Like all Apatow productions, it's far too long but it has a winning combination of cleverly crude humor and genuine sweetness.
Superbad (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 191
Fresh: 167
Rotten:24
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: R [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:Aug 17, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $121,463,226
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 Lo Truglio, 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
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Reviews for Superbad
[Cera] has some of the best comic timing of anyone working in film today, a precocious sense of the awkward pauses and misread cues in which social panic resides.
The comic-duo of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera reminded me of an immature, foul-mouthed Laurel & Hardy.
even if Superbad's not much more than a teen comedy, it's the best teen comedy to come out in at least a decade. There's no shame in that.
Thanks to Rogen and Apatow we can once again look forward to seeing R-rated comedies.
Raunchy enough, but it lacks some of the subtle wit and verbal sophistication that has always distinguished Apatow's finest comedies.
Audiences who've laughed their asses off at Rogen's other work will be pleased to know that Superbad is not just another teen movie.
The thing that saves Superbad from being a profane waste of time is its urbane intelligence and above all, bracing honesty.
Although the cop characters run out of steam a bit towards the end, the metrosexual relationship between the leads stays fresh all the way through. Brilliant.
... a humanizing comedy built around the coming-of-age absurdity of actually getting whatever it is you think you want.
Maybe I would have been better off seeing Superbad before it became an instant cult classic.
This is the funniest picture since Borat, and more emotionally nuanced than you would expect.
be sure to stick it out through the closing credits. You'll thank me later.
So bad that it's good, Superbad takes talking dirty on screen to a new level that will serve as shock treatment for some, and leave the rest in stitches.
Solidifies Apatow's reputation as the guiding force behind a small but significant community of comic filmmakers. He is becoming to crude comedies what Steven Spielberg was to family-oriented fantasies in the 1980s.
Superbad makes cultural statements that should be every bit as disturbing as blaxploitation's were.
Latest News for Superbad
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:
UK Critics Consensus: Pineapple Express is smoking hot; If in Eden Lake, DON’T Hug a Hoodie
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...
May 06, 2008:
2008 MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced
It's almost time to hand out some golden popcorn -- the nominations for the 2008 MTV Movie Awards have been announced! More...
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