Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script during their teenage years. It is loosely based on their experience in Grade 12 at Point Grey Secondary School in Vancouver during the 1990s. The main characters have the same given names as the two writers. Rogen was also initially intended to play Seth, but due to age and physical size this was changed, and Hill went on to portray Seth, while Rogen portrayed the irresponsible Officer Michaels, opposite Saturday Night Live star Hader as Officer Slater.
Superbad premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on August 13, 2007, and was theatrically released in the United States four days later on August 17, 2007. Upon release, the film received positive reviews, with critics praising the dialogue and the chemistry between the two leads as well as the performances of the supporting cast. The film also proved financially successful, grossing over $170 million on a $17.5–20 million budget.
Plot
Seth and Evan are childhood best friends and high school seniors living in Clark County, about to go off to different colleges. Seth's love interest, Jules, invites him to a party at her house.
Seth and Evan's friend Fogell plans to obtain a fake ID, so Seth promises to buy Jules alcohol for the party. Evan runs into his own love interest, Becca, and offers to get her a bottle of Gold Slick Vodka, a fictional brand based on Goldschläger.[5]
Despite the obviously fake ID, Fogell successfully buys the liquor under the mononym "McLovin", but is knocked down by a robber. When police officers Slater and Michaels arrive, Seth and Evan, who are outside, believe that Fogell is being arrested. In fact, the officers have agreed to give "McLovin" a ride to the party.
While outside the liquor store, Seth is hit by a motorist. In exchange for Seth and Evan not telling the police, the driver promises to take them to another party, where they can get alcohol. Meanwhile, Slater and Michaels take Fogell on a ride-along and then bond with him. Despite being on duty, they start drinking, use their sirens improperly, and shoot at a stop sign.
At the party, Seth fills laundry detergent bottles from the basement with alcohol and dances with a drunk girl named Jacinda. She stains his leg with menstrual blood, while a group of intoxicated men make Evan sing "These Eyes" for them. Seth is confronted by the party's host for dancing with his fiancée, and a brawl ensues; the police are called, while Seth and Evan escape.
Seth begins to chastise Evan for bailing on him; reminding him that they had made childhood plans to go to college together. Evan got accepted into Dartmouth College, retorting that Seth is selfish and has held him back for years so he does not want Seth to slow him down anymore.
As they begin to argue more, Seth is again hit by a car – the police cruiser driven by Slater and Michaels. The officers plan to blame the crash on Seth, but as Fogell emerges from the car, Evan makes a run for it, and Seth and Fogell escape with the alcohol. Eventually, all three make their way to Jules' party.
At the party, Fogell inadvertently reveals that he and Evan will be rooming together at college, upsetting Seth. Seth's stories of the night's antics make him popular, while Becca wants to have sex with Evan, who declines as she is drunk and he does not want her to regret it.
Meanwhile, Fogell impresses foreign exchange student Nicola, and goes upstairs to have sex with her. Seth drunkenly attempts to kiss Jules, but she turns him down because she neither drinks nor wants Seth while he is drunk. He believes he has ruined his chances with her. He then falls down, accidentally headbutting her, giving her a black eye.
Slater and Michaels bust the party. Seth wakes up and escapes, carrying an intoxicated Evan. Slater busts in on Fogell and Nicola starting to have sex, causing her to run off. Slater yells at Fogell for ditching them, but Michaels points out they just cockblocked him.
They apologize and reveal they knew all along that Fogell was underage but played along, wanting to show him that cops can have fun too. To make it up to him, they handcuff him and make a spectacle of perp-walking him to their cruiser, which is highly effective in making him look "badass". They resume their bonding, eventually destroying their car with a Molotov cocktail while Fogell shoots it with Slater's service pistol.
Seth and Evan have a sleepover at Evan's, where Seth reveals that he discovered weeks earlier that Evan and Fogell planned to live together at college. Evan admits he does not want to share a room with Fogell but is afraid to live with strangers. They apologize to each other and reconcile.
The next day, Seth and Evan visit the mall and run into Jules and Becca. Becca and Seth apologize for their drunken behavior, and the boys pair off with the girls: Seth takes Jules to buy concealer for the black eye he gave her, while Evan and Becca leave to buy a comforter to replace the one she drunkenly vomited on.
