Movie Review for Superbad

Summary: 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.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By John Wirt of Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) (7/0)
            Superbad may not linger in the memory, but its often riotous comedy is engaging and the journeys ...

By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            This is the kind of comedy that causes you to throw your head back, stomp your feet, and pound on...

By Tim Brayton of Antagony & Ecstasy (7/0)
            I find myself reflecting not upon the hilarity (of which there is more than enough here), but upo...

By Brian Webster of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            Superbad is inspired coming of age comedy for real, nerdy, mixed-up, uncertain people; it's uproa...

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (7/0)
            What they came up with is one of the most authentic and hilarious high school films in memory.

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
            ... crude and sweet, rife with vulgarity yet redeemed by its generous spirit and intelligence. Ho...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
            ... crude and sweet, rife with vulgarity yet redeemed by its generous spirit and intelligence. Ho...

By Shawn Badgley of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Mostly Superbad is as soulful and funky as its soundtrack.

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            Keenly observed, good-natured and funny.

By Paul Arendt of BBC (7/0)
            It's as if Mike Leigh decided to make a gross-out comedy.

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            It's an R-rated film with the simple sensibility of a show that might play on the teen cable chan...

By Fred Topel of Can Magazine (7/0)
            It's Booty Call

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Saxon Bullock of Channel 4 Film (7/0)
            It's not for the easily offended, but look past the fabulously crude dialogue, and Superbad is on...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            In its very raunchiness, it finds truth, because if you know nothing about sex, how can you be ta...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            A four-letter raunch-a-rama with a heart.

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (4/3)
            It's raunchy teen comedy with heart.

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (4/3)
            The comic peaks of Superbad deal in specific characters rather than easily pegged stereotypes. Th...

By Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            I appreciate the film's relative disinterest in plot.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By M. K. Terrell of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            A lot of wit and inventiveness went into this production -- too bad it couldn't have been used co...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (7/0)
            The movie look like there's more to it than just another teen partying flick, and if that's the c...

By Joshua Tyler of CinemaBlend.com (7/0)
            A fairly standard teen raunch romp with some really funny parts involving a completely unrelated ...

By Erik Davis of Cinematical (7/0)
            Jonah Hill and Michael Cera displayed some of the best on-screen chemistry I've seen all year, an...

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            Formulaically, Superbad is nothing you've never seen before: what makes it special is that wonder...

By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
            The comic inventions at play are so beyond the pale, and yet so within the realm of teenage possi...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            The only problem with this insanely funny movie is that it's going to incite envy from anyone in ...

By Chris Vognar of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
            Superbad has raunchy charm, a fair amount of heart and a couple of nice performances.

By N.V. Cooper of E! Online (7/0)
            Who knew that a raunchy teen sex comedy could be one of the most rambunctious and glorious movies...

By Dan Lybarger of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            You'll have to take about 15 showers to get the taint of "Superbad" out of your system, but laugh...

By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Superbad winds up being the best single night comedy since Martin Scorsese's After Hours. You may...

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            Gloriously profane, Superbad, Mottola's follow-up to Daytrippers, takes one of the most disreputa...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Vince Koehler of Entertainment Spectrum (7/0)
            Superbad is the American Pie for this century.

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            Superbad is cute if you like guys who aren't even remotely bad, in a coming-of-age tale so old-fa...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            I've seen a few movies that were a little funnier, but I don't think I've ever seen so many indiv...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            It is what it is.

By Ethan Alter of Film Journal International (7/0)
            A marvelous late-summer surprise, a film that's small in scope but big on laughs and--believe it ...

By Michael Ferraro of Film Threat (7/0)
            Superbad is easily one of the funniest comedies of the year and one you wouldn't mind seeing agai...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Sean O'Connell of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            Clumsily falters when its leads are separated, but sparkles when vulgar Hill, deadpan Cera, and s...

By Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com (7/0)
            A loving ode to the penis.

By Richard Horgan of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            Just as Sean Penn carved out the immortal pizza loving Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times, newcomer Chris...

By Richard Horgan of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            One can almost imagine the characters portrayed by Hill, Cera and Mintz-Plasse growing up to be t...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
            This is why Hollywood mostly sucks: Corporate movies are getting made from scripts written by 13-...

