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Trailer here. (http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/superbad/)
Release Date: August 17th, 2007
Starring: Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Evan Goldberg
Produced by: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Judd Apatow
Directed by: Greg Mottola (The Daytrippers)
Premise: Two co-dependent high school guys want to hook up with girls before they graduate and go off to different colleges, but, after a calamitous night just trying to buy alcohol for a school party, overcoming their separation anxiety becomes a greater challenge than getting the girls.
the trailer was superbad.
I think I'll go see it. but I always say that about summer movies and then I never watch any of them. I actually never watch movies in general. I have a headache. I should've just stayed in and watched movies. Why can't this be out right now.
that trailer is really unfunny - i have so much faith in this movie though and i'm there opening night.
cheers
i saw this last night. it was supergood.
To anyone who says the trailer is unfunny watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5TE47Gjts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5TE47Gjts)
Also, I think the trailer itself is hilarious, and don't understand the hatin.'
The red band trailer was alot better, and not just cause they talked about a baby sucking his dads dick.
Quote from: modage on June 14, 2007, 08:18:59 AM
i saw this last night. it was supergood.
come on, give us moree.
I saw this a short while ago and it was really funny - BUT: I thought they could have made it even funnier. Maybe it's because I was so overwhelemed by all the dicksucking this movie is getting that I got my hopes up too high. It's still fresh and really funny but i think Knocked Up is even funnier and a better movie too.
SEMI-SPOILERS:
- the McLovin fake I.D scene is a lot funnier in the film
- That part in the red banned trailer where Jonah Hill mutters "It was a good lookin' dick!" isn't in the movie! What a stupid cut.
I saw this tonight (and was interrupted by the Jimmy Kimmel Show...you'll understand if you're one of the 3 people who watches it). Anyways, it was hilarious and I highly recommend it. Maybe its because it is still fresh in my mind and knocked up was so long ago, but I think it was even funnier than Knocked Up. It hit all the notes I like high school movies to hit. Nostalgia, pulling for the underdog, gross outs...but it was also completely original and fresh.
Spoilers:
most dicks ever in a movie.
Free Superbad ticket and DVD promo with purchase of selected DVDs at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=pcmcat127900050022)
I cant wait to see this... but wont be back in the country until September :(
Anybody get me a screener?
Quote from: Ravi on August 12, 2007, 03:31:27 PM
Free Superbad ticket and DVD promo with purchase of selected DVDs at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=pcmcat127900050022)
lol@PDL being all up in there standing out like a xixax poster at a dog fight.
This is one of the few films I've seen in sometime where, even nearing two hours, I didn't want to leave these characters. I don't mean that in the same way that I meant it the first time I saw Fanny and Alexander.... but regardless of genre, it's rare that a film rewards you with characters and a world that you just want to continue watching.
It's a damn fine, silly, slightly nostalgic, and very funny comedy.
I like that it fits into the Apatow family of films very well, but doesn't seem repetitive or too much like their previous work. It doesn't strike new ground, nor is it intending to. It's intending to be funny, and watching the previews before the film (The Heartbreak Kid, Good Luck Chuck) it's nice to see broad comedy that's reaching for everyone that's also not bothering to be fucking lazy and cheap. I mean, there's even an Orson Welles reference in there. Goddamn.
The AV Club wrote an article about Superbad and it's relation to the "into the night" style of films - After Hours, Into The Night, Something Wild... and it's an apt comparison. These are films I already have an affinity for and it's nice to see someone mining that niche
in cinema. It's a style of film that can go anywhere, and if you do it right, be really absurd and wild without losing the audience. I shoul stop before I start saying that this film takes chances, or is daring... it might not. But it certainly is refreshing.
Wow. This exceeded my expectations tenfold. I don't think there was a single joke in the film that fell flat in the theater. Everything got a laugh. And if you knew how many jokes there were, you would be very impressed.
Quote from: elpablo on August 17, 2007, 08:34:13 PM
I don't think there was a single joke in the film that fell flat in the theater. Everything got a laugh.
that's not saying much man, the theater is an idiot. i mean, by that standard Transformers was the best movie of the year.
Quote from: Pubrick on August 17, 2007, 10:01:09 PM
that's not saying much man, the theater is an idiot. i mean, by that standard Transformers was the best movie of the year.
I mentioned this very thing to my girlfriend today. That, regardless of how funny the film is, most audiences don't discern a difference.
