Movie Review: "Superbad" (2007)

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Movie: "Superbad"
Director: Greg Mottola
Year: 2007
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) have been best friends since they were eight years old. Now, they are just about to graduate from high school and are going to be attending different colleges come fall semester, which will be the first time in a decade where they won't see each other every day. They decide to go out in style, so they promise their crushes Jules (Emma Stone) and Becca (Martha MacIssacs) they will get them booze for the final big party before graduation in an effort to hook up with them. This quest leads to one of the craziest nights of their young lives.

"Superbad" is directed by Greg Mottola and is written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. It stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, who play Seth and Evan, characters who are clearly named after the film's writers. We wonder if there is a little bit of an autobiographical nature to this movie? This film marks the first leading role for Jonah Hill and serves as the feature film debut of Emma Stone, who plays Jules, Seth's love interest. Emma Stone is not the only debuting actor here as Christopher Mintz-Plasse also makes his feature film debut as Fogel, aka McLovin, one of the most quoted, iconic comedy characters from the late 2000's. Needless to say this film was a massive launching point for the careers of many of the actors here.

When you think of the late 2000's, there are many solid choices for what could be considered the best R-rated comedy, "Superbad" is definitely on that list as the hilarious coming-of-age comedy where two best friends face separation for this first time. This is something many people will go through when they graduate high school and move on to college. The time you spent with friends you once saw every day will get reduced to a once or twice a week meet-up, then over time, it will become a once or twice a month casual thing, or maybe even once or twice a year if your friends move away for school. Seth is having an especially hard time coming to terms with this. Before school ends and summer begins, he wants to have one last chance to doing something awesome, and he also wants to get with the girl of his dreams, Jules, before he moves on in life. As far as Evan goes, he has a similar goal: to finally be with Becca, the girl he has been in love with for years, played by Martha MacIsaac. Seth and Evan promise to get the girls alcohol for their huge party with the help of Fogel's fake ID. Unforeseen circumstances send the two on quite the wild adventure throughout the night with a lot of hilarious happenings that include but are not limited to one of the characters getting punched in the face, a very persistent bum, two policemen who drink and smoke weed on the job, literal dirty dancing, and a lot of forced singing. The laughs come often through its raunchy, blue comedy through awkward interactions and the aforementioned wild times. The main cast of Hill and Cera, plus Seth Rogen and Bill Hader delivers a lot of big laughs, as does the supporting cast, especially Mintz-Plasse. With his dopey "chicka-chicka-yeaaah!!" phrase, his nerdy, clearly underage appearance, and his horrible Hawaiian fake ID, he gets into an equally raucous night with two policemen, played by Rogen and Hader, who first believe he's over 21 and then realize he's not, but see a little of themselves in him, so they take him around in the backseat of their cop car the entire night as they do donuts in parking lots, drink and drive, and shoot their guns at things like stop signs. Clearly irresponsible behavior is exhibited by all of the members of this film, but that's what makes it so fabulous.

Between the quotable lines, the raunchy, silly and outrageous humor, and the deceptively deep message about moving on in life and drifting apart from your friends after high school, "Superbad" exceeds our expectations when it comes to modern comedies. Chances are, you'll have a fun time watching this film provided you're not easily offended. It's also cunningly smart, and there's even one scene where Evan and Seth literally move away from each other via a mall escalator, which is obviously a metaphor for life itself. It's fun to pop this flick in the ol' blu-ray player from time to time for a series of huge laughs.

My Rating: 8/10
BigJ's Rating: 8/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
Do we recommend this movie: Yes!
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One year ago, we were watching: "Parker"