Stealing Harvard, Jason Lee, ... | LIVING ON THE HEDGE Crime doesn't pay for ''Harvard'''s Mann, Green, and Lee
LIVING ON THE HEDGE Crime doesn't pay for ''Harvard'''s Mann, Green, and Lee
Movie Review

Stealing Harvard (2002)

EW's GRADE
D

Details Release Date: Sep 13, 2002; Rated: PG-13; Length: 83 Minutes; Genres: Comedy, Mystery and Thriller; With: Tom Green and Jason Lee; Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Tom Green has officially become the 21st-century Pauly Shore. In Stealing Harvard, the wall-eyed prankster, who actually used to be funny on his MTV show, limits his comic contribution here to a pair of gag front teeth while playing an antisocialite who helps a high school bud (Jason Lee, coasting on his slacker-naïf likability) boost $30,000 for his niece's college fund. In an only-in-a-bad-movie coincidence, Lee's fiancée (Leslie Mann) has finally agreed to marry him now that they've saved...you got it, $30,000.

Despite a plethora of talent on both sides of the camera -- screenwriter Peter Tolan (''Analyze This''), director Bruce McCulloch (''The Kids in the Hall''), and an ensemble that includes Emmy winners Megan Mullally (''Will & Grace'') and Tammy Blanchard (''Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows'') -- the timing in nearly every scene seems a half beat off. Only ''Scrubs''' John C. McGinley energizes the proceedings as a Kojak-like cop with unorthodox hygiene habits. It doesn't help that most of the jokes (like a rip-off of ''There's Something About Mary'''s dog-in-the-crotch bit) are themselves stolen.

Originally posted Sep 18, 2002 Published in issue #674 Sep 27, 2002 Order article reprints
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