SLACKER COLLEGE COMEDY TAKES REVENGE FOR THE NERDS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

The amiably trivial teen comedy ``Accepted'' follows a group of misfit high-school graduates who cook up their own fictional college to get their parents off their backs. The stunt spirals out of control when every slacker within a 100-mile radius shows up at the campus, each one offering a $10,000 tuition check, happy just to be accepted somewhere.

Rather than pull the plug on this ``experimental program,'' earnest scam artist Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) decides to empower his fellow ne'er-do-wells, asking them what classes they'd like to take.

Suggestions include: ``Taking a Walk and Thinking About Stuff,'' ``Romantic Rehab'' and ``Skepticism.''

There's also a class titled ``The Decline and Fall of Chevy Chase,'' a curious inclusion given that Long borrows so heavily on Chase's relaxed, fumbling coolness that the filmmakers should include a special thank you to the elder comedian in the end credits.

It could be that the 28-year-old Long, playing 18 here, has never seen Chase and is instead taking his cue from his ``Dodgeball'' co-star Vince Vaughn, who was heavy into Chevy in that film. Maybe that's also why the South Harmon Institute of Technology - the movie gets a lot of mileage from its acronym - doesn't offer a course titled ``Vince Vaughn: The Lost Years,'' covering Vaughn's wanderings as a dramatic thespian between ``Swingers'' and his ``Old School'' rebirth.

The point is, should the writers of ``Accepted,'' writers whose main credits encompass ``Country Bears,'' ``Herbie: Fully Loaded'' and an Olsen twins movie, be making light of anyone's career trajectory? Their creation, directed by John Cusack collaborator Steve Pink, burns off its freshness in its first half hour and then settles into requisite genre machinations - nerds battling frat boys, nerds wooing willowy blondes, nerds making big speeches about how it's better to be different (exemplified here by cheating, binge drinking and smoking pot) than it is to conform (i.e. go to school).

``Accepted'' makes a point of highlighting the differences between the stresses of ``fancy'' learnin' places (you know, ones with actual professors) and the Zen-like atmosphere of the South Harmon campus.

But it would have been funnier if it had acknowledged the similarities between the two and how most college grads learn more from life experiences and ``thinking about stuff'' than they do from broad survey classes.

Of course, it does help ultimately to have a goal and take an interest in something that might qualify as a career. By taking it to the extreme, Bartleby's big, movie-ending populist speech (Capra would have been proud) goes a long way in explaining all those stories about college graduates returning home to live with their parents. Skateboarding is righteous, but, unless you're Tony Hawk, it doesn't pay the bills.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

ACCEPTED - Two stars

(PG-13: language, sexual material, drug use)

Starring: Justin Long.

Director: Steve Pink.

Running time: 1 hr. 32 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Nerds create college, hijinks - of the wacky and predictable variety - ensue.