Superbad (2007)
Starring: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Kevin Corrigan, Joe Lo Truglio, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Aviva, and Erica Vittina Phillips
DIRECTOR: Greg Mottola
WRITERS: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
PRODUCERS: Judd Apatow and Shauna Robertson
RATING: MPAA – R for pervasive crude and sexual content, strong language, drinking, some drug use, and a fantasy/comic violent image – all involving teens

Sooner or later, coming-of-age movies are all the same: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds, American Pie-- they’re formulaic as boy bands. Blah blah blah sex blah blah blah alcohol blah blah blah rite-of-passage-crapfest. Thankfully, the gifted comic actors of Superbad prevent it from being a painful cliché, and it’s surprisingly original for a teen comedy. Still, I could have done without two-thirds of this movie.

Not that I didn’t enjoy Superbad, but it reminded me of everything I utterly loathe about high schoolers. Not high school itself-- the movie’s funniest moments are about high school life, and the writers have a firm grasp of the messy details of secondary education’s hollow glories. No, it’s the casual , frightened self-importance of the players in this hormone soaked drama. They’re too realistic, too unsettlingly close to home.

In one sense, this is good. It means the cast is competent (they certainly are). It means the writers have captured the essence of the high school experience in the year 2007. It means the Superbad crew has reached into the great stream of American culture and pulled out a dripping, quintessential ten-footer that flawlessly exemplifies their subject. It means the 11 to 18 demographic is stupider than even I could have imagined.

In Superbad, three friends (actually, two friends and a third wheel they sort of abuse) try to get liquor for a party. They’re underage (OMG HILARITY !!!1), so hijinx inevitably follow. The two protagonists, Evan (Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill), are after booze to impress their crushes, and their sidekick, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), is along for the ride because he has a fake ID.

Superbad has its moments, but as a whole, it doesn’t hold together. The humor builds (brilliantly) for about thirty minutes, but then descends into the “OH NO HE DI-INT ROTFLOL” basement. The jokes go from funny to tiresome, and comic timing takes a backseat to yelling. Superbad is hilarious so long as the comedy is about high school. Like many a high schooler, though, it becomes dull and mindless when it ventures off campus and into the real world.

At least the protagonists are good. Michael Cera (George-Michael from Arrested Development) makes obliviousness hilarious as the reluctantly chivalrous Evan. Jonah Hill’s (the “ask me about my wiener” guy from Rejected) delivery transforms Seth Rogan’s so-so dialogue into comic gold, and he recites a monologue about obscene drawings that may be the funniest single scene in a movie yet this year. Best of the three is Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who steals every scene he’s in. One feels that Cera and Hill are often used as mouthpieces for writers Rogen and Goldberg; Mintz-Plasse alone gets the opportunity to create a character, and he doesn’t waste a second of the opportunity.

Superbad is occasionally side-splitting, but too often depends on shock instead of humor. If I’m desperate to see gross and unusual behavior, I can volunteer at a prison or an asylum, and I won’t have to pay ten bucks. Superbad lacks the same exuberance that makes classics like Blazing Saddles and The Naked Gun work. Like a tenth grader who writes the answers on his shoes to cheat, Superbad clearly has initiative and potential, but very little intelligence in the execution.