rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Greg Mottola; produced by Judd Apatow, Shauna Robertson; written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Aviva
'Superbad' continues in the line of what 'American Pie' once started, and what was redefined by Judd Apatow's 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' and 'Knocked Up'. This basically means the lead characters have to overcome a lot of embarrassing situations, many of them dealing with sex, to have some insights in live. The filmmakers care for their characters in any of the films, and, important for a comedy, most of it is funny. 'Superbad' is no exception.
This time the quest for the lead characters is to have sex before graduation. Seth (Jonah Hill) wants Jules (Emma Stone), Evan (Michael Cera) wants Becca (Martha MacIsaac), and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has not made up his mind, although he is unable to speak when Nicola (Aviva) talks to him. Their chance comes when Jules needs liquor for her graduation party and Fogell happens to have a fake ID. He forgot to mention though, that he also changed his name to (just) McLovin'.
Still, everything seems to go fine until the liquor store gets robbed, and two officers (co-writer Seth Rogen and Bill Hader) arrive at the scene and offer Fogell a ride to his party. On the way they have to do some police business, where Fogell, or McLovin', turns out to be the hero. Around the same time, logically, Seth and Evan think Fogell has been arrested. Since they do not want to disappoint the women, they have to come up with their own liquor-producing plan.
Although the premise of the film contains a lot of clichés, the result is far from it. The more you think you can guess the next step in the story, the farther you are off. With a name like McLovin' and apparently coming from Hawaii, the scene mentioned above could have been funny in many ways, but the unexpected turns keep it funny the entire time. The sequences with Fogell and the police officers belong to the best and worst. Sometimes the scenes are stretched out, hoping for one more laugh. Even though they arrive from time to time, it does not attribute to the flow of the film.
When it comes to just comedy the film delivers. Luckily, it takes that extra step to elevate it from something more than just comedy. 'Superbad' creates characters. In the end they all have learned something, including the police officers. Characters like these, no matter how foul mouthed they may be (and some of them are), deserve a little happiness in the end. I am glad the filmmakers have chosen the right kind for them.