Superbad - super good

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2007)

Following in the footsteps of "The 40-Year-Old-Virgin" and "Knocked Up", "Superbad" is the third comedy to star Seth Rogen  who has a minor role as a cop - in the past couple of years. "Superbad", which stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera  who most people will recognise as George-Michael from the excellent "Arrested Development"  is a coming-of-age film. While "Virgin" dealt with a middle-aged man coming to grips with his sexuality, and "Knocked Up" about the consequences of a one night stand, "Superbad" is about two best friends in the final throes of high school. Seth (Hill, in the role originally intended for Rogen when the film was written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg) is a foul-mouthed, overweight teen obsessed with sex (and drawing dicks, as shown in a hilarious montage) while Evan (Cera) is a quietly-spoken, studios young man, who is set to go to Dartmouth College, while Seth isn't. With two weeks to go until school finishes, Seth and Evan are getting ready to go to one final party, with the help of their dweebish friend Fogell who gets a fake ID with the name McLovin, and later befriends two lazy cops (Rogen and SNL's Bill Hayley)  with the aim to score with the girls they have a crush on by getting them drunk, though Evan, who is in love with Rebecca, is less concerned about this. Seth, however, is worried about leaving school a virgin. The plot, however, is just an excuse for a lot of coarse language and gross-out humour. Yet, the crux of the story is the relationship between Seth and Evan. Unlike some movies of this genre, which fill the third act with overbearing sentimentality, Seth and Evan's friendship is treated realistically hence Seth's incredibly foul mouth. While they're two peas in a pod in terms of intelligence, they've been friends all their life, and this comes through in the film. It's this realism which gives the film substance under all the gross-out humour, and puts it miles about movies like "American Pie" in terms of quality. The film is more about friendship then getting laid, which is refreshing. The only major beef I have with this movie is at two hours  it drags on a bit  but the satisfying, realistic finale makes it worth the wait.