By Devin Rodgers/south news editor
Superbad may not be super original, but how many comedies in the last decade or so can claim to be these days, anyway?
Every decade, every generation has had its coming-of-age romp, whether it be Dazed and Confused, Porky’s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or American Pie.
The latest—and arguably funniest—in this tradition is Superbad, a high school sex comedy about a trio of horny nerds looking to party-hearty one night before heading off to college and settling into maturity and the inevitability of adulthood.
It’s been more than 30 years since American Graffiti, but the hurdles are the same: score some booze, hook up with hot girls and rock the party all night long—just remember to keep a sharp lookout for the cops, who are waiting to shut the party down.
Seth and Evan, played to hilariously profane perfection by Jonah Hill (Knocked Up) and the appropriately geeky and good-hearted Michael Cera (formerly from TV’s latest victim, Arrested Development) are best friends.
When they get the idea that scoring booze for a party is a sure-fire way to get close to some honeys, they set out on a mission.
To solve all their under-age problems is Fogell, a spectacle-wearing, squeaky-voiced, wannabe gangster-rapper, super-nerd with a brand new fake ID, played to wonderful nerdish embodiment by first-time actor
Christopher Mintz-Plasse. If there’s one reason to see Superbad, it’s Fogell, who manages to steal virtually every scene.
As with any teen romp, things don’t go according to plan.
One problem is solved, but another rises when Fogell’s ID claims he’s a 25-year-old Hawaiian organ donor named, and only named, “McLovin.” D’oh!
While McLovin is testing out his fake ID, the liquor store is robbed and Fogell is socked in the face by the crook.
When Officers Slater (SNL’s Bill Hader) and Michaels (Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen), a pair of nutty, clueless (and reckless) cops, show up at the scene of the crime, they offer Fogell—clearly duped by his McLovin alias—an escort home.
As it turns out this dynamic duo are just as big party animals as the teens, the only difference is they have guns and a squad car.
Fogell’s joyride with the fun lovin’ cops might be seen as unrealistic and even outrageous at times, but it does provide the film with just the right amount of hilarious verve and energy to keep the film moving along at a pleasant pace, unlike when Seth and Evan get tied up crashing a different party.
Superbad is guilty of being clichéd, unoriginal, unbelievably raunchy and excessively vulgar.
It’s every high school sex comedy you’ve ever seen, only better, funnier, brutally honest and comfortable about itself.
The finely geeked-out screenplay, written by Rogen and best friend Evan Goldberg when they were only 13 years old, pukes on those clichés in a totally believable way that wonderfully captures that awkward, juvenile spirit of what high school life was really like through the pain, misery, raging hormones and male bonding that only best friends can share.
It may be an old formula, but it works wonders here.
The fingerprints of producer Judd Apatow, the writer/director of this summer’s Knocked Up and creator of TV’s short-lived Freaks and Geeks, can easily be felt all over this movie.
Hollywood has struggled for years to provide comedies that can touch the heart just as much as they offend the ears. Finally they’ve found the right team to do both.
Superbad may be offensive, rude, crude and all kinds of wrong, but in the end you feel for these geeks (and cops), and you leave the theater with a satisfied smile on your face, knowing they are set on the right path and just might survive life after high school.
