It’s the end of high school for Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera), and before they depart to different colleges, they want to get girls drunk and get laid. Their quest for sexual and inebriated gratification is given a new lease of life, when Seth’s new fling Jules has organized a house party-so it’s up to Seth and Evan to acquire alcohol so the party goes to plan for these swingers.

Seeing as Seth and Evan are under 21, they are not allowed to buy alcohol. Luckily for them though, their buddy Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) has managed to attain fake I.D, so he can be used to purchase the booze with the hopes of the I.D not being seen as fake. Fogell’s uses his license as a chance to change his name to McLovin, a name which Seth is highly dubious of, because in his words it’s a “dumb fairytale name”, and worse still it’s only a forename, making the I.D look even more suspicious. Thankfully the I.D was accepted, but that is far from the end of the adventure.

What commences is a wild comedy, with unplanned misadventures that make for quite an immature yet pleasing time. The bulk of the humour derives from awkward moments and the juvenile sex-pest like behaviour of Seth, which both hits and misses the mark throughout, but the strained friendship of Seth and Evan give something of substance to the whole shebang.

Seth isn’t happy that Evan is moving away to another college, a fact that channels a divide between the two throughout the film. Seth’s hot-headed temperament and Evan’s calm and friendly demeanour makes it more apparent that there’s a riff afoot.

One way this divide is expressed is through way Seth treats Jules and Evan treats Becca. While Seth is full of beans about having sex with Jules, when the two meet it appears Seth is a bit more insecure, as he thinks he’s actually not good enough for her. Evan meanwhile, maintains his kind and selfless personality, but he doesn’t seem as keen to be as adventurous in the bedroom as Becca. This insecurity mirrors an earlier part of the film where Evan is forced to sing a song to a bunch of coke-heads, who mistaken him for someone they know who can sing well.

What the relationships with these girls exposes within Seth and Evan is that they are insecure and wanting to please the opposite sex, which contradicts the crudeness shown behind the girls’ backs. This demonstrates that the reality of being in the presence of the girls reveals innermost feelings and character, whereas when they aren’t around they act like desperate moron nerd virgins.

Towards the end of the film after the hellacious party the night before, Jules and Becca are shopping for coverup thanks to Seth’s accidental headbutt on the way to passing out momentarily on the floor in a drunk state. Seth apologizes for the incident, then makes a joke about Jules look cool with a black eye, then feels bad again when Jules states that her and Becca are shopping for coverup.

This scene is quite pleasant, as it shows a caring side to Seth, but it is scattershot and rather momentary-because as soon as Jules and Seth walk off to go shopping, the credits roll. Seth is shown to care more towards the end of the film than he does for over three-quarters of it, making Seth’s character development seem rushed.

Throughout most of Superbad, Seth’s obsession with money, alcohol and sex throughout Superbad is gratuitous and distracting. Seth is of course a young man with raging hormones, but his vices create more unnecessary headaches for himself and Evan. For instance, Seth happens upon a blonde called Mary Hutchins off in the distance, who’s had breast reduction surgery, and he wants to race over to her and “catch a glimpse at those warlocks”.

This distraction means they missed the robber who came into the convenience store, smashed Fogell in the face with his fist, and made off with the registry cash, so they now think Fogell has been busted because of his fake I.D. This not only shows how Seth and Evan get easily distracted, but shows how little of a shit they give about Fogell. Furthermore, this confusion sends Seth into a madness because he thinks now that he can’t obtain the alcohol and can’t buy it either because they don’t have the money.

Your liking of Superbad may hinge on whether you can tolerate the repetitive sex-based jokes and Seth’s juvenile mentality. There are plenty of sexual innuendos and talk about what Seth wants to do with his lady fling, much of it is grotesque. It’s fatiguing to hear and see a barrage of puerile penis and ejaculation jokes with no filter and no accounting for limits. Then again, all Superbad devolves into is dick jokes and adolescent behaviour, especially from the cops played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader-turns out law and order can’t adjust this film’s attitude none.

On the flipside some of it rather amusing too. Seth telling Evan of his childhood obsession drawing male genitalia is something unexpected and quite artfully inspired. Turns out there are many drawings you can make out of a phallus and a pair of testicles, including an unpeeled banana, a bar chart with penises and cock bombs among others.

Two well-timed jokes in particular make a good splash. At the beginning when Seth is ogling at Evan’s mother’s tits, Seth states that Evan was “so lucky he got to suck on those tits when he was a baby.” Then, out of the blue Evan retorts with “yeah, well at least you got to suck on your dad’s dick.”

The second great comedic moment comes during Seth’s daydream. Seth imagines he’s shopping for alcohol to take to the party. Whilst perusing the drinks isle, he witnesses an old lady drop her purse, quickly scooping it off the floor and giving it back to her. Seth then offers to help the lady with the groceries, and then she exchanges by offering to buy Seth alcohol. Once they completed shopping together, Seth remarks “enjoy your remaining years,” with the old lady exclaiming “enjoy fucking Jules.”

It’s often the jokes with spontaneous suddenness that hit resoundingly in Superbad, but too often the film tangles itself up with these kinds of jokes that a lot of them don’t connect. If Superbad wasn’t so fixated on dirty jokes and brought about more subtle and understated humour, then it wouldn’t feel dried and hackneyed by the end of the film.

The supporting cast isn’t fleshed out much either. The cops want to turn their joyless job into a funny and memorable one we know that, but their ability to relate to the youth is underdeveloped. We don’t know how their antics went down with the police department, we never see any other officer, we just see both of them befriending Fogell and wrestling with the old hobo man.

Another side character, the goofy idiot Francis, who takes Seth and Evan to a party to get booze-is underutilized and unexplained. Francis comes onto the scene when he accidentally runs down Seth, claiming he didn’t see Seth at all. To prevent Seth from calling the cops, Francis offers to take Seth and Evan to an unrelated party, where they can grab the alcohol they need for the party they want to attend with Jules and Becca.

Francis might appear like a friendly guy, but he rubs everyone up the wrong way, and he’s a missed opportunity. Seth and Evan don’t like him because of his strange remarks like saying that Seth looks like Jimmy’s brother-a Jimmy we don’t know at all. In the car, Francis gets nosey by asking Seth who’s on the phone, then wanting a high-five when Seth talks about getting laid.

Francis’ annoying personality is to the film’s credit, as he’s got an air of mystery about him, but Superbad doesn’t capitalize on this. The fact we don’t get to know why he’s on the run from the law or why he has issues with Mark at the party, further shows why we should’ve got to know more of what was going on as a possible sub-story within the film. All we get is a fight between Francis and Mark and that’s it for Francis-he punches Mark in the face and as a consequence gets kicked in the balls-that’s all we get out of Francis for the rest of Superbad.

Superbad has many hit and miss moments it can be difficult to know exactly whether to like it or not. Seth and Evan’s misadventures are entertaining to see pan out, but the gratuitous sexual humour is too numerous and gross to watch. Superbad is like an even more juvenile American Pie-and that’s really saying something. However, if the misadventures and sophomore jokes are your thing it’s certainly a funny and memorable ride with many noteworthy quotes and moments. This doesn’t detract from the sense Superbad is a dirty comedy for mindless yucks, but sometimes you’ve gotta leave your brain at the concessions stand and have a good time.