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Superbad (2007)

Director: Greg Mottola

Time Out rating

Average user rating

58 reviews

Synopsis

A coming-of-age tale about two socially inept teenage boys about to graduate high school. Theirs is a ridiculously dependent friendship – but now, they've gotten into different colleges and are forced to contemplate life apart. Evan is sweet, smart, and generally terrified. Seth is foul-mouthed, volatile, and all-consumed with the opposite sex. This is the story of their misguided attempts to approach the objects of their affections in one panic-driven night.

Movie review

From Time Out London

After sex (‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’) and pregnancy (‘Knocked Up’), the new crowned kings of comedy – the broad, improvisatory ensemble of comics and filmmakers headed by Judd Apatow – turn to adolescence. ‘Superbad’ stars Michael Cera and Jonah Hill (the tubby one from ‘Knocked Up’) as two high school seniors preoccupied with alcohol, virginity, parties and the transition to college. Hardly an unprecedented set-up – ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘American Pie’ come most quickly to mind – but, like its stablemates, the picture is delivered with unusually high levels of both belly laughs and emotional affect. Gross-out is exploited – and how – but shaded with, and put to the service of, self-awareness, fellow-feeling and regret.

The film is produced by Apatow, co-written by ‘Knocked Up’ lead Seth Rogen and directed by Greg Mottola, whose TV work has included ‘Undeclared’ with Apatow and ‘Arrested Development’ with Cera. Working their pre-existing personae, Hill and Cera make a charmingly geeky odd couple, though third stooge Christopher Mintz-Plasse threatens to steal the movie as the über-nerd who falls in with a pair of puerile cops (including Rogen in a handlebar moustache) by dint of a preposterous fake ID identifying him simply as ‘McLovin’.

If these scenes set themselves a lower bar than the unassumingly deft character work of the main story, with its lively attention to adolescent anxieties, ‘Superbad’ at its best goes right through knockabout to land in deliciously obscene places – notably a staggering succession of doodles in which tumescent cocks take on various extraordinary guises. Crafted with such deliriously pain-staking care as to defy offence, they stand for a film, a group of films, defining the difference between vulgarity and crassness.

Author: Ben Walters 2007-09-10 17:15:56

Time Out London Issue 1934: September 12-18 2007

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User reviews of this film

Maxine said...

Posted on Sep 20 2007 10:53 This film is over rated. It is rubbish. Defiantly not the funniest film of the year. It drags on. Boring story line. This film should NOT be a certificate 15 it should be an 18. No wonder kids these days are having under age sex.

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jojo said...

Posted on Sep 18 2007 17:17 Very funny if a little overlong for its content. The dodgy cops were certainly the stars of the film along with "McLovin". Particularly liked Seths collection of Willy drawings in his ghostbusters lunchbox. Bought back a few school memories of my own there!!!

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Tristen said...

Posted on Sep 18 2007 16:57 Quality film, if you don't like it there must be something wrong with you.

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Is it just me ... said...

Posted on Sep 17 2007 17:13 ... or are the five 6-star user reviews submitted within two minutes of each other slightly suspicious?
The film is certainly okay, but not worth 6 stars. Most of this has been seen before; some of it better.

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embob said...

Posted on Sep 16 2007 20:19 alright but not worth the hype. Very simple plot and itdragged on.

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Sarah said...

Posted on Sep 15 2007 12:58 I Think This Film Was Mint!
Im 15, And Went To See It Last Night!
The Cinema Was Packed, And Throughout The Film Everyone In There Was Laughing,
Id Definatly Recommend It!

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Joe said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 21:27 I don't know why everyone has given this film good ratings i am 16 and we found the whole film a real dissapointment with very few funny moments aside from the first 5 minutes or so and it dragged on for over 2hours I know that American and English humour are different and im telling you English people NOT to see it...please dont waste your money

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ducked! said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 15:42 A+++++

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peter said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 15:41 Excellent Movie

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steve said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 15:40 Great Movie!

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sam said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 15:40 Sweet Film

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123@hotmail.com said...

Posted on Sep 14 2007 15:39 Amazing

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Katie --x said...

Posted on Aug 29 2007 05:47 I saw this film in America and it was really funny, definately worth going to see. I'm in my mid teens but even the adults in the cinema were laughing. Its abit rude but that makes it funnier. I liked so much I'm going to see it again with my friends when it comes out in England.. you should too! :D xx

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