There’s been a lot of hype surrounding this film. Judd Apatow, writer and director of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up and producer of such films as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, is among Hollywood’s hottest property at the moment. Likewise Seth Rogen is has become a household name in comedy. But i’m now going to say something shocking, and I make no apologies for it: I just don’t think these guys are that great. Their films are pretty funny, but they lack an edge, and frequently I can’t help feeling that the gag saturation is a cover up for a broader lack of comedic innovation. Nonetheless, My cynicism was somewhat softened by the interesting quirks that lay behind the movie. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the screenplay when they were just 13, with the intention of overturning the classic, and exagerrated, Hollywood high school dichotomy of the jocks and the nerds (I suggest visualising a creamy mixture of Napoleon Dynamite and Porky’s). It is with this personal prologue that I approached Superbad.

You can instantly tell that this is a film trying to show some truth in the relationships between the three protagonists. The writers even named two characters after themselves. Seth and Evan are two kids who are utterly dependent on each other and the film conveys this through a great deal of subtext, masterfully sidestepping the majority of opportunities for schmaltzy moments (barring the obligatory poignant final scenes). The duo come across as complete opposites, and there are plenty of funny moments revolving around their idiosyncrasies: Evan being the shy, intelligent and self-conscious boy who blends into the background, and Seth the foul-mouthed extrovert, but throughout the film we are aware of their deeper understanding of one another, and this is cemented well in the snippets of dialogues over their imminent moves from High School to (separate) universities. The character interaction is ably supplemented by their geeky third man Fogell – whose hilarious antics which play out when he is separated from Seth and Evan add a much needed second plot line to the film.

The story itself is a simple one. The guys finally get an invite to a graduation party, and when Seth and Evan learn that Fogell is getting hold of a fake ID they decide they can be the heroes by bringing the booze: little do they know that Fogell’s ID claims he is a Hawaiian called simply ‘McLovin’, or that getting the alcohol to the party will be far from easy. As the story lumbers somewhat clunkily through its zany antics Bill Hader and the master himself Seth Rogen put in admirable supporting performances as offbeat cops who become embroiled in the events of the night. I don’t want to give away too many of the best scenes, but suffice to say that these cops refuse to use their guns wisely, and ineptly blunder through a series of ridiculous incidents culminating in one of the funniest road accident scenes I have seen in a while… Though what that actually says about me or the film i’m not sure!

Superbad takes a while to get going. Too long is spent establishing the character dynamic between Seth and Evan, and making absolutely clear that this is not another regurgitation of the usual High School dynamic. When it finally did take off I was in stitches, and the score – primarily 70’s style funk mixed with some rap for the party scenes – fitted the action perfectly. But I still feel justified in saying that I’m no less convinced that fewer gags of better quality would make for a funnier film – but I won’t complain too much, there were plenty of laughs still to be had.