Maybe it's the air at film festivals, but I just watched it on DVD last night (it was released at Blockbuster early)and though I was looking forward to it, found it dull, lifeless, bland, and worst of all, wrong.
I should admit I am a college professor and thought I would enjoy a film which was supposed to be a comedy about college professors. This was no _Groves of Academe_ or anything close. In the film, the writing professor urges his students to "write about what you know" (and old and tired chestnut, to be sure, but not bad advice) and yet Mike Million seems to know nothing about the academic life, tenure, publications, etc., and in fact, seems to have learned about academic life from watching television shows about high school teachers (including the faculty lounge, old deans with bow ties, etc.) Then again, I've never taught at Bowdoin or Bryn Mawr, so maybe it's really like that there... but I doubt it.
Not to say there aren't internecine battles and personal squabbles among faculty, there certainly are, but they don't look like this. Admittedly, there are a few chuckles here and there (much of it from an extended gag about Bigfoot) but when the film deliberately tries to be funny (e.g., erotic poetry club) it falls flat. Overall, it has a quiet, dignified tone to it, which may help it appear to be artsy, and the use of beautiful, Hollywood versions of college (all stone buildings and oak paneled interiors) give it a sense of class, I would give it a miss.
Unless herbal erectile pills strike you as absolutely hilarious.
I should admit I am a college professor and thought I would enjoy a film which was supposed to be a comedy about college professors. This was no _Groves of Academe_ or anything close. In the film, the writing professor urges his students to "write about what you know" (and old and tired chestnut, to be sure, but not bad advice) and yet Mike Million seems to know nothing about the academic life, tenure, publications, etc., and in fact, seems to have learned about academic life from watching television shows about high school teachers (including the faculty lounge, old deans with bow ties, etc.) Then again, I've never taught at Bowdoin or Bryn Mawr, so maybe it's really like that there... but I doubt it.
Not to say there aren't internecine battles and personal squabbles among faculty, there certainly are, but they don't look like this. Admittedly, there are a few chuckles here and there (much of it from an extended gag about Bigfoot) but when the film deliberately tries to be funny (e.g., erotic poetry club) it falls flat. Overall, it has a quiet, dignified tone to it, which may help it appear to be artsy, and the use of beautiful, Hollywood versions of college (all stone buildings and oak paneled interiors) give it a sense of class, I would give it a miss.
Unless herbal erectile pills strike you as absolutely hilarious.