"What'd you think of Superbad?"
"Fuckin' funny."
"What'd you think of Rush Hour 3?"
"Fuckin' funny."
"What'd you think of Epic Movie?"
"Fuckin' funny."
It's all the same to a lot of 'em. This isn't a respite from garbage, it's just one more thing to do after Chili's and before Bethany's party. Regardless, elpablo is right - no joke fell flat, and there were a lot of jokes, and they were... ah, fuckin' funny.
Quote from: Pubrick on August 17, 2007, 10:01:09 PM
the theater is an idiot
But every so often, it's rare but it happens, the theatre gets it right. This movie could have been 10 minutes shorter but otherwise it's got my vote for funniest movie of the year. I don't mean to add to the hype because one more week of seeing commercials and I probably would have been worn out by it; the hubris of Apatow using Superbad to market future productions before its release leads me to believe that they always knew they had a hit on their hands. At times, it does feel like it was written by two 14 year olds writing their first script, but it pretty much gets the male adolescent mind down better than any movie that I can think of at the moment and my audience was eating it all up (largely because most of them were adolescent males that sneaked in).
Okay, I'll put like this then: The woman sitting next to me was pretty much getting fisted by her boyfriend for about half of the time and I was enjoying the movie so much that that didn't even steal my attention.
you had me at fisted.
so goddamn funny. funniest of the year for sure. and surprisingly, it's really sweet.
like when my parents tell me how great it was to live during the Beatles-era, i'm going to tell my kids how great it was to live during the apatow comedic renaissance.
Man, this was fantastic.
So many great jokes.
"You know Yoda right? From 'attack of the clones'"
"You guys on myspace?"
this worked on every level for me.
the performances were superb all around.
Everyone in the theatre seemed o really enjoy i as much as I did and here wasn't any douchebags to ruin the movie.
Consistently funny and easy to watch. A massive number of jokes, none of them too try-hard, and approachable characters. It grasps the adventure and entertainment of high school.
I'd like to submit that there isn't a truly memorable scene, however. I'm not a huge line quoter, that could be why, but I think the organic, insightful dialogue makes the film. I'd be a loss to name my favorite scene. In fact, several of the transitions among things happening were probably quite awkward because the film had to both make all the thing happen in one night and the film remained a comedy at all times. Except the end, my least favorite part of these Apatow films, when I guess the film becomes genuinely sincere but I think just backtracks and makes sentiment.
But it's just a fucking comedy. And a good one.
It's a shame this won't be on DVD for some months. This movie is the best comfort food I know. I'll see it again, but I hate that will cost $5 or $8 a pop.
The movie is hilarious, nothing more. 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad are giving me good movies that I can watch over and over again. I feel I may end up liking Superbad the most just because the characters and situation is so much more familar. Friends of mine who are girls already hate these movies, but my male friends and I love them. You can identify with numerous films, but these are awesome. They are the straight up funniest. I watch Last Boy Scout to just sit back and relax to. I'll treat these movies the same way.
The funniest movie of the year. Nothing more can be said by me. I don't care critics are applauding these movies. Superbad should be discussed amongst friends and not in print.
worst positive review ever.
thats great that you like this movie but theres really no reason to be so dismissive towards it.
Quote from: modage on August 21, 2007, 10:05:19 AM
worst positive review ever.
thats great that you like this movie but theres really no reason to be so dismissive towards it.
GT was commenting towards the insane amount of critics calling the film "sincere" and "authentic" when it's really just a silly episodic comedy.
It had some laughs but I'm certainly not "mclovin" it as much as the rest of the country.
Quote from: The Red Vine on August 21, 2007, 11:50:36 AM
Quote from: modage on August 21, 2007, 10:05:19 AM
worst positive review ever.
thats great that you like this movie but theres really no reason to be so dismissive towards it.
GT was commenting towards the insane amount of critics calling the film "sincere" and "authentic" when it's really just a silly episodic comedy.
but it was sincere and very authentic. what's wrong w/ critics writing about that?
This movie hits all the comedy points that a lot of movies try to focus on for the entire movie. It had relatable characters, genuine dialogue, just all around hilarious.
I've already seen it twice at a drive-in, and boy was it fun.
admin edit: Effing SPOILS
You guys are all fucking nerds to take Superbad to heart.
But, I guess that's accurate since the film is about nerds. It's relatable on generic terms but it doesn't document my high school life. I didn't get the chicks those guys got at the end. It's all Hollywood.
