2:01pm Wednesday 3rd September 2008
By Mark Foker
If you haven’t seen ‘Superbad’ yet, you would be forgiven for thinking that this is an old 70’s Blaxsploitation movie.
Both the title and the opening credits have a cool 70’s feel to it but that’s about as close as it gets.
Now I probably wouldn’t have considered watching what I would call ‘Another Teen Movie’ where all the guys want to do is get drunk and think about sex 24/7(although not necessarily in that order) and all before they leave High School and go their separate ways and onto College.
However, ‘Superbad’ is another good example of the writers concentrating on good characterisation rather than relying on just an overload of puking and humping gags (ok… there’s a little bit of vomiting but not so you’d notice) It’s sort of like the ‘American Pie’ for the ‘noughties’ It also has the advantage of having a good pedigree in producer Judd Apatow and unlike 40 year old Virgin this time Apatow has handed the director’s chair to Greg Mottola (more about Greg later).
We also have the brilliant writer and actor Seth Rodgen who appeared in ’40 year old Virgin’ , ‘Knocked up’ and is currently appearing in ‘ Pineapple Express’ at all good cinemas now and probably some bad ones!
The boys have been friends since they were wee lads and they are now set to go to a new phase in their life at graduation gets closer.
The only thing is that Evan hasn’t had the heart to tell Seth that he’s going to a college without him and even worse he will be sharing a dorm room with ‘ultra geek’ Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).
Fogell looks like the live-action version of Millhouse from the Simpson’s complete with large specs.
Seth’s main aim before going to College is to get together with Jules (Emma Stone) a girl way above his station whereas Evan who is smitten with Becca, (Martha Maclssac) has more respect for women and is a lot shyer around the opposite sex.
The story really picks up pace when Seth agrees to buy all the booze for Jules party, with the food money her out of town parents gave her.
However, Fogell is the only one of them who has a fake ID so it is down to him to purchase the booze.
The only problem is that his ID gives him the identity of a 25-year-old Hawaiian called McLovin much to be annoyance of Seth and Evan.
As Seth points out “It doesn’t even have a first name!” and Evan says to Fogell “who do you think you are? Seal?”
While in the Drug-Store attempting to persuade the young female assistant to sell him alcohol, Fogell suffers a misadventure and two inept policeman played by Seth Rodgen and Bill Hader arrive on the scene.
The two cops are called to another emergency and take Fogell along with them for the ride… and I know I promised myself I would never, ever say this but it does have ‘hilarious consequences’ there, I’ve finally sold out!
Now this might sound really basic and childish but there is a great ‘Watch out for’ scene when Seth admits to his best friend that he had this penis fixation when he was at Junior school and we flashback to him as a young boy and we discover why.
I can’t help it but is very very funny!
Here’s something hot of the press. The director of this movie Greg Motolla (see I didn’t foget) is about to direct our very own Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also wrote the script of a 2009 film called ‘Paul’ about two comic book nerds who end up in America.
Probably one to look out for. Anyway back to ‘Superbad’, Rodgen and Hader’s cops are more immature than the high school kids and have some of the best lines.
This is a really good popcorn and beer movie, best watched with a group of friends for the infectious laugh out loud effect.
Don’t forget to check out some good DVD extras. This film should go on your ‘DVD’s you must own’ comedy shelf.
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