awful

Rating: 1/10 (30 January 2014)

This is trite, formulaic rubbish. Why people find this so entertaining is quite beyond me. The writing is immature at best. I read an early draft online and it actually contained an old, and not particularly funny, joke which clearly was going to be passed off as original material before someone obviously stepped and edited it out of the script. For me that says it all. Little imagination, laughably hackneyed worn out characters and a plot with more holes in it than a sieve.
We are expected to swallow the fact that he knows more about law, history, mathematics and English literature than the 'experts' we are haplessly presented with in these various fields. OK but how on earth does he achieve this from the public library while holding down a full time job and apparently cultivating lasting friendships with the ne'erdowells with whom he associates, relationships, we are also expected to believe led him regularly into trouble with the authorities?
Anyone who knows the 'genius fallen by the wayside' scenario in real life knows only too well that there is never a happy ending. There is no sweet little Robin Williamsesque professor just waiting in the background to help him through it all. It is just painfully stupid Hollywood fluff, he even gets the girl. The only thing he doesn't do is ride off into the sunset on a white horse. I think it was actually a car.