Funny and engaging teen comedy

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2007)

Superbad 2007, 118mins, 15 Director: Greg Mottola Cast includes: Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
It's really been Judd Apatows year, the comedy guru steered Knocked Up to #2 in the US domestic charts bettered only by the pirate fuelled adventures of Johnny Depp and co. on it's opening weekend. Then several weeks later Superbad hit theatres this time with Apatow producing, the magic still hit home the feature managed to take $32 million on it's opening weekend alone, on a mere $20 million budget. Both pictures also drew great reviews marking a mammoth year for Apatow, and based on Superbad he probably deserves mucho credit. The film depicts two pals Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) very different people in one grossly over dependent friendship. Seth is foul mouthed and obsessed with sex, Evan is more controlled and a lot less crazy about intercourse. Both are socially outcast but when invited to the last big party before they graduate the boys and their nerdy tag along Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) acquire a fake I.D and attempt to get a massive booze haul, so as to impress the girls they like and try to lose that one thing all teenage boys want to see the back off. Their virginity. The film is set really into two stories that off Seth and Evan which eats up two thirds of the screen time, and that of Fogell and two lovable but inept cops played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. The two are conjoined at the beginning and at the end, but the middle section splices between the two. The film is written in the same crude but clever manner that films like American Pie and The 40 year Old Virgin (another Apatow product) big hits in recent years. It's nice to see a teen comedy that whilst containing all the same elements of the genre, also has a heart, soul and some extremely familiar situations and gags. Films like Road Trip, Pledge This and Van Wilder only maintain half of that equation and as a result are only ever half as good as Superbad indeed in the case of the Paris Hilton DTV movie, they can be a lot worse than even that. The performances are all excellent, Hill can be a tad irritating at times but it's well tempered by Cera's always charming turn. The two share great chemistry, the audience truly believes in their 10 year friendship. As Fogell Christopher Mintz-Plasse really gets the majority of the laughs, he's not a character with any real emotional core but his hilarious I.D (he names himself only McLovin) and his antics with Rogen and Hader are just about the funniest things in the film. Speaking of that duo they're also very good, particularly Hader as the more unstable of the two. One of the key problems the film has is it's lack of development with any female characters. The two chicks the lead duo are after are good looking and pleasant but nothing more. The young actresses do fine with the material I expect they where given, it's just the material itself feels light in the load. The jokes are usually amusing with several laugh out loud moments interspersed within the movie. Obviously a few gags don't work (a sequence involving a young child drawing dicks didn't do it for me) but generally the observations made by screenwriters Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen are funny, witty and surprisingly affecting and familiar. Within the Summer it was released I found only The Simpsons Movie funnier. At two hours director Greg Mottola lets the film drag on 10 minutes to long, but to make the emotional points he needs the man is right to take the picture past the standard 90 minute runtime for this sort of fare. Some parties have read into a gay subtext within the production, I didn't pick up on that, just that these where two friends very close to each other. Seeing as the film also points out that both guys are going to different colleges, the film also deals with the partition of this friendship. Some of the conversations surrounding this are really well done and tug a little at the audience's heart strings. Superbad has a few flaws but none are fatal. The film is funny and emotionally engaging which is what it really needs to be, and thus some of the dud jokes and 2-D characters are easy to forgive. The film offers enjoyment and a little more, which is much more than most of it's over stuffed genre can muster. It ain't Supergood, but I'd certainly give it a watch.