Customer Reviews

Superbad (Unrated) [UMD for PSP]

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

Rising young stars Jonah Hill (Knocked Up) and Michael Cera (Arrested Development) have one last shot at popularity in the very funny coming-of-age comedy "Superbad". Seth (Hill) and Evan (Cera) are lifelong best friends who really want to lose their virginity before heading to college. When they are invited to the year's biggest party, the boys use their friend Fogell's (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) new fake I.D. to score some alcohol for the party but their plan soon turns to a madcap night of unpredictable and outrageous situations. "Superbad" is an uproariously funny teen comedy from the creators of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up". The raunchy teen comedy delivers a well paced storyline, some side-splitting moments and memorable comic performances. Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) and Bill Hader (SNL) are hilarious as two incompetent police officers. "Superbad" received overwhelming positive reviews from US critics and became one of the year's highest grossing comedies with over $130 million nationwide.

If you've enjoyed "Superbad" in theaters, then I strongly recommend checking out "Superbad" Unrated Edition. The raunchy teen comedy is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen format with more unrated footage that wasn't included in its theatrical release. The picture quality is surprisingly good with no obvious flaws. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is clear and well balanced. Among supplemental material, the DVD includes 8 minutes of deleted scenes, trailers, a short gag reel, "Cop Car Confessions" and "The Making of Superbad" featurettes, an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming comedy "Pineapple Express" and an audio commentary with director Greg Mottola, production crew and cast members. Overall, "Superbad" Unrated Edition scores a "B+".

Filmmakers Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg make lowbrow comedies for highbrow audiences. With films like "The 40-Year Old Virgin," "Knocked Up," and their current gem, "Superbad" (directed by Greg Mottola), they have begun, in their own quiet way, to re-write the rules of the modern sex comedy, making films that, despite their R-rated blueness, are just a tad more insightful, a little more nuanced, and a trifle more literate than most films in that genre.

The characters in their movies may seem at first blush to be mere photocopies of the nerds and losers familiar to us from all those post-"Animal House," pandering-to-youth comedy hits of the late 1970's and 1980's. Yet, there is something rather different about these individuals, a difference that it is not always all that easy to put one`s finger on. They seem somehow more reflective and self-aware than their earlier counterparts, more able to step out of their skins and see themselves for who and what they are. It's almost as if these characters have had the added advantage of seeing themselves reflected in all those earlier movies (one imagines they've spent a great deal of their childhood reveling in "Revenge of the Nerds") and of extracting important lessons from those films to help them chart their course through life.

The storyline, in and of itself, is hardly original. The screenplay by Rogen and Goldberg chronicles the misadventures of three teenage super geeks determined to go to any lengths or suffer any humiliation to be part of the "in" crowd at school. With only a few days left before graduation, Seth, Evan, and super-nerd Fogell - an outcast even the outcasts can feel comfortable ostracizing - decide that the time has come to take some drastic action if they hope to have any chance of losing their virginity before high school ends. Thus, Seth cooks up a scheme to smuggle booze into a graduation party being thrown by one of the hottest girls on campus. It is the expected setbacks they encounter as they go about the business of achieving "coolness" that provide the comic energy for the tale.

As they did in "Knocked Up," the writers capture the way people in the real world actually speak. The dialogue may be crude and vulgar, but it is also sharply observant and wickedly funny as the characters lament the unfairness of life and reveal deep-seated concerns and feelings about themselves and each other. What's nice is that the characters in this film not only sound like people we might encounter in everyday life but LOOK like them as well. Even the "beautiful" people in this film aren't drop-dead gorgeous, just believably well put-together and attractive.

Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse are so authentic and convincing in the roles of Seth, Eric and Fogell, respectively, that they have us securely in their corner from the very first moment they appear on screen. Rogen and Bill Hader ("SNL") also have a good time playing goofy cops, although their characters aren't as finely drawn or interesting as the three main characters, and the scenes with them do tend to drag a bit.

It is crucial to point out that, amidst all the blush-inducing, foul-mouthed hilarity, there's an incredible underlying sweetness to "Superbad," particularly in the final two scenes of the movie.

Together, this team of talented filmmakers is making it fun to go to the movies again.

