By Heath McLeod
I’m confused. It seems like I’m watching Kids in the Hall spliced with The Tom Green Show. The cast is different, but the humour is the same. I’m half expecting to see Tom Green shag an animal carcass, or start squishing heads between his thumb and forefinger.
Tom Green, as Walter "Duff" Duffy freaks out like one of his alter-egos on his tv show. He’s a bumbling low-life goof with a lawn-maintenance business.
Acting isn’t a high priority in Stealing Harvard, and Jason Lee sinks in with the others as John Plummer. Plummer’s excitement looks as though he’s suffering from a case of hemorrhoids in full bloom. Lee’s in uncharted waters, playing a character other than Brodie from Mallrats. Plummer’s not into horse-and-lady wank-mags or video games, he’s a family man, of sorts. However, Lee’s dull start quickly fades from view as we’re introduced to the other characters. His happy little tart girlfriend Elaine (Leslie Mann), is so mind-numbingly cute as daddy’s little girl with her biscotti and fruit basket business, that Plummer’s excitement about her seems a little more genuine.
Her father, played by Dennis Farina, jolts the movie from a shabby Freddie Prinze Jr.-esque waste of time into a comedic performance worth seeing.
My confusion abates, and like one of Elaine’s biscotti baskets, the film is neatly finished up, looking cute and proper. This is no mongoloid child of Tom Green and Bruce McCulloch, it’s just a funny story with bad acting. And there’s nothing wrong with that.