Hormones, booze, and dirty joke after dirty joke, all crammed into one ludicrous, stomach-crunching, and blisteringly real movie: No student should go without Superbad. You've quoted McLovin since the summer, and now you and your friends who haven't seen it can relive the cackles for hours in the unrated, extended edition, filled with special features.
Superbad follows two high school seniors - the foul-mouthed, phallic-obsessed Seth (Jonah Hill) and the considerate, quiet, yet neurotic, Evan (Michael Cera) - in their one-day trek to woo girls at all costs as they cope with the future pain of separation at college. But seduction doesn't come easy for the best buddies. Getting there involves painfully awkward moments with their crushes (Evan tapping his crush Rebecca's breast and repeating "sorry" as she walks down the hall) that remind us of the confusion of our own high school experience. As charm is insufficient, getting there also involves scoring alcohol with the help of their horny, squeaky tag-a-long Fogell, who grabs a fake ID dubbing him "McLovin." And it also requires the help of two inept, goofball cops, played by Bill Hader and Seth Rogen. Known for gut-busting writing for Da Ali G Show and starring in Knocked Up, Rogen also proved the ideal writer for Superbad. His flowing, natural dialogue - oozing with punch lines too raunchy for The Heights - blended with a zany, improbable - yet relatable-story, brew a side-splitting concoction that will fill you and leave you dizzy with quotes.
But the laughs only begin with the movie in the two-disc extended edition. Features include the standard staples: deleted scenes and gag reels. But others will have you in a constant guffaw through their entirety. There's "line-o-rama," a splicing of improvised one-liners, many involving Seth's whimsical symbolism of male and female anatomy. There's "Cop Car Confessions," a series of takes in which criminals try to seduce or joke their way out of arrest or explain the zany scenario that prompted their arrest (including a prostitute and a Matthew McConaughey impersonator). Bonus material also includes casting sessions, a behind-the-scenes look at production, and a tape of the original reading, illustrating the comedic smack of the words themselves, as you will laugh just as Seth Rogen and non-actors read aloud in a circle.
Some say Superbad is immature and offensive. Some people are also pretentious. While laughing at countless drawings of the male sexual organ may seem childish, it's funny because it was normal to see those doodles across your high school. Superbad snaps us with biting humor because it captures the spirit of high school - its awkwardness, its puzzlement, its shame, its excitement - and amplifies it into a wild jam. If you want to relive your high school experience and boost your white blood cell production, gather a group and let go in Superbad. A-
2008 Woodie Awards
