coming up with plenty of schemes to obtain the money, most being highly illegal.

So what's wrong with the movie? I guess the main thing is it just wasn't that funny. I do like Jason Lee and I even think Tom Green is pretty funny, in the context of his MTV show, but the comedy is very sparse throughout the film, and I never really felt like the main characters ever really gelled. I actually found some of the supporting characters in Dennis Farina (John's boss and future father-in-law), Megan Mullally (John's sister and mother of his niece), John C. McGinley (the intense bald-headed police detective), and Seymour Cassel (Duffy's uncle who provides the boys with one of their many plans to get the money) to be funnier and more interesting to watch than the main characters. Lee and Green just never really clicked full on for me. I had read that Owen Wilson was originally wanted for Green's part, and I think that would have worked better, as it seemed pretty obvious that a lot of Green's screen antics were probably improvised, and in small doses can be funny, but not in the large volumes we are given here. Had the comedy been more persuasive throughout the film, I probably wouldn't have had time to dwell on whether or not the characters worked well together. As I said before, I do think Tom Green is pretty funny, at least he was on his MTV show, and in small doses, but here we just get too much of him, and his weird, flaky, in-your-face schtick drags on and gets old fast. If you want a much better example of this and/or you're a real glutton for punishment, go pick up his 2001 release of Freddie Got Fingered. Am I saying Tom Green ruined the movie? Nope, as I felt there just wasn't really that much of a movie to ruin. I say ruined, but the movie wasn't really that bad, but I would have a hard time recommending anyone run out and see it, or even rent it, for that matter, as even though the film ran a paltry 82 minutes, it's few truly comic moments do not add up to a funny movie.

The wide screen print here looks very good, and special features include deleted scenes (although I could not tell why they were deleted as they would have fleshed out the runtime and even added a bit more to the storyline, but whatever...), filmographies, and trailers for various Paramount releases. All in all, if you are looking to kill an hour and twenty minutes, or you're a die-hard Tom Green fan, then this film is for you.

Cookieman108

Better than it looked from the preview.......2004-07-08

i thouhg it was a pretty good movie. tom green is always weird but a little less weird in this movie. i think it sould be 14.99 becuase its a good not but not great. so if you like tom green or jason lee you should rent this

Average customer rating:

How could Green and Lee make something as lame as this?

Stealing Harvard

Manufacturer: Columbia
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

A Guy Thing
Smokin' Aces (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B0002DRBQQ

Product Description

Includes Special Features

Customer Reviews:

How could Green and Lee make something as lame as this?.......2004-06-27

I did like the "Branch Rickey" joke, but I bet that gag was over the head of a lot of people who checked out "Stealing Harvard." Besides, that joke was in the trailer as were most of what ends up being the funny parts from this 2002 comedy. Please, raise your hand if you are sick and tired of trailers usually being better than the movies they trick you into going to see. If this movie did not have a trailer to give away the good parts I could have given it another star.

The story that Peter Tolan and Martin Hynes come up with provides a good enough framework for a comedy. John Plummer (Jason Lee) and his fiance, Elaine Warner (Leslie Mann) have finally saved $30,000, which is enough for them to buy a home and get married. But John's neice Noreen (Tammy Blanchard) has just achieved her dream of being accepted at Harvard and she and her mother, Patty (Megan Mullally) have a videotape from many years earlier when Uncle John promised to pay for Noreen's college education. Noreen only needs $29 thousand and change in eleven days. John cannot just give Noreen the $30,000 that is earmarked for the new house and the only reasonable alternative, as suggested by his best friend "Duff" (Tom Green), is to steal the money.

This is easier said then done, an idea that could be handled creatively but is not in this film. Instead we have something on the level of "Raising Arizona" if written by high school students who only remember the worst episodes of "Saturday Night Live." This movie is just not funny and most of the cast is clearly trying too hard. A film in which Tom Green and Jason Lee are both too sedate is not a good sign. Richard Jenkins plays the only character who seems comfortable with their role, but I do want to mention that in the last act of the film Leslie Mann's Elaine suddenly turns out to be a bit more than a woman who tends to cry during sex, which was a pleasing surprise.

The plot has its standard complications. Elaine is the boss's daughter and daddy (Dennis Farina) makes a point of asking each day if John is sleeping with his little girl and is looking for someway to break up the couple, aided in his effort by Rex the Dog (Zeus). Meanwhile, John and Duff have to contend with both Detective Charles (John C. McGinley) and local thug David Loach (Chirs Penn) as they try to figure out a way of "Stealing Harvard." But you keep coming back to the idea that certainly Green and Lee could have come up with better ad libs that what ends up in this lame little comedy.

The working titles for this film included "The Promise," "You Promised," "Say Uncle," "Uncle," and "Stealing Standford." If you check out the deleted scenes there is a point where Noreen wants to go to "Northern," so that last one makes me wonder how hard it would have to do regional versions of this film: Harvard for the East and Stanford for the West, then something like Notre Dame or Illinois for the Midwest and Duke or Miami for the South. But then why stop there? They could change one visual, dub a handful of scenes, and every major college in the country could be the target school for this movie, everything from "Stealing Auburn" to "Stealing Wyoming." That would be one one to generate interest in this movie and get poeple to see it. Then again, it might have been cheaper just to actually make it a funny movie.

Stealing Harvard [Region 2]
Average customer rating:

Gets Even Better Each Time...

"I'm not liquid, Jon. I'm not...liquid!"

Decent, Funny

"I was hungry so I decided to heat up a brick of cheese."

Better than it looked from the preview

Stealing Harvard [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Gets Even Better Each Time..........2006-03-19

"I'm not liquid, Jon. I'm not...liquid!".......2005-10-08

Decent, Funny.......2005-09-02

"I was hungry so I decided to heat up a brick of cheese.".......2004-07-18

Better than it looked from the preview.......2004-07-08

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