Michael Cera is a comic genius. McLovin and the cops were funny sometimes, but it felt too serious at many points, like when McLovin grabbed the gun, I was pretty sure he was gonna blow his head off Pulp Fiction style.
Mottola set to direct 'Adventureland'
Miramax movie is next project after 'Superbad'
Source: Variety
Greg Mottola, who ended a decade-long gap between feature directing gigs with "Superbad," is set to helm "Adventureland" for Miramax and Sidney Kimmel.
Produced by Gotham indie shingle This is That, the pic is also to be scriped by Mottola. Jesse Eisenberg ("The Squid and the Whale") is attached to star. Shooting is set for this fall in Pittsburgh.
The film, set in the summer of 1987, concerns an uptight recent college grad who is forced to take a minimum wage job at the local amusement park after realizing he can't afford his dream European tour. The experience helps him to loosen up a bit as he finds first love, forms new friendships and matures just in time to enter the real world in the fall.
Ted Hope and Anne Carey of This is That will produce, along with Kimmel.
"It's so rare to read a smart comedy like this one with great characters and emotional depth," said Keri Putnam, Miramax production prexy.
"Fuckin' funny."
Quote from: The Red Vine on August 21, 2007, 11:50:36 AM
GT was commenting towards the insane amount of critics calling the film "sincere" and "authentic" when it's really just a silly episodic comedy.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 21, 2007, 12:57:28 PM
admin edit: Effing SPOILS
You guys are all fucking nerds to take Superbad to heart.
But, I guess that's accurate since the film is about nerds. It's relatable on generic terms but it doesn't document my high school life. I didn't get the chicks those guys got at the end. It's all Hollywood.
Its silly and episodic, but it also is sincere. Sure, its exaggerated, but the emotions at the heart of the film are real. This is clearly not a literal, realistic document of two unpopular high school guys.
And its damn funny.
Quote from: Ravi on August 24, 2007, 11:48:34 PM
Quote from: The Red Vine on August 21, 2007, 11:50:36 AM
GT was commenting towards the insane amount of critics calling the film "sincere" and "authentic" when it's really just a silly episodic comedy.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 21, 2007, 12:57:28 PM
admin edit: Effing SPOILS
You guys are all fucking nerds to take Superbad to heart.
But, I guess that's accurate since the film is about nerds. It's relatable on generic terms but it doesn't document my high school life. I didn't get the chicks those guys got at the end. It's all Hollywood.
Its silly and episodic, but it also is sincere. Sure, its exaggerated, but the emotions at the heart of the film are real. This is clearly not a literal, realistic document of two unpopular high school guys.
And its damn funny.
I don't see how this movie is more insightful than any other comedy of its kind. I see how it is funnier, but all comedies like this are made to include a few sincere and heartfelt moments. That isn't an achievement on its own. It's just a modern staple of a genre.
There are comedies like Diner and Beautiful Girls that are about their subject first and jokes second. It's pretty obvious the jokes came first with Superbad.
SPOILERS
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 25, 2007, 12:38:55 AM
I don't see how this movie is more insightful than any other comedy of its kind. I see how it is funnier, but all comedies like this are made to include a few sincere and heartfelt moments. That isn't an achievement on its own. It's just a modern staple of a genre.
Its more insightful in that it doesn't take an "us vs. them" stance between the protagonists and the girls. Seth and Evan think that they have to get girls like them drunk to be with them, but they aren't as unapproachable as tey think. The film embraces its more uncomfortable moments when a film with poorer writing or direction would have simply reveled in the zeal of being young and trying to get laid without giving much thought to the tension that goes with it. Of course, the movie exaggerates things, but that emotional core is there.
The "I love you" scene near the end is a good example of what makes this movie insightful. Only when they're trashed would two straight teenagers say they love each other. And this is how they truly feel, given that they are best friends. Of course, when they wake up, they pretend (or forget) the conversation ever happened, Seth makes a comment about Evan's mother's tits, and they act the way they usually do.
QuoteThere are comedies like Diner and Beautiful Girls that are about their subject first and jokes second. It's pretty obvious the jokes came first with Superbad.
On the contrary. The characters get into initially believable situations that become over-the-top and spin out of control. Why do they go to all those lengths just to bring alcohol to the party? So the girls will like them and they will get laid. The middle part of the film where Evan and Seth are at that adult party is somewhat meandering, but that part of the movie exists to show what hell these characters will go through (including getting into a car with a creep). These aren't pointless set pieces designed just to use some gags.