Evan (Cera) is a average shy high schooler. Seth (Hill) is loud and obnoxious. Fogell (Mintz-Plasse) is a big nerd. Together, they have a chance to impress the girls at a high school party by supplying alcohol. Evan is interested in Becca (MacIsaac), Seth likes Jules (Stone), and Fogell wants Nicola (Aviva). Of course nothing goes smoothly, and soon they are dealing with Officers Slater (Hader) and Michaels (Rogan), who aren't very competent and want to hang with Fogell, who is going by the name McLuvin on his new fake ID.

"Superbad" is a very funny movie. The dialogue is profane and very R-rated, but clever as well. It is like an even funnier version of "American Pie". The three leads are all believable as high schoolers on the brink of college. The camaraderie is genuine, and you can tell that they had a blast making this movie. Produced by Judd Apatow (director "Knocked Up"') and written by Rogan and Evan Goldberg, it is clear that they know their subject matter, and know how to make it funny. Apatow and Rogan seem to be the voices of comedy these days, and "Superbad" is a prime example. I recommend this film.

For the most part Superbad is full of comedy shortcuts and some language intended to shock. In other words, it didn't blow me away with its creativity and I suppose that is one reason I was very perplexed to see this film so widely praised by critics (i.e. Richard Roeper put this in his top ten of 2007). Another reason would be the fact that it is a pure comedy feature and films like that are skewered by critics of all kinds more often than not.

Superbad is produced by Judd Apatow, the hugely successful director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, and it is directed by Greg Mottola who previously worked on television's hilarious Arrested Development. It was written by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg as additionally evident by the two protagonists' names, Seth and Evan. Rogan also plays a local cop who adds some great laughs along with his partner played by the even funnier Bill Hader.

Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill) are high schools buddies in their senior year before going to attend different colleges. The whole story centers around their quest to illegally obtain alcohol and ration it among some peers at a high school party that Seth was invited to by his love interest Jules (Emma Stone). Seth insists that getting a girl drunk is the easiest way for him to get laid, hence the primary motive to get everyone drunk. Their friend Fogell (Chris Mintz-Plasse) has a fake ID that could help them in their quest but Fogell's ID has him with the single name of "McLovin'" and doesn't seem very convincing. Fogell is assaulted during a robbery of the liquor store where he was purchasing the drinks and the cops, played by Hader and Rogan, arrive to question him. Adventure ensues as Fogell travels around town with these two insane police officers. Separately, Evan and Seth continue their search for alcohol, assuming that Fogell got nabbed by the cops for buying alcohol underage.

I thought this film was at times intentionally dirty and overly derivative. I also didn't find the film to be remotely believable. The cops in particular were entirely too over the top and their antics bordered on cartoon-like at times, albeit still really funny. There are some really great moments of humor here but because the film goes too far now and then, the more genuine moments were in no way convincing to me and that is were Superbad falls short and its dramatic moments essentially become meaningless. It's funny because I think Knocked Up was close to doing that too but the makers of Superbad want the viewer to suspend disbelief entirely, on their schedule, and only when it is convenient for them. That didn't really work for me but I laughed far too much during this movie to not give it a slight recommendation.

SUPERBAD is just flat out hilarious. Start to finish funny. You take some awkwardness of high school. Some kids on the fringe. Mix in a few cute girls. Graduation. A party and a little coming of age. Stir it up with laughs that you never see coming and two lead actors that nail every joke and you have a modern day comedy classic.

Apatow's films are funny (see The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Rated Widescreen Edition) and Knocked Up (Widescreen Edition)) and this one is no different. It's directed by Greg Mottola who did The Daytrippers, another decent film. These movies take the standard sex comedy fare and add an ultimately conservative twist. For The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the movie says it's a good thing to wait until marriage to have sex. For Knocked Up, casual sex gets one into trouble and babies are better with two dependable parents. Superbad has another conservative message.

But don't go looking for a wholesome family affair, for this is not it. If I had to watch this movie with my parents, I fear that I would perhaps pass out. It's raunchy. Even though there may not be nudity per se, these guys talk like real guys, and they don't talk nicely about our, umm, private parts.

