Superbad (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 51

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
O Good video rental (60-74)
X Merely OK (50-59)
O Pure mediocrity (30-49)
O Medusa: don't watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / August 25, 2007

My wife is a middle school Spanish teacher. On the first day of school, for an ice-breaking exercise, she asked her students to name their all-time favorite movies. What did they say? “Transformers,” “Hairspray,” “Pirates 3,” etc. You know, the movies that were just released this summer? So cute.

Those are middle schoolers, so it’s permissible. But what happens to America’s adults that they don’t grow out of this fickle, short-term memory phenomenon? The Internet Movie Database currently has “Superbad” ranked # 95 among the top 250 all-time greatest movies. Give me a break. When “The Bourne Ultimatum” was released just a couple of weeks ago, I heard numerous people declare that it was “the greatest action movie ever made!” Give me a full lunch.

And somehow, just a few weeks prior, we’ve already forgotten about “Live Free or Die Hard,” which has far more action sequences than “Bourne.” Sure, 52-year-old Bruce Willis doesn’t have the speed or the martial arts moves that 36-year-old Matt Damon has. But if we were to judge strictly on “action-packed-ness,” the fourth “Die Hard” movie is superior to the third “Bourne” movie. I know. Skeptics abound. (“The Bourne Ultimatum,” by the way, is ranked # 65 among the IMDb’s top 250. See what I mean?)

It is for this reason that I like to call “The Short-term Memory Fickle Phenomenon,” that we keep getting countless movies that have joke after joke of bodily functions, for example. And this is the same reason why high school and college kids will tell you (this month) that “Superbad” is “the greatest comedy ever made.”

I’m not a prude. I do, in fact, enjoy comedy and have a sense of humor. I laugh during every single episode of “The Office,” and I laugh till I cry while watching stand-up comedian Brian Regan. Sorry for this five-paragraph prelude rant, but basically, I’m here to tell you that “Superbad” is merely OK and not as great as everyone says it is. First of all, it’s not “Superbad,” but it’s bad enough. “Knocked Up,” however, could legitimately be called “superbad.”

High school is coming to a close for three friends. Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are taking it particularly hard because they are best friends who will be separated by college admissions. Fogell, aka “McLovin’, (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is the third wheel who is more nerdy than the first two pals, but also, somehow cooler at the same time.

Graduation parties are spawning everywhere. The three friends find a way to get a VIP invitation by offering to provide the liquor with a newly acquired fake ID. In the process of obtaining the alcohol before the party, the three find themselves on an adventure that’s far more exciting than the party they’re planning to attend.

Sounds like a decent premise, right? Right. It actually is a good premise, because there are many elements that are true to that difficult era of a young man’s life. (I was not yet LDS in high school.)

So, with all of the nostalgia and some genuinely funny parts, why the disdain for “Superbad”? The excessive, disgustingly vulgar dialogue that infests the first half of the movie is overkill and not authentic. My crew of high school friends were no angels, and plenty vulgar, but they never talked like this. It was as if the screenwriters were trying way too hard to be “superbad.” If they would have eased up on the crudeness and “kept it real,” this movie could have been as good as the fair-weather moviegoers say it is. So, what’s my favorite comedy, then? Well, let me see what hit theaters yesterday, and I’ll tell you ...

Directed by Greg Mottola
Jonah Hill / Michael Cera / Christopher Mintz-Plasse
114 min. Comedy
MPAA: R (for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use and a fantasy/comic violent image – all involving teens)

Copyright 2007.
JP0180 : 615