Superbad: Movie Review by Christopher Smith

If the new Greg Mottola movie, “Superbad,” feels like a new Judd Apatow movie, there’s good reason.

The film was produced by Apatow ("Knocked Up," "40-Year-Old Virgin") whose influence runs throughout, from the ongoing punch of bawdy raunch that colors every corner of the production to the unexpected human touches that deepen what could have been just another forgettable romp through the cinematic cesspool.

Apatow’s hook is that he knows that his target audience can relate to the questionable events that unfold in his movies--whether they want to admit it or not. He also respects his audience in that his main characters never are dumb, which is a large part of their appeal. Instead, they're bright yet awkward, witty yet emotionally stunted--they're unpolished people trying to make it in a world where polish rules. Unlike, say, many of Adam Sandler's low comedies, Apatow's characters are recognizably human, which allows audiences to bond with them even when it seems unreasonable to do so.

In "Superbad," all of this proves true.

The story hinges on three nebbish high school seniors invited to a party at which they agree to bring the alcohol. All of the alcohol. Though nerdy Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has scored a fake ID, the idea that these three teens offer to get the booze for scores of people proves the colossal mistake of their young lives--and one that takes up the entire movie.

The trouble with the ID is that it states that Fogell is 25 years old and that he apparently has just one name--McLovin. Let's be clear here. There is nothing about this slight reed of a boy that suggests he’s anywhere near the age of 25, and there certainly is nothing that hints that he ever could earn the name McLovin.

But that's what the ID says and so, thrown for a loop, lifelong best friends Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) decide to follow through with their promise to get the hooch and thus everyone loaded.

The idea isn't just that they'll at last be accepted by a student body that has shunned them for years, but that they also might catch the eye of a pretty girl or two. And wouldn't that be a sweet way to end their senior year? In spite of the film's startling deluge of dirty dialogue and sight gags, tender notes are struck.

The film is less-successful in its addition of screenwriters Seth Rogen (star of Apatow’s “Knocked Up”) and Evan Goldberg as an unlikely couple of wayward cops. Though they have their moments in this movie, none of them are among the best moments and they eventually wear out their welcome.

When you move beyond the film's thin plot and the raunch, what you have in "Superbad" is a movie about a lifelong friendship at a crossroads.

Seth and Evan are two unpopular kids who grew up to become two unpopular individuals. They always promised they'd go to the same college together, but Evan recently has been accepted into Dartmouth and he's going. As for Seth, who favors the occasional display of mock masturbation, he isn't going to Dartmouth, which causes a rift between the two that leads to a drunken revelation best left for the surprise of the screen.

Grade: B+