Quote from: Ravi on August 25, 2007, 01:18:03 AM
The "I love you" scene near the end is a good example of what makes this movie insightful. Only when they're trashed would two straight teenagers say they love each other. And this is how they truly feel, given that they are best friends. Of course, when they wake up, they pretend (or forget) the conversation ever happened, Seth makes a comment about Evan's mother's tits, and they act the way they usually do.
this might be my favorite scene in the movie because it is so incredibly (truthfully?) uncomfortable. but i hate the audiences i have seen the film with both times because everyone expects them to actually make out or something. its ridiculous.
Yeah, I don't see how people are trying to play this flick off like a feel good story about two friends. Maybe in the same way Cheech and Chong is. It's a straight up comedy. The American Pie flicks did the same thing, does that mean they are heartfelt comedies? It was just a funny comedy. People turn it into something it's not, just because they like the people involved.
I'm not saying its a feel-good story. The friendship of the two main characters is established in a way so that the film isn't just a bunch of crazy scenes. This isn't Stand By Me, but its got more than you are giving it credit for.
It's a touching story about friends the same way American Pie is a touching story about friends. Big difference is Superbad is actually funny, really funny.
Why is everyone so apprehensive to give credit to Superbad past "it's just a funny movie"? I wouldn't put this on par with American Pie. American Pie went for all kinds of physical humor and one-liners and was about a bunch of friends trying to get laid before they all graduated. Superbad had similar themes but was definitely saying so much more. Superbad showed a different level of friendship between the two main characters.
They wanted to find surrogates for each other, but in appropriate ways for their relationship. Seth wanted to find a girl to fill a void that his friend would leave him with and he knows the only way that he could be with a girl is if her judgment lapses, but really it's also apparent that the alcohol is just as necessary to him because it's something he feels he has to do as opposed to what he wants to do. He makes this quite clear by being so short with his best friend, but acting like he didn't know that he and McLovin were sharing a room until he reveals it at the end of the movie.
Evan only wants to assist Seth in acquiring alcohol because he's trying to humor Seth. Evan doesn't like how it tastes, isn't used to it, and has to reassure himself that getting a blowjob is a good thing. Evan isn't looking to get into a relationship before he goes, he's just doing what he figures will help Seth detatch from him.
Granted, you could just laugh at the movie and find it to be a flat out comedy, but this isn't just site gags, it's a lot of interpersonal relationships and subtle ways of how they tie together and break apart. However, it deals with teens, so it appeals to teens. It's made in a buddy comedy fashion because that's what it is, but it's a real buddy comedy. Not a movie about friends, but how close they really were and what they felt they had to do to grow up.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 21, 2007, 12:57:28 PM
admin edit: Effing SPOILS
I didn't get the chicks those guys got at the end. It's all Hollywood.
I think this is a stronger point that goes to show this film is nothing more than a pretentious attempt at showcasing what nerds 'are all about'. It just appropriates a bunch of personalities that are so common in high school, including situations/events (yeah like that one when they're sleeping together drunk on the floor sharing feelings).
As GT mentioned (or in other words), most if not all comedies are constructed in some sort of formula and this film didn't break any convention(s). I would say it was fun to watch/laugh at, but it's not memorable and all that 'insightful' jazz... Of course, unless your some teen that had something to learn from it. Then I suppose it can be seen as insightful. But I don't think critics praising this are exactly 16 years old.
Quote from: overmeunderyou on August 27, 2007, 06:32:28 PM
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 21, 2007, 12:57:28 PM
admin edit: Effing SPOILS
I didn't get the chicks those guys got at the end. It's all Hollywood.
I think this is a stronger point that goes to show this film is nothing more than a pretentious attempt at showcasing what nerds 'are all about'. It just appropriates a bunch of personalities that are so common in high school, including situations/events (yeah like that one when they're sleeping together drunk on the floor sharing feelings).
These kinds of things occur in movies because in some form or another they happen in real life. Jules might be considered out of Seth's league, but she's never depicted as a stuck-up person who wouldn't give someone like Seth the time of day. She was pretty friendly. Likewise with Becca and Evan. The guys are nervous because they're afraid of rejection, but the girls are more approachable than they think. Which is mostly how it is in real life. I don't think most guys ever get over that nervousness around girls, even as adults, and even if they know they shouldn't be so shy.
