Superbad - Review

Superbad reminded me of Fast Times at Ridgemont High: an in-your-face film about teens that was aiming to make a modest sum and bam: the producers had a hit on their hands.

The premise of Superbad is simple. Three sex-starved high school misfits want to go to a year-end party. One of the trio owns a fake ID. When a girl asks them to get booze for her bash, one of the boys says sure, no problem.

The rest of the film is an attempt to get the booze by hook or by crook, and to make it to the party for a chance to score some babes.

There's your movie. And you know what? It's great.

It's also raunchy. Writers Seth Rogen (who also stars) and Evan Goldberg don't pull any punches. All of the things you talked about in high school are writ large. If you've seen any of Rogen's recent films (40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up), then you'll know what you're in for.

Rogen takes a backseat in this picture. He co-stars as part of a cop duo that feigns respect for law and order, but still understands the importance of pot, booze, and scoring as a teenage loser.

He and his partner (Bill Hader, also from Knocked Up), are excellent at drawing laughs, but it's Rogen's delivery that really shines. Like Will Farrell, there is something about his voice that lends itself to a crack up. If he read a cook book and shouted out the ingredients, you'd be on the floor.

Jonah Hill, as Seth, plays his part with reckless abandon. He is the "brains" behind the operation, and we all knew someone like him: loud, obnoxious, funny to everyone but your parents. He has a plan, and come hell or high water, he is going to achieve it.

His buddy Evan, played by Michael Cera, is the moral compass of the film. It's funny how friendships always work out like that. Whenever you find a loud, boisterous dude, you always find an upstanding buddy.

The third member of the trio is newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse. If the film is called Superbad, then Mintz-Plasse's character could be called Supergeek. He is completely oblivious to the fact that he is a total loser, and revels in his imagined prowess with women. The scene in the liquor store where he tries to buy booze with a bogus ID is very well done. He's also excellent in his scenes with Rogen and Hader. My only worry for Mintz-Plasse is that he'll take another role like this one, and instantly be type cast as a geek-buddy for the rest of his career.

Superbad isn't all raunch and mayhem. Most of the raunchiness is contained in the dialogue and not the actions, and it beats out others in the teen flick genre by remaining a story. It doesn't reach for gross out joke after gross out joke. Towards the end, it even finds some form of poignancy. You'll see it coming a mile away, but find it satisfying nonetheless.

The chemistry amongst the cast is very good. Mix that with a decent script full of good one-liners, and you have yourself a shot at a hit, which is exactly what Superbad is.

All the above being what it is, there is only one thing producers have to worry about when making a comedy. Critics that over analyze comedies always miss the point, as there is just one criteria the film has to meet: did you laugh, or did your not? If you laughed, then in worked.

I laughed.