"Superbad" Review

Well, as I suspected, I went and saw the new film, Superbad, this past evening. Before I begin the review, let me first say that I have enjoyed Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen's two previous films, in The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Let me also say that at first glance of the previews, I wasn't too optimistic about this film, but after hearing such glowing reviews, that level of optimism grew.

As usual, I should've listened to my initial instinct. While I don't feel that this was a bad film in any manner, I definitely feel that it's been overhyped by critics.

Seth (Jonah Hill - Accepted), Evan (Michael Cera), and Fogell are three high school seniors who desperately want to get laid before they reach college. Sound familiar? American Pie, anyone? Let it be known that the script was written by Seth Rogan and his buddy, Evan Goldberg when they were 13-years old (glance at the first names of the two writers and then the names of the two lead characters). Oddly enough, the film comes across as one written by two teenagers.

Judd Apatow has had a way of balancing adult humor with a big-hearted message in his previous two films (40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up), but that balance is not present in Superbad. While The 40-Year Old Virgin, starring Steve Carrell as the lead character, included some perverted, yet adult humor, it also told the story of a man in search of love, a man who had actually waited 40 years to express that very love and in Knocked Up, starring Seth Rogan as the lead, there again was some perverted adult humor, but the story revolved around two people making a relationship work out and becoming the responsible adults they needed to be in order to make both that and parenthood work, Superbad may indeed have many perverted lines present, but the big-hearted message isn't there to balance the scale any. Some may claim that it is indeed there and that the writers are trying to illustrate how difficult these teenage years are and how much we need to grow, whether in a close proximity to or hundreds of miles away from those that have been closest to you since grade school. The writers may have attempted to do such a thing, but with the number of gross-out lines and actions throughout the two hours of film time, the overall scale was drastically tilted in favor of the perversions, as opposed to the "mature" script-writing.

Like I said from the outset, I didn't hate this movie. There were some parts that made me laugh. Some of the dialogue (not much) brought back memories of some friends of mine and what they'd say in regard to a party or a member of the opposite sex. But, I can't for the life of me recall any of them being THAT perverted on such a regular basis. One downfall to this movie was the actors involved. I wasn't drawn to the lead actors as I was in the other two Apatow films. I didn't root for them as I did for Carrell in The 40-Year Old Virgin or Rogen in Knocked Up. Michael Cera's character, Evan, I rooted for a little bit, but I wasn't drawn toward Jonah Hill's character at all, Seth. He was typically angry, had only one thing on his mind, only cared about himself, didn't respect women in the least bit, just not a very likable character. Even Cera's character didn't draw me in that much more. He is an extremely shy and intelligent guy in the film, but for lack of a better word, is rather dull. Fogell is probably the most consistently entertaining of the three leads, but he received the least screen-time.

Even when comparing this film to American Pie, I have to give the edge to the Pie series, because of the characters. The plot and storyline were nothing special and neither was the script, but the characters were more likable. With Finch, Jason Biggs, Eugene Levy, Stiffler (to an extent), amongst others, there were some fun, likable characters in the films. When it comes to these types of comedies, to me, that's the most important ingredient. Without a character to root for, it becomes more difficult to go along for the ride and laugh right along with that character for the duration of the film and that winning character was not present in Superbad, unfortunately.

Comedic Grade: 6/10 - There were two times when I laughed out loud, several small chuckles, but much more waiting time (as laughs go) than I would have liked.

Overall Grade: 5.5/10 - The dialogue was decent at times. There were some funny moments, but overall, I just saw this as a slightly above average comedy that I really don't care to see again. As opposed to Apatow and Rogen's previous two films together, The 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, I could never truly get into this film, largely due to the fact that I was never drawn in by any of the lead characters.