By Bill Clark of FromTheBalcony (7/0)
            As much as it may scare a lot of parents out there, anyone who has been through the rigors and cr...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Jeffrey Lyles of Gazette (MD) (7/0)
            Way ahead of the 2007 comedy pack so far with enough major laughs to make you cry and hope that y...

By Peter Canavese of Groucho Reviews (7/0)
            A riotous story of friendship, debauchery, and pizza bagels.

By Ross Anthony of Hollywood Report Card (7/0)
            Imagine American Pie and South Park blending into one film.

By Stephen Farber of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            This raunchy teen comedy will please its target audience; others should steer clear.

By Amy Biancolli of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            Even this middle-age hausfrau can appreciate the zonkered comic force behind Superbad, whose ramb...

By Gary Brown of Houston Community Newspapers (7/0)
            Superbad is funny stuff for the young at heart.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Stax of IGN Movies (7/0)
            Although Superbad often runs the risk of being a one-note joke, there's still enough heart to the...

By Kevin Williamson of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            Super-awesome -- a miracle of crudeness and charm that counters its coarseness with sincerity.

By JoBlo of JoBlo's Movie Emporium (7/0)
            It’s the film’s consistent and creative humor that keeps this comedic motor chugging away, along ...

By Beth Accomando of KPBS.org (7/0)
            Superbad is the perfect crude teen comedy to end the summer on. It's funny, a little bittersweet ...

By Kyle Smith of KyleSmithOnline.com (7/0)
            American Graffiti, Sixteen Candles and Dazed and Confused, bow to your new master. It super freak...

By Scott Foundas of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            Superbad is a movie about partying and getting wasted and getting the girl, but as the night wear...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Robert Roten of Laramie Movie Scope (7/0)
            Somehow, the unlikely combination of crass comedy and romance really works.

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            Coming to terms with inevitable changes to a deeply dependent friendship is at least as key an is...

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            Superbad's teen raunch isn't what's shocking; it's the love story.

By Carina Chocano of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            I hope it's not damning the movie with the wrong kind of praise to say that for a film so delirio...

By Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies (7/0)
            The film is rude and crude, but it's truthful about those elements, about its characters, and, ab...

By Pete Hammond of Maxim (7/0)
            Every generation seems to have one iconic comedy that gets to a special place... and lives on for...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Randy Shulman of Metro Weekly (Washington, DC) (7/0)
            If Beaches was the ultimate chick flick, Superbad is one for all dudes, young and old.

By Matt Pais of Metromix.com (7/0)
            The decade's funniest movie ... nothing short of an instant classic.

By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            Common to successful sex comedies is a developing sense of self-awareness and the painfully sweet...

By Colin Covert of Minneapolis Star Tribune (7/0)
            Superbad maintains that delicate balance of sweetness, empathy and vulgar comedy. It's so packed ...

By Kevin N. Laforest of Montreal Film Journal (7/0)
            I don't think I've ever identified this much with a high school movie.

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            It's the film's generous heart and its depiction of the end of the era of adolescence that wins o...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            Their almost Tourette-ish stream of endless obscenities, vivid and imaginative as they are, are l...

By Michael Dequina of Mr. Brown's Movies (7/0)
            Ribald repartée is the engine that drives the script, and the lead duo are nimble with the often-...

By Kurt Loder of MTV (7/0)
            So is it funny? The best parts -- and there are many of them -- trigger fits of helpless, howling...

By Larry Carroll of MTV (7/0)
            MTV Interview with Jonah Hill and Michael Cera

By David Edelstein of New York Magazine (7/0)
            Superbad might be the most provocative teen sex comedy ever made; it is certainly one of the most...

By Linda Stasi of New York Post (7/0)
            Super-vulgar, ridiculously sophomoric, horribly nasty and so hilarious you’ll probably squirt Die...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Manohla Dargis of New York Times (7/0)
            ...sweetly absurd...

By David Denby of New Yorker (7/0)
            The movie succeeds as a teen’s wild fantasy of a night in which everything goes wrong, revised by...

By Kam Williams of NewsBlaze (7/0)
            A relentlessly-raunchy cross between American Pie and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a laugh ...

By Gene Seymour of Newsday (7/0)
            This is pure 'situation comedy' in which the humor and the poignancy emerge from the situations r...

