Superbad is another seemingly simple comedy that delivers on a high level. To call Rogen’s work formulaic would be missing the point that the formula is executed better than everyone else’s. As the co-writer of Superbad he takes high school kids; a method used since the Bible, and gives them real life dialogue mixed with outlandish situations. And it really works. The only downside is that while you’re laughing you’re also thinking, “Now why the hell didn’t I think of this?”
Michael Cera, the notable George Michael from “Arrested Development” stars along with Jonah Hill and Christopher “My name is far too Goddamn long for a movie review” Mintz-Plasse to form the trio of Superbad. The goal? Alcohol. Isn’t that always the goal? If not, it should be. Think of how entertaining The English Patient would have been if the goal was scoring a sixer and some girly vodka. It would have been a whole different movie I tell ya, and a better one too.
As I said before the comedy is simple in theory but well done detail-wise. The conversations the group has are the conversations of your youth (or your current life). The teens say and do heinous things, but not so despicable that you don’t root for them or see where they’re coming from. They have motivations and dreams, just like you did, and Superbad does well to distinguish all the little quirks of their personalities. Brutally honest and high on physical comedy this movie succeeds throughout the 114 minutes.
My viewing partner (which is different from a life partner) was pretty bored with the middle act and some of the illogical points of the script but these didn’t really bother me. This was an epic journey of booze and girl hounding, and you just have to go with the flow to enjoy it. It doesn’t feel like a collection of skits, such as Anchorman, and it has a narrative with a point so I think we should be grateful that it makes us laugh too. I would see movies like this all day long as opposed to the attempted serious ones that are actually funny based only upon their stupidity.
It’s hard not to recommend a movie like Superbad so long as you’re the intended demographic. While this clearly isn’t an after church film it would be a great date movie. I’ll buy the DVD (for the unrated factor alone) and I wouldn’t mind catching it again in the theater either. You want an idea of how effective Superbad is? Try this on for size: most of the follow-up punchlines in the film were covered up by the audience’s laughter at the original joke. That’s might be the nicest thing you can say about a comedy. So check this one out. Superbad is super… wait, no, that’s lame. And this film earned better.