The three protagonists aren't shown to be huge nerds. They like video games, they watch porn. Common teenage boy pursuits. At worst they slip under the radar most of the time, but they're not outcasts. A bully spit on Seth, but who doesn't have at least one "enemy" at school?
By "insightful" I mean that the film honestly captures something of what its like to be a teenager and how boys this age usually view girls with a mixture of objectification and fear.
This is hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usZb24I-5gg
Quote from: shnorff on August 28, 2007, 01:05:31 AM
This is hilarious a waste of time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usZb24I-5gg
Spoiilers
I read everything over and I'm still not convinced with what the other side is saying. For instance, the movie has nothing to say about the two girls. We know Jules is nice and doesn't drink, but so what. A lot of girls do that and they still wouldn't give these guys the time of day. We know Becca likes Evan, but not why. He's nice to her, but that's nothing. She just likes him all the way through. She shouldn't because he manages to show absolutely no confidence to her at all.
Sure the dynamics between Evan and Seth are a little more honest. Films like 40 Year Old Virgin and Beerfest have been inching toward the dependency men have with other men in friendships. When life is suppose to be just about women, these movies have showed that's really far from the case. Does Superbad go a little further? Sure, because it relates some experiences of high school back to the audience. Beerfest is total fiction and 40 Year Old Virgin is pretty good, but the situations in that movie don't happen to anyone ever. Superbad has a few moments that happen to people.
That being said, American Pie had more real life experience so it wins out. I don't care that Superbad is about a more interesting context of male friendship. It had ridiculous moments all the way through out the story that happen to no one. The stuff of fiction. For these movies to be truly relatable and honest they have to be about experience. I can count the honest scenes in Superbad on one hand. Just because those few scenes are reminiscent of something I had in high school doesn't take away from the majority of the film being stupid. Superbad excuses itself because its stupid is funny.
I also don't think Evan and Seth's journey to the party speaks well about them as characters. Yes, it says they want to get laid in the worst way, but everything they go through is comedy formula. That shit doesn't happen and Seth would have broken bones if the police car hitting him actually happened. To make meaning out of all those scenes is to rationalize all their bad qualities.
Still, look at other movies. Corey Haim goes through a lot in License to Drive to get a license and car to take the hot girl in school out. The things he goes through are more re latable to people everywhere because the girl puking in your dad's nice car from drinking too much really happens. Superbad couldn't care less about small incidents like that. It has to have cop cars hitting the characters. Was License to Drive good? No! It's not good because it isn't funny. Superbad is funny. It would be considered shit if it wasn't funny and still had those four or five honest scenes.
Movies like Diner and Beautiful Girls either make you reflect totally on your past experience or at least question them. Their main subject is that. Superbad's main subject is humor. The characters and their experience are flavor to satisfy the people who want to see themselves in the characters of a movie. Every movie has dribbles of honest moments to get people to cling to bad and generic stories.
Superbad is becoming the most overrated movie of the summer.
It's a great comedy, but people are acting like it's The Last fucking Emperor in terms of coming of age.
It's the timeless tale about three high school dudes (a sweet one, an abrasive, vulgar one, and an awkward one) trying to get laid before they go to college that we've seen a million time. It's a comedy about getting laid, not a drama about getting laid like The Last Temptation Of Christ.
it's no Knocked Up.
Quote from: The Gold Trumpet on August 28, 2007, 03:39:12 PM
Spoiilers
I read everything over and I'm still not convinced with what the other side is saying. For instance, the movie has nothing to say about the two girls. We know Jules is nice and doesn't drink, but so what. A lot of girls do that and they still wouldn't give these guys the time of day. We know Becca likes Evan, but not why. He's nice to her, but that's nothing. She just likes him all the way through. She shouldn't because he manages to show absolutely no confidence to her at all.
Sure the dynamics between Evan and Seth are a little more honest. Films like 40 Year Old Virgin and Beerfest have been inching toward the dependency men have with other men in friendships. When life is suppose to be just about women, these movies have showed that's really far from the case. Does Superbad go a little further? Sure, because it relates some experiences of high school back to the audience. Beerfest is total fiction and 40 Year Old Virgin is pretty good, but the situations in that movie don't happen to anyone ever. Superbad has a few moments that happen to people.