By Brian Orndorf of OhmyNews.com (7/0)
            Captures the mysterious pit of erection-led shame that lies deep inside every self-conscious youn...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Thrives on rowdiness and raunchiness and celebrates the infantilism of the male side of the speci...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Nathan Rabin of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            This is the Citizen Kane of dick-joke movies. Superbad is a funny, boozy, ramshackle party, but i...

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (7/0)
            Like Knocked Up, this is a comedy they don't know how to end. The energy flags as it overstays it...

By John Thomason of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            The best teen sex comedy ever made.

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
            [I] found the slapstick jokes silly but not funny; that the girls were just used as ciphers, repr...

By Joe Baltake of Passionate Moviegoer (7/0)
            'Superbad': 'American Graffiti Redux,' only updated with the usual raunch and a major penis fixat...

By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            2007: The Year Judd Apatow And Seth Rogen Saved Movie Comedy.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
            The best comedy of the summer.

By Stefan Halley of Pop Syndicate (7/0)
            aims higher at aiming low, and gets it just right

By Bill Gibron of PopMatters (7/0)
            If you ever wondered what Sixteen Candles...would look and sound like fashioned after the aesthet...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            High school virgins equipped with attitude and wit and resentment, they are, at the same time, ki...

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            It's only when the characters are split up during the film's episodic mid-section that one's inte...

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            It's only when the characters are split up during the film's episodic mid-section that one's inte...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Gary Goldstein of Reel.com (7/0)
            At the film's core is a poignant message about teen male friendships that smartly balances the ba...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            ...a teen sex comedy that finds funny in the low brow while being very smart about it.

By Jeffrey Chen of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            A guided tour of what it's like to live in the crucible of dealing with teenage hormones, impulse...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            The movie is frequently amusing and occasionally uproarious.

By Bob Grimm of Reno News and Review (7/0)
            Getting some good, hardcore laughs this summer, thanks to Apatow and friends.

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            It helps that the fun doesn’t stop. It helps even more that the pitch-perfect script doesn’t step...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Carla Meyer of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            Its young actors are pitch perfect.

By Carla Meyer of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            Its young actors are pitch perfect.

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            There's no denying it's pretty funny, although you may hate yourself for laughing.

By Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com (7/0)
            The movie doesn't need any superfluous redeeming qualities: Its pleasures and charms lie in its v...

By Larry Ratliff of San Antonio Express-News (7/0)
            I like the fact that this one-note comedy -- OK, two: sex and booze -- makes no pretense of being...

By Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...nothing onscreen this year has been as funny as this. This is laugh-out-loud stuff, a real gid...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Eric Melin of Scene-Stealers.com (7/0)
            If only every comedy that comes out these days could be tinkered with for 12 years before it's re...

By Sean McBride of Sean the Movie Guy (7/0)
            a very funny, raunchy comedy that should clean up what’s left of the summer box office

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            ...everyone should feel a twinge of recognition when the boys realize that, vows of loyalty and f...

By Mark Rahner of Seattle Times (7/0)
            If you liked the raunchy dude conversations in 40-Year-Old Virgin, you'll think Superbad is the L...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            Effortlessly combines the outrageous adventure plot with some strikingly serious subtext about fr...

By Nick Schager of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            No film in the history of cinema has displayed as much interest in male genitalia.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Dana Stevens of Slate (7/0)
            It's Michael Cera (heretofore best known as Jason Bateman's son on Arrested Development) whose co...

By Dana Stevens of Slate (7/0)
            It's Michael Cera (heretofore best known as Jason Bateman's son on Arrested Development) whose co...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            A raunchy teen comedy flick about parties and having sex that really wants to say something about...

By Angela Baldassarre of Sympatico.ca (7/0)
            I can't get over the misogynist undertones of yet another teenage sex comedy despite the presence...

By Neil Smith of thelondonpaper (7/0)
            Bawdy, demented and gloriously­ feel-good, Superbad is as super as comedies get.

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (7/0)
            Superbad is a successful laugher, no doubt about it, but what lingers afterwards is the poignancy...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (7/0)
            Superbad is a successful laugher, no doubt about it, but what lingers afterwards is the poignancy...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            Superbad... sometimes a title says all you need to know.

By Richard Corliss of TIME Magazine (7/0)
            An avalanche of d--- jokes and strenuous slapstick.

By Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York (7/0)
            This is comedy of a liberating nature, about the various indignities that coolness always require...

By Wendy Ide of Times [UK] (7/0)
            There are some excruciatingly funny moments but there are perhaps not as many laughs as you would...

