Judd Apatow, Hollywood’s current golden child of comedy, loans his production company and credibility to Seth Rogen (an Apatow regular) for this coming-of-age picture. It’s a fouler-mouthed version of Weird Science with Dazed and Confused‘s flow (or snapshot) of one day’s events. Unfortunately, its immediate legacy is the overplayed McLovin gag so it’s hard to tell if it will go on to be remembered like John Hughes’ beloved Eighties streak.
Seth and Evan are best friends trying to make their senior year eventful before they’re separated by college; Evan was accepted to Dartmouth while Seth made it into a local and/or lesser university. They’re not popular, they’re not successful with girls and hanging out with the dorkier Fogell kid doesn’t help. Thus, high school hasn’t lived up to their expectations, or more accurately, Seth’s because Evan is more ambivalent about life. When they’re invited to a party being thrown by Jules (a popular girl), the gears start turning in Seth’s mind about the possibilities of how this could be the biggest night of their lives. Evan only agrees to tag along since Becca (obviously, a girl he likes) will be there. He’s attracted to Becca and her friend says she likes him too, she’s just a bit shy. Fogell only gets included because he has a fake ID and can purchase alcohol, something Seth promised Jules he could provide.
After some more exposition, mainly why Seth dislikes Becca and why the DVD’s home screen had numerous doodles of “body parts,” the protagonists head out to the liquor store. The place is then robbed while Fogell is trying to pay; another scene played to death through the ads. When the police arrive, Seth and Evan flee on of the assumption that Fogell is being busted. The evening of misadventure then begins: Fogell riding around with two incompetent cops, Seth and Evan trying to find booze because they can’t go to the party empty-handed, life lessons about the opposite sex and friendships being strengthened through adversity.
Is it funny though? Not really. It’s more amusing like past movies Apatow has directed (40 Year Old Virgin) or produced (Anchorman). The dialog between the teenagers is pretty accurate, crudeness and all, since most males are obsessed with sex at their age. I did enjoy the sequences of Seth and Fogell reliving moments of selective memory. Yet I was rather disappointed in how unlikable the two policemen were. They’re just corrupt, lazy cops who patrol the suburbs. I will admit, I was gasping for air while laughing too hard at the closing credits’ gallery of Seth’s childhood “etchings. In the end, Superbad is only worth watching to kill time, catch up on Pop Culture references and see how Apatow and Rogen have updated the misadventures of Gary and Wyatt in the form of Seth and Evan. Meanwhile, I’ve discovered that the first and second season of the USA Network’s series Weird Science, which did a fantastic job stretching out a 90-minute movie into a clever sitcom, is out on DVD.