Still an obvious genre comedy but rises above this to a point thanks to some imaginative "geeky" touches

Rating: Null/10 (25 May 2008)

It is not long before friends Seth and Evan will be going their separate ways at different colleges but yet the changes for parties and/or any sexual experiences seem just as remote as ever. However when Seth gets invited over to a party with a girl in his home economics class he makes rash promises in regards buying alcohol for the whole party. To Seth, Evan and friend Fogell the biggest challenge initially appears to be buying alcohol with a rather unconvincing fake ID card but this soon becomes even more difficult than they imagined due to a robbery, a car accident, inept cops and several other obstacles.
Superbad came out shortly after Knocked Up and the hype surrounding that sort of continued to wash over this film. At the time I didn't bother with it because I wasn't sold on the trailers but after thinking that Knocked Up was quite good I decided to check it out. What I found was a film that doesn't want to be a simple genre movie but mostly is just that. The plot betrays this more than anything else since it is a bit of a geek fantasy with plenty of action and parties. So far so genre and indeed those that actively dislike the genre will not be won over by this, however that doesn't mean that it is just a basic genre film.
What makes it a bit better than it could have been is that the comedy does have some nice imaginative touches thanks to the writing of Rogen and Goldberg. This is not to say that it is brilliant but just that it is informed by a modern feel that connects with those in the generation who do talk in pop-culture references and such. This aspect of it does raise it above the rather obvious narrative and I did find myself chuckling along to it regardless. The cast help it a great deal. Cera dominates by bringing his "Arrested Development" awkwardness to the role. Hill a bit more obvious as he fills a more traditional genre role but does so with good "fat kid" humour. Mintz-Plasse is very much a simple physical gag but he is an enjoyable one and works well with Rogen and Hader despite their thread being one of the dumbest parts of the film.
Overall then a reasonably enjoyable genre comedy that benefits from the writing of current "men of the moment" Rogen and Goldberg as well as Cera being in the cast. Not good enough to get those who don't like the genre to enjoy it and not the brilliant comedy it was hailed as but it is still a pretty good entry in a mostly so-so genre.