Blu-Ray Review: Superbad

Seth Rogen is one of THE names in comedy right now, and with good reason. Producer, actor, writer, this guy is fast becoming the new Kevin Smith so it’s fitting that he will be starring in Smith’s upcoming Zack and Miri Make A Porno. The man who starred in Knocked Up and played a very supporting role in The 40 Year Old Virgin brings us Superbad, yet another of 2007’s super comedies that he both wrote and stars in (playing only a tiny second fiddle to the movies leads).

Superbad is one of those “rights of passage” teen comedies that have been around forever, but with everything turned up to eleven. Porky’s, American Pie both movie series that straddled the line between acceptability and gross-out for their time are completely blown away by this. Is that a bad thing? No, of course not!
Superbad is a total riot from start to finish, chronicling the story of main characters Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), two life-long friends soon to be separated by studying at different colleges. Throw in their even geekier friend Fogel (the superb Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and a desire to party and you’ve got yourself a movie.

The movie takes place over the course of one day, with the basic plot going thus: The boys get invited to certified hot girl Jules (Emma Stone) party that night, promising that they can score some booze. Enter Fogel with his fake ID in the name of McLovin who is charged with acquiring the booze for said party. Naturally, things don’t go according to plan, the liquor store is robbed and McLovin gets a punch in the face for his troubles.

From here things rapidly escalate, Seth is hit in the ass by a car, the driver takes them to a party where all hell breaks loose, while McLovin meets up with cops Michaels (Rogen) and Slater (Bill Hader) and goes for a ride-along.
The boys then have to overcome the evening’s events, get the booze to the party, and try to get some action.

Sounds like a pretty bog standard teen comedy? Think Again. What makes Superbad such a good movie is primarily Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s writing. Just like Kevin Smith, these guys can write characters that you love and hate at the same time, and the dialogue is straight out of a Clerks movie. These guys have the most disgusting, adolescent conversations, and you just know that thousands of horny teenagers are saying the exact same things. Booze and girls, that’s what this movie is about and it doesn’t care what you think.

Of course you can write the greatest work of all-time but it’s nothing without chemistry between the lead actors, and Michael Cera and Jonah Hill have that in spades. There is a very Dante/Randall sort of vibe between these two, and while Hill is the motormouth who drops the most disgusting lines, Cera often steals the show with a subtle put-down. I have to give special credit to Cera, he may be playing pretty much the exact same character as his own George Michael Bluth in Arrested Development, but if it ain’t broke…
There are so many fantastically twisted laugh out loud moments in this movie it is untrue. I challenge anyone not to be in absolute hysterics when Seth recounts his drawing story in the cafeteria.

Superbad doesn’t have some of the genuine heart that The 40 Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up had, but it does manage to have an almost sweet ending, despite all the dick and fart jokes.
One for older teens and the very young at heart.

Audio Visual
This is another high profile release for Blu-ray, and apart from the intentional grain on the 70s inspired title sequence this transfer is absolutely perfect. Your obligatory 1080p MPEG4 transfer is spot on, and the movie’s warm and sunny colour palette looks stunning. Individual detail is superb, just look at the bags of crisps in the convenience store near the start of the movie (I’m not kdding, pause the movie and you can actually read the “nutritional” information on the back of the pack) and the light dazzling in the characters eyes.
These bright details play off against a rather muted colour scheme for the main characters clothing, and don’t expect any kind of colour banding here, everything is right where it should be.

Switch the action from day to night and the story is the same, splashes of colour never spill over into the black. Black levels are absolutely rock solid with not a hint of grey in sight.
I tested the movie out on both my 1080p LCD Samsung TV and my Panasonic plasma just to double check, and of course the 1080p one looks better but it’s still a hundred times better than an upscaled DVD on the plasma. For such a basic comedy movie, Superbad looks phenomenal.

Dolby TrueHD and uncompressed PCM 5.1 are served up on the audio-front and both do a very capable job. Naturally this isn’t a huge event movie like Transformers or Spider-Man so the sound field isn’t alive but that doesn’t mean it sounds bad.
Dialogue levels are just right, and the funky soundtrack is nice and punchy, and that’s all you need.

Bonus Features
The bonus features on this Blu-ray edition of Superbad are identical to the 2 disc DVD edition, with many of them also being in HD. Unfortunately I can’t review all of the features, as my pre-release review copy of the movie was only disc one. But this is what disc one has to offer, and these are all in HD.

Commentary – The real-life Seth and Evan (Rogen and Goldberg) provide the commentary along with director Greg Mottola and the cast for a real knock around comedy. The guys pretty much take the piss out of each other for the entire duration. So don’t expect an in-depth technical commentary here, this is a ridiculous OTT comedy movie with a commentary to match.
Supermeter – More of a stupid gimmick, the Supermeter keeps a running total of the swear words and sex references.
Deleted & Extended Scenes – These are improvised scenes that were trimmed up, funny but cut from the movie with good reason
The Semen Conversation – An extended version of Rogen’s speech about the world “covered in jizz”.
Line-O-Rama – Improvised lines.
Gag Reel – A typical compilation of messed up lines.
Trailers – Walk Hard, Vantage Point, Resident Evil: Extinction, Life of Brian, Close Encounters.

Disc 2 is also packed with more of the same, a whole host of featurettes in both HD and SD as well as a making of. If I ever receive the disc, I’ll revise this review.

Summing Up
Superbad is an incredibly funny movie, a well written script drawn from personal experience of its writers, excellently acted and perfectly executed. Its sense of humour won’t be to everyone’s taste, but its target audience of teenagers and juvenile adults will lap it up.
This Blu-ray edition is the perfect combination of a great transfer, and some excellent special features. A lot of the extras are throwaway fluff but most of it is included here in HD, giving bonus points to Sony. Despite the fact I didn’t have the complete package, Superbad is an easy recommend, it looks absolutely fantastic and I laughed non-stop throughout. Buy it. Now.

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