Review of Superbad (2007) by Peteh. — 24 Mar 2008

I was suckered by the hype. Loved 40 Year Old Virgin (as did my missus); Loved Knocked Up (as did my missus). Bought this full of anticipation after all the stellar reviews, set aside Sunday night (what a loser), settled down for a gutbusting laughfest and.

.. er... couldn't believe how badly it sucked. In fact, I was so surprised at my negative reaction that I wondered if I'd been in some kind of dour mood without realising it and got a second opinion from my kid brother who loves the same nonsense (your Liebowskis, Anchormen, Taps etc) and was also massively pumped to watch the movie after the great reviews.

His view: he was livid that he'd wasted two hours of his life that he'd never get back. Problems? Okay, here are a few: the main character is a c*ck. Not in a good, geeky, anti-hero kinda way.

No, he's just a c*ck, in a fat, crass, thick angry whinging please-smack-me-in-the-mouth dish-it-out-but-can't-take-it-in-return kinda way. He's the thick, angry dude at a party that you just walk away from as fast as you can.

And he's waaaaaaay too old for the role. His mate is as dull as a puddle so there's no comedy chemistry, just uninspired swearing met by empty puzzled/guilty looks. The whole McLovin thing was so fiercely try-hard and cynical.

The cops' characters changed as the script required (one minute goofing, then psychopathic) but didn't amuse because of the drug-fuelled mood swings - it just seemed fake. The joy of the recent Apatow stuff has been that under the grotesquerie, the characters were oddly credible.

This one, however, is nonsense. There's none of the Apatow goofing-around-great-fun-just-hanging-with-these-characters feel. There's none of the amiability of the benchmark for this sort of movie, American Pies 1 and 2 (and nothing to touch the brilliant set-piece gags from those movies); there's none of the inspired insanity of the better frathouse bashes like Animal House.

It just doesn't deliver. And the bolt-on ending! WHY would that absolute raging hottie with a sensible head on her beautiful shoulders even look at Mr spiteful whiney aggressive oik, other than because the movie demanded that the two guys sorta "get the gal" at the end? Dude - weak.

If I was meant to be rooting for him because he'd followed some long character arc... ah, no. 'Cos he didn't. He woke up hungover and feeling guilty because he'd been such a royal pain in the harris that even he'd spotted it.

He inspired such antipathy in me, I would have much preferred it if the movie had ended with him falling in agonising slow motion down the long flight of stairs in that shopping mall. Would have been a two star review, but another star for the McLovin "it's in!" line, a solitary great moment that only underlined how duff the rest of this movie was.

Everyone I have spoken to who has seen it agrees - rubbish film. Sorry folks, the critics all jumped a big emperor's clothes bandwagon. Save yourselves, it's too late for me.