candigale
I found this movie hilarious. I came across it on Cinemax. I had never heard of it; but I found myself laughing all the way through. Whoever wrote it is a genius. The boyfriend from Yale always plays funny parts; i.e. Reno 911 & Eastbound and Down. Whenever I see him in anything, I start laughing before he speaks. I know he is going to be funny. I haven't seen Luke Wilson in anything lately, and I know he is a funny actor. He is very monotonous, but the looks on his face are what kill me. And David Koechner acting like an idiot is also something you can always count on. He is crazy. I saw him on Funny or Die in skits called Men of unquiet desperation, or something like that. He played a parking attendant, and I could not stop laughing. He is also someone who makes me laugh before he even starts speaking.
Andres Salama
In a fictitious small college in the United States, a mediocre professor of English literature (played by Luke Wilson) see his job threatened because tenure is soon up, and the university has decided to bring in to compete for his job a supposedly brilliant as well as beautiful young professor from Yale (the lovely Gretchen Mol). This is supposed to be an affectionate satire of the academic world in the US, but I found little affection in what I see. As for the supposed humor, I don't recall laughing once at this movie. Seeing these people with their ridiculous trappings, the vain and pompous administrators, it is clear these professors and administrators add very little value to the rest of the society, yet they live not badly and with a certain status. While the movie obviously exaggerates, from what I read is a not altogether incorrect depiction of life in the rarefied US academic world. Are academics smart people? It doesn't seem so from this movie. Here they look pretty pathetic. It's funny how the Gretchen Mol character is repeatedly described as super smart, when she seems to be the typical dumb blonde (she is the most likable character in the movie, though). The Luke Wilson character, though not entirely unlikable, is a man in his late thirties that is still single and unattached, without any real prospect of improving his life, if anything, it is clear that his life would go downhill from here. The character of the anthropologist friend is downright pathetic (and the big foot thing? what was about that?). The dean and the old lady playing the academic director were also repellent characters. Clearly most of these people could not get a job outside of academia. Seeing this movie, I understand why more and more people believe that tenure should be abolished.
elivbg1
I was actually pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I find many comedies produced lately virtually painful to watch. I was wondering if this movie would be the same... I found it to be completely refreshing; great cast, quirky characters. May be not so over-the-top impressive characters but the main characters were very likable. Luke Wilson seems like a decent actor, in this movie I felt that I was seeing a person, so I felt more connected to his role than some of his other roles. I loved the "Bigfoot" characters. And I liked the ending, too-- good but not too good to be true. I also like to comment on the theme, getting tenure. I am a university assistant professor and the process is all that and more. It is a nerve-racking process. I will stop here because there is too much detail that goes into this, which would be of no interest to the general reader. The movie did do a decent job of showing some aspects of the system yet with a great sense of humor.
tburick
I am not going to bash this movie as many have done... I saw the movie, and was think I set the bar too high. Without giving away too much of the movie, I found that the acting was good, the story was different from a "bottled, formulaic, Animal House-ish" rewrite college comedy.It was smart, clever, and told a good tale, there was only a small amount of unanswered questions I had in my mind when it ended... I stared at the screen and said... "OK...it wasn't awful, it was .... well OK"The bottom line is, I am not going to say it was a horrible movie, because it was not... I found that I was entertained by the movie, and they did not try to market it as a blockbuster.. A decent film, and not too far removed from what it was about.. trying to get tenure at a College.
AD