By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            It's mostly very crude, often very funny and a little bit smarter than you might otherwise think.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            Every teenage boy's fantasy is covered in this critic proof imbecile comedy that is crammed with ...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            Humiliation, fear and occasional elation are the dominant emotions for these bumbling but oddly l...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            Everything that can go wrong over a period of about 24 hours does -- in outrageous and unpredicta...

By Todd McCarthy of Variety (7/0)
            The bawdy jokes score big points, but it's the rueful acknowledgement of adolescent embarrassment...

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
            a classic example of the movie that shows us one epic, lifechanging day or night in our character...

By Ann Hornaday of Washington Post (7/0)
            Greg Mottola executes Superbad with his characteristically light touch, even if it's used in the ...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Prairie Miller of WBAI Web Radio (7/0)
            There's a desperation to these guys that feels real and pulls you into their grossed out universe...

By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (7/0)
            ...this is one long dirty joke. In fact, at nearly two hours, it's a very long dirty joke. If o...

By Kevin Jones & Adam Mast of zBoneman Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have taken the familiar coming of age tale and put their own unmista...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            The fun, misery, insecurity and idiocy of high school are depicted with vulgar, imaginative and a...

By Christy Lemire of Associated Press (6/1) No reference
            We'll just say that McLovin turns out to be the baddest mutha by far.

By Christopher Smith of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (5/2) No reference
            In spite of the film's startling deluge of dirty dialogue and sight gags, tender notes are struck...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Tim Cogshell of Boxoffice Magazine (6/1) No reference
            The point is that while Superbad is just as dumb as it looks in every way, there's also something...

By Lawrence Toppman of Charlotte Observer (6/1) No reference
            It isn't super, as it intersperses crudely funny gags with an equal number of dry spots.

By Devin Faraci of CHUD (6/1) No reference
            Superbad, essentially, is the filthiest episode of Freaks & Geeks ever.

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (6/1) No reference
            While the film's preoccupation with sex and teens will immediately turn off many, there's no deny...

By Terry Lawson of Detroit Free Press (6/1) No reference
            The unrelenting Judd Apatow stamp on movie comedy continues with Superbad, which is recognizably ...

By James Sanford of Kalamazoo Gazette (6/1) No reference
            Rogen and co-screenwriter Evan Goldberg are attempting to create a teen-angst comedy along the li...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (6/1) No reference
            Superbad delivers some of the summer’s biggest laughs.

By Prairie Miller of Long Island Press (3/4) No reference
            There's a desperation to these guys that feels real and pulls you into their grossed out universe...

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (6/1) No reference
            As coarse as the movie gets, there is always an undertone of sweetness to accompany the toilet hu...

By Eric Kohn of New York Press (6/1) No reference
            With the personalities in place, this stuff writes itself.

By Lisa Rose of Newark Star-Ledger (6/1) No reference
            ...there are some classic scenes and the cast is hilarious.

By David Ansen of Newsweek (6/1) No reference
            As a Revenge of the Nerds redux, Superbad isn't perfect. But it's super close.

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (6/1) No reference
            The soundtrack is, for some mysterious and yet immensely pleasurable reason, heavy on '70s funk. ...

By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (6/1) No reference
            A crazed odyssey of booze, lust, thwarted sex and undying friendship.

By Mike Ward of Richmond.com (6/1) No reference
            Add Superbad to this list of films fit for weekend slackerdom, fraternity row pre-gaming and 30-s...

By Mike Ward of Richmond.com (6/1) No reference
            Add Superbad to this list of films fit for weekend slackerdom, fraternity row pre-gaming and 30-s...

By Nick Rogers of State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) (6/1) No reference
            The reassuring message of 2007's most uproarious film is there's no prefab, encompassing approach...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (6/1) No reference
            Like attending a reunion or opening a yearbook, I know I'll be looking back fondly on Superbad fo...

                         Reviews of Superbad
By Mary F. Pols of Contra Costa Times (4/3) Not Reachable
            All this foul talk is packaging for a central, completely sweet Apatowian premise: Friendship is ...

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (4/3) Not Reachable
            Superbad is also something more important than the movie where Cera says the f-word. It's the mov...

Movie Distributors
Sony Pictures Releasing

Production Companies
Apatow Productions

Movie Studios
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group