This is why Hollywood mostly sucks: Corporate movies are getting made from scripts written by 13-year-olds who went on to drop out of high school.
Superbad (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:195
Fresh:170
Rotten:25
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Deftly balancing vulgarity and sincerity while placing its protagonists in excessive situations, Superbad is an authentic take on friendship and the overarching awkwardness of the high school experience.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image - all involving teens.
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:14-09-2007
Synopsis: Produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen--both of 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP fame--SUPERBAD is the story of two horny teenage geeks looking to lose their virginity before... Produced by Judd Apatow and co-written by Seth Rogen--both of 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED UP fame--SUPERBAD is the story of two horny teenage geeks looking to lose their virginity before college. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are hoping to end high school on a high note, and when one of their crushes (Emma Hill) invites them to a graduation party, the boys are ecstatic. That is, until they become responsible for supplying the party with alcohol. They hurriedly concoct a scheme to use their friend Fogell's (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) horrendously fake ID, but trouble soon arises when Fogell becomes the victim of a liquor store robbery. The cops (Rogen and Bill Hader) show up, and the evening quickly disintegrates into a hilarious mess of misunderstandings, crackhead sing-alongs, and beer mixed with laundry detergent. Hill is a riot as the wild-haired and foul-mouthed Seth, and Mintz-Plasse is great fun as the uber-geek Fogell. But Michael Cera (formerly of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) steals the show as the sensitive and levelheaded Evan. His oddball line delivery and excellent comic timing make for some of the most bizarre but best moments of the film. The sexual humor can be pretty graphic at times, which is no doubt what earned the movie its R rating. Yet, despite gross-out jokes involving menstrual blood and penis drawings, SUPERBAD somehow manages to fly far above frat-boy, AMERICAN PIE-style humor. This is partly due to the comedic skill of the actors, but also because the characters--silly and absurd though they can be--are so well-written. Watching these bungling outcasts is a vivid reminder of the horrific lows and supreme highs of high school life, and their antics rather poignantly capture how age 18 can indeed be super bad, but also super good. [More]
Starring: Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Kevin Corrigan
Starring: Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Kevin Corrigan, Joe LoTruglio, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Greg Mottola
Director: Greg Mottola
Screenwriter: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Producer: Judd Apatow, Shauna Robertson
Composer: Lyle Workman
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Reviews for Superbad
Superbad winds up being the best single night comedy since Martin Scorsese's After Hours. You may just be compelled to stick around for the next showing because comedies this great are all too rare.
a classic example of the movie that shows us one epic, lifechanging day or night in our characters' lives ... its generation's teen adventure of a lifetime.
Common to successful sex comedies is a developing sense of self-awareness and the painfully sweet camaraderie of misfits. The naughty but nice Superbad can be added to that list.
Superbad has raunchy charm, a fair amount of heart and a couple of nice performances.
The variety of complications thrown at the three pubescent heroes raises this a cut above most raunchy comedies.
What's most memorable, most striking about Superbad is the canny evocation of male friendship in all its richness and complexity.
It's mostly very crude, often very funny and a little bit smarter than you might otherwise think.
Humiliation, fear and occasional elation are the dominant emotions for these bumbling but oddly likable young men. Side-splitting laughter, along with some powerful cringing, are likely to be audiences' dominant reactions.
It's only when the characters are split up during the film's episodic mid-section that one's interest starts to flag...
Clumsily falters when its leads are separated, but sparkles when vulgar Hill, deadpan Cera, and spastic Mintz-Plasse playfully improvise together.
The movie doesn't need any superfluous redeeming qualities: Its pleasures and charms lie in its very crudeness, in the way the characters' thoughts begin in their dicks and spill out of their mouths, completely bypassing their brains.
...a teen sex comedy that finds funny in the low brow while being very smart about it.
It's Michael Cera (heretofore best known as Jason Bateman's son on Arrested Development) whose comic timing quietly steals the show.
Superbad is also something more important than the movie where Cera says the f-word. It's the movie that's going to make him a star.
... a smart evocation of teenage insecurity and the irrational acts raging hormones can inspire.
Like Knocked Up, this is a comedy they don't know how to end. The energy flags as it overstays its welcome.
If you liked the raunchy dude conversations in 40-Year-Old Virgin, you'll think Superbad is the Lawrence of !@#$ Arabia of raunchy (adolescent) dude conversations.
I hope it's not damning the movie with the wrong kind of praise to say that for a film so deliriously smutty, Superbad is supercute.
Latest News for Superbad
October 07, 2009:
Emma Stone talks Zombieland - RT Interview
After kicking off her movie career in Superbad as the high-school hottie throwing the cool party, Emma Stone is rapidly carving a niche for herself as a young actress with good... More...
January 09, 2009:
UK Critics Consensus: Indifference For Defiance, Whilst Slumdog Millionaire Shines
A trip to the cinema is a sure-fire way to beat the January blues, but which film should you be shelling out to see? Vying for your pennies this weekend we have Daniel Craig in... More...
September 12, 2008:
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This week we have the stoner action-comedy The Pineapple Express, with Seth Rogen, James Franco and new boy on the comedy block Danny McBride, plus My Little Eye writer James... More...
August 08, 2008:
Superbad/Pineapple Express Sequel Mashup Coming? ![]()
Interest has been expressed in sequels to both Superbad and Pineapple Express -- and, as James Franco tells MTV, they might both happen, in the form of one movie with two... More...
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