Superbad - Movie/DVD Review

The lewd, crude, slightly-bawdy-but-with-a-heart-of-gold teen comedy lives! Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg, fresh from saving the romantic comedy with Knocked Up, have managed to create a movie which undoes all the damage the various American Pie sequels and everything ever made by the Wayans brothers did to the genre.

Goldberg and Rogen began writing the script for this movie when they were only 15 years old, and it’s fairly safe to say that the whole thing is at least partially based off some real life experiences in typical teenage awkwardness; little things like the fact the main characters share the names Seth and Evan (played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera respectively), and even look a bit like their namesakes points to this movie being a bit of a homage to their own lives.

Seth and Evan are a pair of awkward teenagers entering into their final couple of weeks of high school.  Both are unpopular virgins who never get invited to the various parties and events that so typify the end of school; instead the two best friends spend all their time together, but this is soon to change due to getting into different colleges.  A combination of coincidental circumstances and a bit of dumb luck soon leads to a chance for these outcasts to be the life of one of the graduation parties, and in doing so give them one last hurrah and get them the girls they have spent a fair bit of time lusting/mooning over.

Naturally nothing goes according to plan, from some hilarious cops out to have a good time to a group of violent, drug-addled partygoers, and along the way the boys discover things about themselves, their relationship, and yadda yadda yadda, we all know the drill; plot-wise there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before.  Of course, the movie is as much about the journey as the end result, and thankfully Superbad is a movie filled with hilariously disgusting dialogue, outrageous situations, and the eventual heart of gold which distinguishes Apatow’s films from the other, mundane teen affair like National Lampoon’s or American Pie.

Superbad is not a laugh-a-minute film by any means; there are a great deal of funny situations, and some lines are hilarious.  Other jokes fall a bit flat, unfortunately, and the movie itself does not quite reach the heights that Knocked Up managed.  Nonetheless it is more than hilarious enough to make it worth seeing, especially with the performance of quite possibly the nerdiest character to appear in a film: McLovin.

All up Superbad is grossly hilarious with just enough of a tender heart to make it worth watching.  The acting performances are all strong, and the plot is just ridiculous enough to be entertaining without crossing into the realm of farce.  All in all Superbad is quite an entertaining movie; it’s not the funniest thing ever, and nor is it perfect by any means but, regardless, it’s still the best example of the teenage comedy to come along for a long time, and continues Apatow and co’s trend of rejuvenating stagnating film genres.               

     

I rate Superbad: 7.5/10 (Funny, disgusting, heart of gold; all the things that the teen comedy genre has not managed to get right for quite a long time.)

   

- Tim Sweeney