Definitely not super good

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2010)

This is an intermittently amusing teenage sex comedy that never knows when enough is enough. There are some genuine laughs here, but it's so long and so scattered and so over-the-top that it simply wears out its welcome.
Ostensibly the story of two high school friends faced with separation as they finish their senior years and will be attending different colleges in the fall, Superbad is really just a rising tide of dirty words, disgusting humor and awkward situations. Seth (Jonah Hill) is the fat friend who talks like he knows what's going on but lacks all but the most basic social skills. Evan (Michael Cera) is the quieter, nerdier friend who can safely interact with others but lacks the confidence to do so. When they're asked to get the booze for a big house party, Seth sees it as their chance to finally get laid and drags Evan along with him. They enlist the help of a third-wheel friend named Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and his bizarrely bad fake id to get the liquor but just about everything goes wrong that can go wrong, leading to two strange odysseys involving menstrual blood, property damage and sexual lubricant.
As I mentioned, this film pretends to be about how to inseparable friends have to face up the finally standing on their own in the world. Every so often the movie literally stops and has the characters explain this alleged theme to the audience. Honestly though, it's all just an excuse for bad language and bad behavior. If these filmmakers were actually interesting in telling this story, they wouldn't spend an enormous amount of screen time on a wish-fulfillment digression where uber-dork Fogell falls in with two cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader) who act like bad improv comedians moonlighting as police officers.
However, if you like obscenities and outrageous acts, you'll find enough in Superbad to choke a horse. This is one of those films where its creative profanity and "I can't believe they did that" attitude is the main drawing point. I'll admit I laughed several times at that stuff, but after a while it got old and there's nothing else here to keep your interest.
Superbad would be a great movie to show during a party where everyone has a little bit of a buzz on and no one watches it for more than a few minutes before doing something else. Sitting through the whole thing sober is not that satisfying an experience.