Another winning film from Apatow's crew.

Rating: 8/10 (4 September 2007)

"Superbad" is a notable production in that it was first imagined when its writers were 13, and wanted to see if they could write a movie; based on the finished project (which, sure, has undergone numerous reworkings in the intervening years), I believe the answer is clearly 'yes'. "Superbad" has the plot of a typical teen movie, pitting two unpopular nerds and their reluctant acquaintance against the whole world in a desperate attempt to acquire the liquor to facilitate their receiving some action from the chosen ladies (who are far out of their league, at least in one case; this is a recurring thing in Apatow films, especially considering that the Seth character in this film is modeled on co-writer Seth Rogen, who was in a similar situation in "Knocked Up").
Like its Apatow kin, the film manages to mix crude humour in with genuine feeling, and does not mock (at least, not without love) its characters or deny them some dimensionality. In particular, I enjoyed the handling of the two main female characters who are the object of so much desire; neither fills a standard teen movie stereotype (no cheerleaders or prom queens here), and the expected roles are in a lot of ways reversed.
It's not a great or significant film, but then, you weren't expecting that kind of production from "Superbad"; this is a great bit of fun, if you can take the swearing.