So, I rented Superbad this weekend (hits the streets tomorrow, in case you were planning to run right out and get it). I had high hopes on this one…it was supposedly the funniest thing ever.

And certainly, the film had moments that had me laughing quite hard. But the story never really comes together and ultimately, this movie failed for me (as opposed Producers’ Apatow and Rogan’s previous effort Knocked Up).

Superbad details the efforts of best friends Seth (Jonah Hill, Knocked Up & Evan Almighty) and Evan (Michael Cera, Arrested Development & Juno) to get alcohol for a party and to “get” with the girls of their desire. This, in and of itself, is a simple set up. The two friends had planned to go to college together, but Evan has been accepted to Dartmouth and Seth to…well, somewhere else. Everyone seems to think this will be hard on them. Apparently, Evan agrees a little, as he will not tell Seth that his roommate will be their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

The excess of crass sex related humor starts to wear thin far to early, almost from the opening sequence where Seth tells Evan about his plans for which porn web site to get a subscription to next year at college. It’s just not overwhelmingly funny. And frankly, the horny teen virgin who does not want to go to college as an “experienced” man is a very tired trope in film. Seriously, haven’t the five or six American Pie movies mined this idea into complete extinction? Can we see this character retired from comedies for a decade or two?

The two friends get invited to a party being thrown by Jules (Emma Stone, of the New Partidge Family) and decide to bring along Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, in his first movie) since he has a fake I.D. This produces one of the funnier running storylines, because his fake I.D. simply says his name is McLovin. In a series of errors and misinformation, Evan and Seth have abandoned Fogell (mistakenly believing that the cops busted him for buying alcohol.

They run off with a guy who claims to have committed a non-violent crime, and promises to take them to a party where they can get a ton of alcohol. Meanwhile, Fogell is being driven around by the two cops from the liquor store (Seth Rogan of Freaks and Geeks, the 40 Year Old Virgin & Knocked Up & Bill Hader of SNL and Hot Rod), apparently having quite a bit of fun.

Somewhere around the one hour mark the film suddenly gets “emotional” as Evan and Seth start to argue, both feeling the other has let them down. It actually gets sort of interesting from this point on. The problem is, we do not get a glimpse of this aspect of their relationship and personalities until to late in the film. Suddenly, Seth shows himself vulnerable and lacking in confidence. In spite of his bravado, he’s in fact well aware he is not as bright as his friend Evan. At this point, it’s one of the first points where I found myself able to feel some kind of sympathy to the character. Frankly, up until now, Seth seemed like an overbearing jerk who steamrolled over his buddy Evan, who was quiet and unassuming.

They meet up again with Fogell and run from the cops, just blocks from the party. When they get there, Evan is informed that Becca (Martha MacIsaak) is really wasted and totally willing to “do it with him.” Here, Evan stumbles, he is not comfortable with the idea of sleeping with Becca when she is drunk. One of Becca’s friends tells him it’s totally ethical-if he’s drunk two. So he goes off and tries to get sloshed in the bathroom. Unsuccessfully, as he can’t manage to frink much of the alcohol. So he plays drunk.

It does not work, though, as he is sober- and that means his conscience is working. This results in awkwarness as he tried to convince the very drunk girl of his dreams that she would regret doing this drunk. Meanwhile, Seth is most definitely drunk. Seth firmly believes that if Jules is drunk, they will hook up, as she would never hook up with him sober. When Jules shoots him down because he’s drunk and she’s not, Seth takes off.

When Jules finds him, she discovers him crying. Seth feels he’s blown it. And again we see this genuine moment of vulnerability. It makes him likable as he opens up to Jules, admitting how cool he thought she was and since she doesn’t get drunk (or even drink) he has no chance of making her his girlfriend. Throughout the film there is questions of just why she is being nice to Seth. Using him for alcohol, genuinely likes him as a person? She is, in fact quite nice, it isn’t that she would not go on a date with him, it’s just that he is drunk. Of course, Seth is so drunk he passes out on her.

A s with every teen party full of alcohol in a movie, the cops arrive. By this time, Evan has gotten drunk and is passing out on the couch. Seth sees it as his duty to save his buddy, even though they are mad at each other. And so Seth makes like Kevin Costner in the bodyguard and carries the unconscious Evan out of the house. Later, before they go to sleep, they apologies and declare their totally heterosexual love for each other. Some of the films best humor comes from these moments of friendship. In fact, the cleverness of the next morning, where the two stumble around words like a couple ashamed of having slept together suggest this could have been a great movie if they had relied more on this and less on mere crude humor. The film ends with the boys looking longingly at each other as they part ways with their respective girls.

As I said, there are hints of a great film, but the final product lacks the heart that I have associated with previous efforts from Apatow’s team. Director Greg Mottola comes from that crew, but along with writers Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg failed to create situations
that endeared me to my two main characters. It was as if they figured they could rely on Michael Cera’s innate likability (and he was not playing a character much different than George Michael Bluth from Arrested Development) to carry the early parts of the film. Listen, I get they were paying homage to the 80’s ‘R’ teen movie and trying to update it for our “modern” age. But it still has to work on it’s own. Strangely to me, director Greg Motolla has directed episodes of Arrested Development, and it makes me wish all the more that Superbad had that same smart, dry and quirky sense of humor. Instead, we got a mess of jokes about sex, menstrual blood, breasts, getting drunk…and they were not that funny.

I wanted to like Superbad … but I was just left with an overall sense of disappointment.