Robbery is Funny

**1/2 out of 5 stars
Release Date: Sept.13, 2002

Sadly, it is now all too familiar to see Tom Green in the company of animals. In "Road Trip," Green put a mouse on his tongue, and last year in "Freddy Got Fingered," he pleasured a horse and an elephant.

The strange thing is that when we see him with a dog in "Stealing Harvard," the shock value, not to mention the humor, is nowhere to be found. Everything he pulls has been seen before in all its immature glory. The biggest surprise and saving grace, however, is that the film outside of Green is actually funny.

"Stealing Harvard" revolves around a promise made by John Plummer (Jason Lee, star of various Kevin Smith films) to his niece Noreen (Tammy Blanchard). Forgetting he said he would pay Noreen's way through college, the empty promise is thrown back in his face when she is accepted into Harvard University.

To make matters worse, John's fianc?(c)e, Elaine (Leslie Mann), is fixated on using their hard-earned savings to buy a house, so he is forced to look for counsel in his childhood friend Duff (Green) to find a way to earn the money. Why anyone would entrust such a delicate situation to an imbecile such as Duff is a mystery, but the idiot best friend always seems to be the number one choice for a troubled, level-headed protagonist to fall back on in these types of films.

Simply put, "Stealing Harvard," is a basic buddy-buddy crime flick exploiting the Harvard name. However, there aren't any attempts to ridicule the Ivy League school with a ludicrous storyline like in recent films such as "Legally Blond" and "How High," which made acceptance into Harvard appear ridiculously easy. Perhaps the biggest joke here is that the $30,000 Plummer needs would only cover a single academic year for his niece. What she would do after that is anyone's guess.

The humor is typical slapstick, filled with threats of rectal-filling and semi-mindless destruction. The majority of the puerile and tasteless antics come from Green. Acts such as brushing his facial hair with an old, dirty toothbrush are anything but tasteful, but on his behalf, he was never one to dish out anything with the slightest amount of cleverness.

Thankfully, it may be Green's simian crudeness that make the rest of the gags in "Stealing Harvard" more enjoyable, especially when we find out what the toothbrush is used for.

Although it sounds overly simplistic, each character is crazed in one way or another. From the obsessed detective to the fianc?(c)-hating father, nothing is truly original - but the execution is.

Subtle unexpectedness triggers most of the laughs, but the jokes feel limited, due to the circular feel of the plot. Only so much can be done with robbery gags, and while most do their job, the sheer repetitiveness dampens the experience. While it's extremely funny, spooning isn't something to be viewed more than once.

Lee is quite likable as Mr. Nice Guy, and you can truly feel for him as he struggles pathetically to get the money he needs. Every one of Plummer's problems has a certain sense of familiarity to it, which comes from Lee's presence and realness on the screen.

Green is another actor we can relate to - he's that friend every one of us has who we simply want to go away. He isn't afraid of acting strange to try and capture our hearts, but with all the thievery being committed by Plummer and Duff, the only thing stolen is Green's dignity.