Superbad

Superbad. Superbad Superbad Superbad....
This movie was released in August of 2007 to a lot of fanfare. Comic book geeks, video game nerds, middle-age office workers, even women who saw it, they all say they love this movie.

I remember seeing some reviews claiming such as "Superbad is super-awesome" and I remember thinking, "yeah, right. Okay."

The story of three guys wanting to get laid before heading off to college, and the hilarity which ensued during these exploits, it all smacked of something I'd see 8 years earlier, American Pie.

Sure there are the similarities you could make between the two movies. You could fill a whole blog about the merits and demerits of both movies.
I won't.

Here's the movie poster.





I will state though my belief that Superbad is the better movie purely because the film allows for more time to develop the characters.
With there being three central characters, this becomes a lot easier.
And with that is Superbad's greatest strength. It's characters. About 20 minutes in you feel that the writers have really taken a shine to each of these characters and have put in the hard yards to make them believable, likeable, and above all, real.

Here's the one and only Michael Cera (Evan)

I have seen Michael in a few of his later films and found him to be somewhat annoying. I won't go into which films they are but check out his filmography and if you feel like it, give his movies a look-through.

I was hesitant in watching Superbad because of Michael involvement, but as I wrote above I soon came to enjoy his character's story.

Jonah Hill though, oh my f******g God, talk about funny!

Yes, Jonah Hill (Seth) has his story to tell and yes he tells it well, but from the second Jonah Hill is on screen I defy you not to crack up in laughter from his depraved ramblings.

Whereas American Pie had it's many sight gags and crude humour, Seth seems to embody them all, and he's only one character.

For Superbad, Seth is the character who keeps the story moving along. He wants to get the girl, he wants to get the alcohol, but it's the words that come out of his mouth which will leave you stupefied, and if you're anything like me, laughing your ass off.

To give you an understanding of what I'm talking about, here is some trivia;

The word "fuck" is used 186 times in the movie. The movie itself is only 118 minutes long. That averages to approx. 1.6 uses of the word per minute. Around 84 are said by Seth alone.

If you read my review for Auto Focus you'll know I made reference to the breast montage.

You've got to love a montage.

Superbad has one of the best, and THE most funniest. Of course, that's if you like depraved sexual humour.

Obviously I do.

The end credits have drawings upon drawings of dicks. Some wearing hats, some dressed at cowboys. There's even one riding an atom bomb to Earth ala Dr. Strangelove.

If you watch this movie based on my review please let me know what you think of this montage, and the whole story it's based around...

Now we come to Fogell, who gets himself an obviously false ID under the name McLovin. I have seen kids on message boards all with pseudonyms to a paraphased version of McLovin (so obviously he has a fanbase).

Played by Christopher Mintz-Passe, Fogell is the one character which I'm divided on.

It seems a few people commenting on message boards are also of the same mind.

It seems you either love him or hate him.

Based purely on his voice alone I thought I would hate McLovin. However the story which unfolds around him makes me think he's not too bad.

Basically McLovin spends the majority of the movie hanging out with Officer Michaels (Seth Rogen),

and Officer Slater (Bill Hader).
Seth Rogen co-wrote the script at the age of 13, so I can safely say that if you're a fan of Seth's, you'll love this movie.
Although it's not essential.

Before watching Superbad I watched Seth's other main project at the time, Observe And Report. Maybe I should do a review of Observe And Report, because I hate Seth's character in that movie. It's pretty much turned me off all Seth Rogen movies for the future.

Officer Michaels and Slater though, now that's some funny shit.

Bill Hader is a surprise in that you don't really seem to find him with much to say. When he does though, he can really set up a joke and knock it out the park.
Hearing him talk about his first wife, whilst knocking back a few drinks at the bar... Hilarious.

I'll close up the photos with this last one of Mark (Kevin Corrigan).
Mark only has a brief cameo in Superbad, and it's not even a memorable one. He picks a fight with Seth (Jonah Hill).
The reason I'm bringing attention to this is because I think Kevin Corrigan is hilarious.
When I saw Kevin's name flash up at the start credits, I couldn't wait for him to make his appearance.

Kevin always brings something to the projects he's being involved in.

He's comedic timing is none more so apparent then in the TV series, Grounded For Life.

Grounded For Life airs pretty regularly on the Comedy Channel on Foxtel here in Australia. So if you get a chance to catch it, catch it.

Now I've been talking this movie up a fair bit, however I do want to mention one scene involving Evan (Michael Cera) which I didn't like.

Evan is persuaded to sing for a bunch of stoned drunkards.

I am completely and utter against singing in comedies. The Austin Powers song montages spring to mind and still send shivers of dread running up my spine.

For me, singing in comedies is like the writers have given up and just need to be able to fill five minutes without having to use any of their jokes.

Whilst this scene might not be the song montage to rival Austin Powers, it is annoying.

I would've shown photos of the girls Evan, Seth, and Fogall all want a piece of, but as I mentioned above, Superbad is more than three kids trying to get laid. Sure it's a part of the story, but hire the movie, give it a sit through and I can almost guarantee you'll have a good night and some good laughs.

Here's the movie trailer;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiPy2uTCnkE

Please click here to purchase the DVD

Superbad (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

Please click here to purchase the soundtrack

Superbad

For those who want a star rating, I'm giving this one an 8 out of 10.

I would've given it a 9 if it didn't have the singing scene included, however the completely sick, crude, utterly depraved sexual humour really makes this movie one to remember.

What did you think of this review? Please comment, or email me directly at mgbouw@yahoo.com.au