Stealing Harvard

From its cursory, I-don't-know-how-to-start-my-movie opening voiceover ("my life was totally different just a couple weeks ago...") to its feeble, listless post-credits blooper reel, there isn't a laugh to be had in this boorish movie from the I-heard-a-joke-at-a-frat-party school of screenwriting. Jason Lee plays a hapless chump whose long-forgotten promise to pay for his niece's college comes back to bite him in the wallet when she's accepted to Harvard. With his life's savings already in escrow toward a house for a fiancée who makes him miserable (Leslie Mann), Lee turns to his dumbest, most loutish (and apparently only) friend for ideas, and ends up bungling through a series of failed criminal enterprises. The caliber of comedy that results can be summed up by noting that this friend--a beer-swilling dolt who lives in his mother's garage--is played by the talentless, intentionally imbecilic gross-out comic Tom Green (Freddy Got Fingered), who seems to be improvising his way through the movie while director Bruce McCulloch (Dog Park, Superstar) obediently follows with a camera. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include five deleted scenes, eight filmographies and trailers. Bottom line: skimpy extras for a brain-dead film.] (R. Blackwelder)