That being said, American Pie had more real life experience so it wins out. I don't care that Superbad is about a more interesting context of male friendship. It had ridiculous moments all the way through out the story that happen to no one. The stuff of fiction. For these movies to be truly relatable and honest they have to be about experience. I can count the honest scenes in Superbad on one hand. Just because those few scenes are reminiscent of something I had in high school doesn't take away from the majority of the film being stupid. Superbad excuses itself because its stupid is funny.
I also don't think Evan and Seth's journey to the party speaks well about them as characters. Yes, it says they want to get laid in the worst way, but everything they go through is comedy formula. That shit doesn't happen and Seth would have broken bones if the police car hitting him actually happened. To make meaning out of all those scenes is to rationalize all their bad qualities.
Still, look at other movies. Corey Haim goes through a lot in License to Drive to get a license and car to take the hot girl in school out. The things he goes through are more re latable to people everywhere because the girl puking in your dad's nice car from drinking too much really happens. Superbad couldn't care less about small incidents like that. It has to have cop cars hitting the characters. Was License to Drive good? No! It's not good because it isn't funny. Superbad is funny. It would be considered shit if it wasn't funny and still had those four or five honest scenes.
Movies like Diner and Beautiful Girls either make you reflect totally on your past experience or at least question them. Their main subject is that. Superbad's main subject is humor. The characters and their experience are flavor to satisfy the people who want to see themselves in the characters of a movie. Every movie has dribbles of honest moments to get people to cling to bad and generic stories.
Yeah.......but are you going to buy the DVD?
doubtful.
Its not the Citizen Kane of teen movies (to pull out that old cliche) but Superbad was exaggerated and contrived in a way that was more interesting to me than a lot of the teen films I've seen.
QuoteThat being said, American Pie had more real life experience so it wins out. I don't care that Superbad is about a more interesting context of male friendship. It had ridiculous moments all the way through out the story that happen to no one. The stuff of fiction. For these movies to be truly relatable and honest they have to be about experience. I can count the honest scenes in Superbad on one hand. Just because those few scenes are reminiscent of something I had in high school doesn't take away from the majority of the film being stupid. Superbad excuses itself because its stupid is funny.
American Pie over Superbad, really? I have never been even close to fucking a pie or doing a striptease with a hot girl over a webcam, but I've been to a couple of bad parties that I wanted to get out of. Nothing as hellish as in Superbad, though. Except for the McLovin scenes with the cops, the film was mostly exaggerated versions of things that
could happen in real life.
gt what the hell are you talking about. superbad was written by seth rogen and the other dude when they were tweens. it's based on many of their own high school experiences, and the film feels totally honest and authentic. american pie reads like the high school fantasy of some clueless baby boomer. it's completely unrealistic.
I just don't really see calling the film sincere and honest(emotionally) a huge step at all, or a big deal. Certainly, if i only liked things which linked to my personal experiences, i would not like most films. I don't really see it being about "how many broken bones Seth would have" or if this mclovin shit could happen. The setup for every situation is real because they are all real life situations, what happens as it progresses, the detail and shit is why i go to a movie. It was fun, and entertaining, but the point is at the same time the movie doesn't try to be anything it isn't. It's lighthearted, sure, but there are serious moments in the film. They put the end "i love you" thing in there for a reason, it is the a measure of high school, and how alot of kids handle shit. The joke seth makes at the end saying a cliche unfunny bit about his moms boobs speaks loud as hell. Watch his face when he says it. Nothing to dwell on, or contemplate though, shit happens in high school, and then you just kind of find yourself in the middle of it, i know for sure that I've had intense events occur in high school where i probably felt as weird as these kids did.
Basically, this movie is fucking hilarious, but how it hits home is really not up really a concern of mine. The jokes are fresh in the way that alot of comedies are using these days, it must've been every inside joke Seth rogen and his pal ever had...that's what really stands out to me, and the lighthearted shit is dead on, I just hope rogen didn't use up every joke he had, because this movie had enough "funny" in it to make two or three terrible romantic teen comedies.
Quote from: Ravi on August 28, 2007, 10:52:25 PMthe film was mostly exaggerated versions of things that could happen in real life.
Best way I've heard it put.
Quote from: ©brad on August 29, 2007, 07:24:44 AM
gt what the hell are you talking about. superbad was written by seth rogen and the other dude when they were tweens. it's based on many of their own high school experiences, and the film feels totally honest and authentic. american pie reads like the high school fantasy of some clueless baby boomer. it's completely unrealistic.
