Superbad

Stars: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Aviva Farber, Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone

Director: Greg Mottola

American Pie meets Animal House in an uber-crass-out frat comedy that knocks spots off both those films in terms of language and graphic sexual references. It isn't for the suburbs, but will go down huge with late-night filmgoers, especially those armed (and warmed) with a six-pack or two.

Nerdy Evan (Cera) and fatboy Seth (Hill) are facing the end of their college days, and the last chance to make it with a girl. Like the film, they're obsessed with genitalia, mostly hoping for some hottie's lips below their waist. When some foxy girls ask them to supply liquor for an end-of-year party as the price for an invitation, it looks like their chance. But the night turns into a nightmare.

Fogell (Mintz-Plasse), a spotty friend sporting a fake adult ID, is their booze buyer, but he becomes a victim in a supermart robbery, and gets hauled off by a couple of comic cops (Rogen from Knocked Up and Hader).

Thanks to the movie's mega-abrasive sex talk, it may take you a while to warm to these characters, but there are some chuckles to be had towards what turns out to be a surprisingly touching and poignant ending.

Best sequence: when Seth, exceptionally well played by Hill, thinks, in a store, of various ways to get the liquor he needs - all of which, in his imagination, end in disaster. Despite the extreme dialogue, incidentally, the film is embarrassingly decorous about its own sex scenes: no one takes their underwear off here!

David Quinlan

USA 2007. UK Distributor: Sony (Columbia). Technicolor.
113 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 1, Swearing 3.

Review date: 09 Sep 2007