Superbad - Unrated (Two-Disc
Special Edition) starring Jonah Hill,
Michael Cera, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader
Not Just For A Teen Audience . . .
Striking a balance between raunch and sweetness is a tall order for any
film, but the Judd Apatow-produced Superbad manages to serve up both
in equal and satisfying portions without undercutting a consistent stream of
laugh-out-loud performances and gags. Michael Cera (the sublime George
Michael Bluth from Arrested Development) and unstoppable scene-stealer
Jonah Hill (Apatows Knocked Up) are lifelong pals who attempt to make up
for years of obscurity by getting into one blowout party before parting ways
for college; an opportunity presents itself in the form of Hills crush, the
lovely Jules (Emma Stone), who wants the boys to bring liquor to her
shindig. What follows is a combination road adventure and coming of age
story as Cera and Hill tackle crazed partygoers, a pair of overeager cops
(played by co-scripter and producer Seth Rogen and Saturday Night Live s
Bill Hader), and the hard truth about girls and their own emotional bond.
The humor is crass and occasionally gross but never mean-spirited, and
Cera and Hill offer believable performances as guys wholly unaware of
their own potential, yet ready to risk humiliation in order to find out. Theyre
well supported by a cast of Apatow regulars, including Kevin Corrigan,
Martin Starr, David Krumholtz, and Carla Gallo (and Stone and Martha
MacIsaac are terrific as their love interests), but the film is completely
shoplifted by newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse as their uber-nerdy pal
Fogell, whose fake ID handle is among the movies funniest gags. Classic
funk fans should also keep an ear out for the score by Lyle Workman,
which features such James Brown and P-Funk veterans as Bootsy Collins,
Bernie Worrell, and Clyde Stubblefield. --Paul Gaita
Stills from Superbad (click for larger image)
What do you get when you involve members of multiple beloved yet
tragically cancelled TV series, with a little foul language and some
underage drinking? The long answer is a movie that may be one of the
funniest I have seen in a long time. The short answer is "Superbad," a
new comedy co-Written by Seth Rogen of Freaks and Geeks and
Undeclared, produced by Judd Apatow of the same, and starring Michael
Cera of Arrested Development.
Unlike this summer's previous Rogen/Apatow joint venture, Knocked
Up, Superbad is a little less high concept, and a lot less dramatic. That
isn't to say it is free of character development or even an occasional
touching moment, it just chooses to make a joke even out of those scenes
as well. But where Knocked Up was very much trying to mix its humor with
commentary on growing up and responsibility, successfully so, Superbad
has no grand aspirations. It is a light-hearted, laid-back comedy that only
spends the time on character development that it does in order to prevent
the movie from feeling flat, and spends the rest of its energies on being
truly entertaining.
The plot is simple, simple enough that it can be summed up in one
sentence: two high school losers attempt to get booze for a party in order
to win over their respective crushes. That's pretty much it, and yet the
movie plays out at almost two hours, leading us through the events of a
single night in these boys' lives, taking us in so many different directions
that to try to plot out a course of events for you here would be detrimental
to the viewer's enjoyment, suffice to say it never begins to meander or slow
down, as some comedies do, and never seems to be out of ideas for what
its characters should do next.
The two main characters, Seth and Evan (named after its writers, the
aforementioned Rogen and Evan Goldberg,) are played with nerd-
embracement by Cera and slacker kid movie standard, Jonah Hill. Hill has
worked his way through the Apatow movies, from his single scene in The
40 Year Old Virgin, to his supporting role, appropriately as the best friend
of Rogen in Knocked Up, to a lead in Superbad, and Cera takes his first
significant part since his three years spent on Arrested Development.
Once past the initial shock of hearing George Michael Bluth talk about
porn and swearing, the pair are very successful at playing characters who
are both innocent as hell, and yet not at all wholesome. Much like the
Geeks half of Freaks and Geeks, these are kids whose lack of success
with women stems mostly from their own shyness and social
awkwardness, which keeps them from even registering on the radar of the
girls that they desire. The boys of Superbad carry out their machinations
with this in mind, in the hopes that they can accomplish the feat that will
make them a blip on the girls' scope, preparing them to make their moves.
The humor of the movie ranges from slapstick silly, to subtle wit, to
cringe-worthy awkwardess, while avoiding for the most part the type of
gross-out gag reflex jokes that litter the majority of youth comedies made
in the past decade. No pies are banged, no feces are eaten, and aside
from a little bit of drunken vomit and a very unlucky stain, bodily fluids
remain mostly inside their hosts. I'm thankful for this personally, as I've
always found character or situation based humor to be much funnier and
much longer lasting than the shock of seeing someone go poo.
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