American Pie was written by the directors and set in their own high school and if I remember correctly, also based on their high school experience. Every bad high school movie is written by some screenwriter and based on his/her high school experience. That doesn't make one better than the other. American Pie isn't authentic, but it had more moments that reminded me of my youth than Superbad did.
As Ravi said, everything is exaggerrated. If the film would have calmed down the scenes I would be agreeing with everyone. I still like Superbad more and later experience may change my mind about it. That's how things go for movies. But I don't give a shit to really argue this movie. I rather enjoy it.
Things are exaggerated. I wasn't saying that's a bad thing.
I can't wait to see hot topic rake from this movie for the next five years...
i dont get the big blowup here of disagreements.. it's not american pie, its not knocked up, its not fuckin' last temptation of christ.. if anything, its gen Y's Dazed and Confused.
Quote from: Cinephile on September 06, 2007, 01:27:14 AM
if anything, its gen Y's Dazed and Confused.
oh, so it's overrated. :ponder:
i loved this... im not going to start comparing to other movies... it was different when i saw american pie, or fast times and ridgemont high... it also depends on how old YOU are when you see this movies and what you expect to see. there are so many things you find funny and then eventually they are not as funny as you remember (in my case, happens a lot with the simpsons).
i thought the characters were as real as they were ridiculous... the cops, mclovin were great, but the two main characters are amazing. the movie is not pretencious, its just funny and sincere.
Quote from: kal on September 07, 2007, 01:20:13 AM
not as funny as you remember (in my case, happens a lot with the simpsons).
you mean from the last 8 years? they were never funny.
Comedy's new centre of gravity
Seth Rogen is box office gold thanks to two summer hits: Knocked Up and Superbad, the script he wrote as an antidote to Beverly Hills 90210. John Patterson meets him
Source: The Guardian
The king of the summer box office 2007 arrives unaccompanied and draws no crowd as he settles into a booth in a West Hollywood coffee shop. Unlike many past holders of his title, he's not swooningly handsome, blue-eyed or flaxen-haired. He's about six feet tall, big and burly, with red, slightly frizzy hair, big glasses and a very infectious, dirty gurgle of a laugh, which will be heard often over the next hour or so, along with a blizzard of profanity and one-liners.
Hard to believe, but Seth Rogen starred in two hugely successful comedies this summer that may have shifted the centre of gravity of American comedy: Knocked Up, released here in early June, and Superbad, released three weeks ago and still roosting at No 3 in the US charts. Rogen, his childhood friend and writing partner Evan Goldberg, and their director/friend/mentor Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin) have bookended the summer season with two marvellously fresh and foul-mouthed, yet surprisingly wise and sweet-natured comedies about losers, sex, marriage, the Darwinian principles of high school, losing one's virginity, shooting up cop cars, and snagging beer with fake IDs. Somewhere in the upper echelons of the Hollywood comedy scene, an older generation is nervously looking far below itself and seeing its own replacements.
Rogen is just back from a European press tour on which he and his friends were treated like rock stars, thanks to the two movies' near simultaneous release in overseas markets. He also encountered one of his American comedy forebears.
"I saw Woody Allen in Paris last week, being followed by like, two dozen paparazzi. And it's weird seeing a really old man being followed by paparazzi. You always expect to see Lindsay Lohan, but this was like your grandpa walking down the street. He looks like a little old man - one gust could do him in. He's frail as frail can be!" Allen is shuffling off the stage just as Rogen moves front and centre. Although we roll our eyes at the stale and repetitive nature of most of Allen's recent work, we also marvel at the notion of the 15-year-old Allen as a boy-genius lead joke writer on Sid Caeser's Your Show of Shows back in 1950. Rogen got almost as early a start in comedy as Allen, having been spotted in 1998 - aged 16 and as beefy as Allen is weedy - at an open casting call in his native Vancouver, and soon after finding himself cast by producer Judd Apatow in the fondly remembered TV high school drama series Freaks and Geeks. It was cruelly cancelled after a single season but introduced him, and us, to the informal family of misshapen jokesters, comedians, writers and friends who are currently set to assume the mantle of the coming generation in Hollywood comedy.
