Superbad manages to combine vulgarity with an underlying best-friend sweetness in this story of tennaged love and angst.
Vulgarity and Sweetness in Superbad
This gross-out comedy stars Jonah Hill as Seth, a sex-crazed, foul-mouthed high school senior desperate to hook up with his ideal girl before leaving for college in the fall. Michael Cera plays his best friend Evan, a kind, level-headed (at least compared to Seth) rule follower. When Seth gets invited to a party at this special girl’s house (provided he supply the liquor for the under-age drinkers), he enlists the help of Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who boasts a fake ID with the name “McLovin.”
Along their hilarious -- though convoluted -- path between acquiring the liquor and arriving at the high school party, the three boys experience a robbery, a wild party at a stranger’s house, a couple of car accidents, and two idiotic police officers (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader). Throughout their cursed night of bad luck and bad timing while tracking down a few bottles of alcohol, we wonder what will happen when they finally make it to the party. Judd Apatow (writer-director of Knocked Up which also starred Rogen and Hill) co-produced Superbad with Shauna Robertson, and the film was executive produced and written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
Extensive Selection of Bonus Features
Among the more memorable bonus features are a collection of Seth’s obscene doodle drawings, the "Line-O-Rama" where actors provide many alternate versions of vulgar expressions, and the "Dancing Title Sequence" in which Cera and Hill shoot the sequence for the opening credits.
One of the best features is "Cop Car Confessions" in which Craig Robinson, Judd Apatow, Kristen Wiig, and Justin Long make brief appearances as backseat “guests” in the patrol car driven by Clark County’s most incompetent police officers (Rogen and Hader). Although the confession scenes don’t quite match up to the humor in the rest of the movie, they make fun bonus features for the DVD release.
We also learn in "The Making of Superbad" that Rogen and Goldberg wrote the characters based on their own relationship with each other and similar experiences as the movie’s characters. Rogen says he started writing the screenplay in his early teens, which certainly explains the adolescent view of dating, women, and intimacy. Taken for what it is – a crude, adolescent romp through the final days of high school – Superbad will keep you laughing all the way through their one ridiculously crazy night.
- Superbad
- Director: Greg Mottola
- Run Time: 118 minutes
- Rating: Unrated (drug content, nudity, sexuality, language)
- DVD Bonus Features Include: Deleted and Extended Scenes, Gag Reel, Line-O-Rama, Vag-Tastic Voyage, Cop Car Confessions, The Making of Superbad, Original Table Read 2002 – Seth Rogen Reads the Part of “Seth,” Commentary with Filmmakers and Cast, and Pineapple Express: Exclusive First Look.
 |
