Crude but hilarious

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2007)

Another year, another gross-out teen comedy about horny high-school losers attempting to vanquish their virginity. Two co-eds who are attempting to woo a group of girls by supplying their party with booze end up having the most elaborately awry night of their life. Going into the screening one could be forgiven for fearing the worst with the sheer number of schlock that had been farmed out of Hollywood since American Pie made the teen comedy cool again. Fear not, Superbad is a riot, and so for two key reasons. One - it is produced by Judd Apatow, comedy auteur of such hits as Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin. Two - its two stars, Jonah Hill and Michael Cena are fantastic finds. Hill takes an obnoxious, porn-obsessed oaf of a kid and laces him with bags of charm and great comic timing. Cera goes one step further, engulfing his character with the kind of nervous stuttering that only a Ricky Gervais sitcom might dare make funny. It may be crude, crass and deeply superficial. But sex is never funnier when high school kids try it.