In the intervening years, he subsisted on the usual acting gruel of low-rank comedy figures, until Knocked Up shot him into the stratosphere four months ago, and Superbad sealed the deal. He's also an accomplished writer - as the Superbad script attests - and he did a stint as a joke-writer for HBO's Da Ali G Show. (Of working with Sacha Baron Cohen, he says: "We'd just write or dream up these 30 or 40 awful questions for him to ask and he'd take off to film it, leaving us horrified and thinking, 'You're actually gonna fucking do that?' People think he's a lot more heady than he is, he's just a guy who wants to make funny shit. I find him oddly easy to hang out with.")
Does being a Canadian in America make a difference? "I think it does. You have all of the American culture already there in your head, but no loyal attachment to it, so you can make fun of it. And when you watch the news you don't think, 'Man we're fucked!' You think, 'Man, they're fucked!' It's great, like there's an automatic fake moral high ground that's just built in to whichever situation you're in."
Foreignness brings with it other perspectives not normally associated with American comedy. His parents are, he says, radical Jewish socialists. "Well, they're socialists, maybe not that radical, and they met on a kibbutz in Israel. My mom's a social worker and my dad works in non-profit organisations. But they seem very radical in American terms, embracing a form of socialism that really doesn't even exist here. I mean, where I come from, communism is not a terrible word."
Superbad also has something of an outsider's sense of place. Rogen and Goldberg wrote the first draft of the script when they were both in high school, and polished it to a high sheen over the next 12 years. It stemmed from never recognising themselves in high-school movies or TV shows, and from a desire to get things right that those shows had got sadly wrong. They saw trailers for American Pie and worried briefly that someone might have beaten them to it. "But then we saw it and went, 'Cool, they've managed to totally avoid all honest interaction between characters,' which is what we're going for."
For their comedy about two graduating virgins - one angry and fat, based on Rogen and played by Jonah Hill, and the other slight and sweet, based on Goldberg and played by Arrested Development's Michael Cera - the writers were interested in "how the characters relate to each other, not even emotionally, just casually". Indeed, one of the most shocking things about Superbad is how edgy, accurate and tender-hearted it is on the fragile nature of teenage male friendship, riven as it is with homoerotic ambiguity and the fear of separation. "It shocks me that 90210 and Superbad are technically considered part of the same genre. It was as much TV shows as movies that made us feel under-represented. No part of me watched 90210 and thought, 'Yeah! that's what my life is like!' It seemed like a different planet. I mean, I like shitty movies as much as the next guy, I'm not a snob, but things like that had no guys like us in it - that was the point."
Rogen now has five movies in the pipeline, some of them leftover voicework he snagged before this summer turned his life upside-down, but also another, Pineapple Express, based on a Rogen- Goldberg script and directed by ... "Why, indie darling David Gordon Green, of course!" laughs Rogen. The man who gave us All the Real Girls and George Washington has helmed their script about a sour pothead (Rogen) and his overfriendly dealer (Freaks/Spiderman alumnus James Franco) who go on the run after witnessing a murder. A super-violent action-movie-cum-pothead-comedy by an art-house director? "I know! When I watch it I just think, 'I can't believe they let us make this!' I can't believe people actually like it, too."
The Apatow-Rogen comedy machine is so backed up, however, that Pineapple Express, though complete, won't be seen until next summer. As a teaser, Rogen leaves me with one nugget: "I guess what Judd Apatow is to me, is what Terrence Malick is to David Gordon Green. They're just good friends. And David said to me the other day, 'Guess what Terrence Malick's favourite movie of the last 10 years is?'"
What?
"Zoolander! He knows every word, watches it every week. Which just goes to show, you never can predict these things." And Rogen shakes hands, says goodbye, swivels on his heel, and walks out into the ever-brightening limelight.
Zoolander is the new White Men Can't Jump.
It reminded me a lot of American Graffitti. McLovin and the cops were like Curt tagging along with The Pharaohs; Terry The Toad trying to score liquor for a girl. Now I wouldn't put SB on the same level as AG, but it had the same heart and attention to three-dimensional characters, elevating it to something more than just a dick-and-fart joke movie.
I accidentally saw American Piece again. haha, I take back previous comments that considered Superbad the less realistic of the two.
I've got an American Piece for ya. :wink:
Okay, so Original Theatrical Version, or Extended Edition?
Quote from: Sleepless on December 18, 2007, 03:18:16 PM
Okay, so Original Theatrical Version, or Extended Edition?
neither. it's the Original Extended Theatrical Version Edition, coming Spring 2008.