What's all the fuss about?

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2012)

Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it, but finally seeing Superbad for the first time I just can't figure out what the big deal is. It's not that it's bad - it's just extremely generic. It's a teen sex comedy with crude, familiar jokes and gags, lots of slapstick, decent chase scenes and a couple of gross-out moments. It's completely beyond me how a movie like Superbad is considered by so many 'the best comedy ever made' - even if you ignore the existence of more intelligent comedies of the past like The Big Lebowski, Airplane, and the entire catalogs of the Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen (the list could go on and on), even in its own limited genre there is very little to tell Superbad apart from the rest. It doesn't help that the two leads - played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera - aren't interesting or likable (though they're both fine comedians who do their best) and the romantic interests are completely flat. Actually, the only laughs in the movie come from Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader who are supposed to serve as some sort of side story - but if the side story is more interesting than the main plot, something is wrong. Superbad has no subtlety, no subtext, no real originality and is probably best watched while drunk or high.