Cast
Jonah Hill as Seth, Evan's best friend who is anxious to have sex and is romantically interested in Jules
Casey Margolis as Young Seth
Michael Cera as Evan, Seth's best friend who is hesitant with Seth's plan to obtain alcohol and have sex; he is romantically interested in Becca
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell / McLovin, Seth and Evan's friend who obtains a fake ID and attempts to use it
Seth Rogen as Officer Michaels, a cop who befriends Fogell
Bill Hader as Officer Slater, a cop who befriends Fogell
Superbad was written by Goldberg and Rogen during their teen years. It is loosely based on their own experience as seniors in Vancouver in the late 1990s, hence the character names Seth and Evan. Other characters and references were influenced by Goldberg and Rogen's adolescence, such as Steven Glanzberg, their peer at Point Grey Secondary School, characterized in the film as a loner.[6] According to an interview at an event panel in 2009, Fogell was also a real friend of Rogen and Goldberg. Rogen was initially slated to play Hill's character Seth. Still, due to his physical size and age, he played one of the police officers.[7] When asked where he wants to be dropped off, Fogell tells the officers to take him to 13th and Granville, a nod to Rogen and Goldberg's favorite all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant in Vancouver.[8]Superbad took seven years to complete from early scripting in 2000 and filming from 2006 to 2007.[citation needed] Among the films that served as inspiration for Superbad were Dazed and Confused, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and American Graffiti.[7]
Other filming locations include the convenience store at the beginning of the film, also in Culver City,[12] the liquor store where "McLovin" gets IDed in Glendale, California,[13] and the bar where the cops take McLovin for a drink is neighboring Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).[14] The scene where McLovin and the cops do donuts in the cop car was filmed in a parking lot on the California State University, Northridge campus.
Mintz-Plasse was 17 at the time of filming Superbad, and as a result, his mother was required to be present on set during the filming of his sex scene.[15][16]
Superbad opened at number one at the United States box office, grossing US$33,052,411 in its opening weekend from 2,948 theaters for an average of US$11,212 per theater.[17] The film stayed at #1 the second week, grossing US$18,044,369.[17]
The film grossed US$121.5 million in the United States and Canada and US$48.4 million in other countries, for a total of US$169.9 million worldwide. Compared to the budget of $17.5–20 million, the film earned a huge financial profit,[3][4] making it the highest domestic grossing high school comedy at the time (it was surpassed by 21 Jump Street, a film also starring Hill, in 2012).[18]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on reviews from 207 critics, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's consensus reads: "Deftly balancing vulgarity and sincerity while placing its protagonists in excessive situations, Superbad is an authentic take on friendship and the overarching awkwardness of the high school experience."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 76/100 based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.[21]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called it 2007's most successful comedy.[22]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times had the headline of his review read "McLovin It", and gave the film 31⁄2 out of 4 stars, and said: "The movie reminded me a little of National Lampoon's Animal House, except that it's more mature, as all movies are."[23] Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times said: "Physically, Hill and Cera recall the classic comic duos—Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Aykroyd and Belushi. But they are contemporary kids, sophisticated and sensitive to nuance"; she added: "I hope it's not damning the movie with the wrong kind of praise to say that for a film so deliriously smutty, Superbad is supercute."[24] Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly said "2007: the year Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen saved movie comedy", a reference to Knocked Up which was released in June.[25] Devin Gordon of Newsweek said: "As a Revenge of the Nerds redux, Superbad isn't perfect. But it's super close."[26]
In a more critical vein, Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter, compared the film to other films with a single-day structure, such as American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused, but said that Superbad "doesn't have the smarts or the depths of those ensemble comedies."[27]The Hollywood Reporter review was referenced in the film's DVD audio commentary, particularly the review's suggestion that the two main characters have a homoerotic experience similar to the film Y Tu Mamá También.[28] Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel called the film a "super-derivative, super-raunchy sack of laughs" and a "great vulgarian send-off to the summer of Knocked Up" that plays like "Freaks and Geeks: Uncensored."[29] Moore concluded, "The energy flags as it overstays its welcome. The Apatow Rule, 'If it gets a laugh, don't cut it,' doesn't do movies under his banner any favors. Still, there are plenty of those laughs, from the ruder-than-rude opening to the ironic-sentimental ending."[29]Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe said the film "has a degree more sophistication than Revenge of the Nerds and American Pie, and less than the underrated House Party." Morris also said, "the few smart observations could have come from an episode of one of Apatow's TV shows" and "I wanted to find this as funny as audiences did."[30]
Accolades
The film was listed as #487 on Empire's 500 Greatest films of all time.[31]
Retrospectively since its release, it has garnered acclaim as one of the best comedies of the 2000s and as one of the best high school movies of all time. It has been hailed as one of the defining movies of the Millennial generation.[33][34]
Books
Two tie-in books to the film were published by Newmarket Press:
Superbad: The Illustrated Moviebook (ISBN9781557047984) was published on December 4, 2007, to coincide with the release of the film on DVD. This official companion book includes an introduction by producer Judd Apatow; the complete script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg; commentaries by Apatow, Rogen and Goldberg, and journalists from Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and Entertainment Weekly; 56 film stills; "Mr. Vagtastic Guide to Buying Porn;" and 24 "phallographic" drawings by David Goldberg that viewers will recognize from the film's end credits.
Superbad: The Drawings (ISBN9781557048080) was published on February 14, 2008. This gift hardcover art book contains 82 "phallographic" drawings created by David Goldberg (Evan Goldberg's brother) for the film.
