Stealing Harvard (2002)

Stop stealing my time...

I bought this movie without ever seeing it because based on the trailer it looked hilarious. At the time Tom Green was the `it' comedian; his MTV show being huge and his high profile persona taking off (he married the amazingly talented and beautiful Drew Barrymore), so it was obvious that his named attached to a comedy would bring in a decent crowd. Sadly, `Stealing Harvard' wastes the talent he does have. Green possesses a very distinct kind of comedic talent that needs to be channeled properly to really work, and while he does have the funniest scenes in the film, he never really finds his footing here.

The story is farfetched. John Plummer hates his job and his fiancés father, whom he happens to work for. He and his fiancé have been saving their money in order to put a down payment on a house and get married and they finally have enough; $30,000. It just so happens that John promised his niece that he would pay for her schooling if she went to college and she just got accepted to Harvard; she just needs $30,000. Jon doesn't want to disappoint his fiancé so he gets his idiot friend Duff to help him try and steal the money.

This of course leads to attempts at humor that often miss the mark.

Jason Lee is not my favorite actor. I just have yet to really see him do something I enjoy. I actually liked `Alvin and the Chipmunks' but that's another story. Dennis Farina is pathetic here, as is Leslie Mann, who has some preposterous character development. John C. McGinley is decent, but then again he is always the same. Megan Mullally is funny, but underused. I actually think the funniest supporting performance belongs to Martin Starr who plays the clerk at the liquor store John and Duff try and rob (probably the funniest scene in the film). Tom Green delivers his lines well and serves up some humor, but like I mentioned, the film wastes him.

In the end I can't say that this is a film I'll watch regularly. I've owned it for six years now and I've seen it twice (when I first bought it and then last night) and I don't plan on popping it back in the DVD tray for another six years or so. There are just much better comedies to look to for a laugh; so why waste my time with a merely serviceable one? May 23, 2008

Gets Even Better Each Time...

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" March 19, 2006

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

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! October 8, 2005

Decent, Funny

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." September 2, 2005

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

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 July 18, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...