*IN THEATERS FRIDAY, AUGUST 17th*
The Plot: Two co-dependent high school seniors (Hill and Cera) are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry.
The Pros: There is some really funny improvisation here by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. Seth Rogen is funny, as is Bill Hader, his companion cop. The music is also very, very groovy. I love the music.
The Cons: Much of the improvisation in Superbad is, I really hate to say it, very stale. I can see this kind of improv-based humor getting very old very fast. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill are good, but they're just not good enough to carry an entire film on their backs; it simply doesn't work.
The Bottom Line: The big problem with Superbad is that it lacks the high-quality improv that we saw in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. That's the only way I can put it; all the jokes are beginning to become more predictable by the movie. And that's the problem with this whole Judd Apatow movement. It's like the Christopher Guest mockumentaries; you can make two, even three, films that adhere to a certain formula, but it starts to wear thin after that. This, sadly, is the big problem I see with the style used in Superbad, Knocked Up, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Although Cera and Hill are a great duo, the jokes are 60% hit and 40% miss; I expect more than that from a film written by Seth Rogen. But, then again, you can't do the same thing over and over and expect to strike gold every time. I mean, look at Just for Your Consideration.
The Score: 6.5 / 10
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I saw Michael Cera on Letterman a few nights ago. You've got to admit that he has some potential. Right now, he's in Ben Stiller territory- he's essentially playing the same comedic character from film to film and webseries to webseries. But, he's creative, young and into British Comedy. That could shift his palate a little bit and make for quite an interesting actor by the time he's in his mid-twenties or so. That being said, I'm totally going to see Superbad. It's George Michael Bluth, for Christ's sake.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask how you see all these films before they're released?
Oh, I am by no means saying he's bad in any way; in fact, I too think he has enormous potential. I'm very interested to see how his career turns out. He was fantastic on Arrested Development.
ReplyDeleteI work at a movie theater, and therefore get more access to advanced screenings than one normally would!
Have you seen his webseries?
ReplyDeletehttp://clarkandmichael.com/
I think its pretty impressive, for a 19-year-old. Actually, I think it's impressive as a webseries on its own. Granted, his partner is 22, a film school graduate and the series was financed by CBS, but I think they were given a creative clean slate and ran with it (which is very odd in the CBS world, but apparently, it happened...).
Anyway, I've been gorging on the shows these past few days. The cameos by David Cross and Andy Richter are just icing.
You = pretty damn lucky with the pre-screenings.