Movie Notes: Superbad

May 5th, 2008

Superbad

starstarstarstar = 4 stars

Starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Directed by Greg Mottola

Synopsis

Two sex-obsessed, loser high-school seniors try to score booze for a party. Hilarity ensues.

The Good

  • Definitely some classic, hilarious scenes. My favorites involved the scrawny, nerdy kid Fogell aka “McLovin” (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) petrified of buying liquor, and his misadventures with two cops. Coming in a close second are Evan’s (Michael Cera) party singing and the Seth’s (Jonah Hill) boorish behavior in general.
  • Captures the awkward teenage condition: fantasizing about adult behavior like sex, buying liquor, and hanging out in bars. There’s that universal teen feeling that buying liquor while underage is some quest tantamount to the Holy Grail.
  • Also funny is how how the kids are totally incompetent with women, so they over compensate with crass sexual expression. The ultimate moral is how a fulfilling relationship is “all that other stuff” - not just the horizontal mambo.

The Bad

  • The amped up sex humor was rather off-putting at first. As with Knocked Up, this disc was the “Unrated” version so I may have inadvertently guzzled the 40 ouncer.

Conclusion

What I found funny was how all the “adult” stuff these kids lust after are in actuality, rather mundane activities to those well above legal age. Therefore, the slow motion segment where the three boys converge on the liquor store as if it’s a heist out of Ocean’s Eleven had me cracking up. What it means to be a grown up is so completely missed when you’re under twenty, and that humorous observation is surprisingly, enough to base an entire funny movie on.

IMBD: Superbad
Wikipedia: Superbad
Rotten Tomatoes: Superbad 87%

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  • No offense to anyone who enjoyed this, butI couldn't stomach the crudity. I was embarrassed to be watching this with my wife and shut it off after about the first 30 minutes...

    I'm kinda done with these sort of movies - kinda like the stuff that Apatow & Rogan keep cranking out.
  • I will agree it was pretty crude in the beginning but after McLovin showed
    up, the sexual humor was somewhat reduced. There's also a good scene at the
    end in a mall that personally redeemed the flick for me.

    Overall, I did prefer Knocked Up probable because the characters were older
    and personally relateable (especially the married couple). I'm still into
    this genre of flicks to be curious about Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
  • I loved this film, but then I also loved American Pie. It's definitely at the edge of crudity. But it all seemed to serve the plot and characters pretty well, so it was all good. One thing you have to love about Apatow going back to Freaks and Geeks is that he always puts kids in that look like high school kids and aren't done up like 20-somethings from Melrose Place.

    I will agree that this is not the type of film I'd watch with my wife. So I generally reserve films like these for when she's not around.
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