This movie is the story of Seth and Evan, based on the writers of the script, and one evening during their last weeks of high school before they split up to go to college. They have always been misfits, but finally, they may be able to become cool without changing. That's one of the good things. It isn't about these guys "fitting in" with the in-crowd. It's more about the in-crowd realizing that they're actually cool guys.

The movie is flawed, though. So much of the script is ad-libbed that some things don't make sense. Characters say things that contradict earlier ideas, and the editors just kept it becuase it happens to be funny. I guess I can forgive that.

The DVD has some hilarious extras, too, especially the one with Jonah Hill going through different versions of his lines. I don't know how they decided on only keeping one of them. I liked them all.

I have trouble recommending Superbad because of its raunchiness, but if you're okay with that kind of thing, enjoy and get something more than mere comedy out of what is ultimately a conservative, enjoyable film.

This film, while crass, is at the same time mostly brilliant. First of all, the authentic sounding, modern-teen phrasing and unfailing verbal wit the writers put into the mouths of the nerdy characters Seth, Evan, and Fogell deserve high praise, no matter how raunchy some commentators might find such. Second, although Freud, after a lifetime of study, and at the end of a very long book, finally threw up his hands in despair,it is reported, asking "What do women want?", he might, as Germaine Greer once suggested, have issued just a small pamphlet with an embarrassingly obvious answer to the question of what men (and by extension teenage boys such as those here) want. This perception is pretty much the takeoff point for "Superbad," though still even here some genre-tweaking complexity is introduced, since Evan is allowed to play a comparatively restrained, ethical gentleman to Seth's super hungry teen. Added to this memorable duo of guys is the remarkable super-nerdy Fogell, freshman actor Mintz-Plasse in an undeniably bravura, consistently scene-stealing turn.

In short, the writers deserve praise for having taken a largely overworked, mediocre genre, the teen comedy, and elevated it in the direction of actual art by transcending its usual limitations not only through zippy dialogue but also through enriched, diverse, and therefore believable character types. In short, "High School Musical," I'm happy to say, this film most definitely is not.

The film has a key weakness , though, which robs it for my money of a 5 star classification. It is the weakness which appears glaringly in the sequences involving the two police officers. They don't exist, unfortunately, on the same level of reality or probability as the 3 central teens, and though some of their lines are truly funny, their actions pretty much throughout strain credibility in a way nothing else in the film does. They seem, at best, to have stumbled into this film from another, far inferior one, and in places their contribution makes what is otherwise bright and sparkling ultimately tedious.

"Superbad" is also one of the funniest movies of the year. I approached this movie with a bad attitude thinking it was going to be a throwback of those sex romp comedies back in the early to mid eighties. Unlike a lot of those other movies, "Superbad" has characters that are both likeable and believable (for the most part). Jonah Hill's Seth is obnoxious and crude, but still I felt for this warped guy.

The Blu Ray disc looks fantastic . This isn't a big budget special effects extravaganza but it still has a wonderful picture quality. The extras on the DVD are as funny as anything included in the movie itself. This isn't a movie for everyone but it is good light entertainment.

Honestly, Superbad is a movie created directly for teenagers, and no other age group. The type of jokes, the very very obvious theme of the storyline, and the constant bickering between the characters talking about said subject... this is a movie created for teens. Nothing more needs to be said. So is the movie GOOD? I guess it's alright, but as an adult watching it, I had the feeling I was too old to be watching something like this so my overall opinion is somewhat mixed.

I thought I'd read the 1 star reviews before writing mine. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who would be offended by this movie: some who are offended by silly sophomoric humor, some who are prudish and others for whom it hits too close to home. The rest are looking for a cinematic masterpiece and are sorely disappointed.

This is a somewhat over-the-top portrayal of typical pubescent male behavior. This is the movie's genius, because you know that much of what happens in this movie has happened in some fashion somewhere in America. Male teen behavior is inherently funny (unless you're a parent of one) and this movie takes full advantage of that fact. Everyone who has ever been a teenager has known someone who could have been a character in this movie.

Suggestion: Watch this movie with an open mind and no preconceptions. It is not like most American comedies. Do not look for a point or moral to the story, just sit back, relax and have a giggle.