Critique the Critic

I read a review of the movie superbad, the most recent movie i have seen in theaters. This review was written by James Berardinelli. I had never heard of this film reviewer before, but he really seemed to know about movies not just superbad which he was reviewing. Before he even explains any of the plot line or any of the characters, you can tell that he thought it was a good film. In the beginning he also compares the movie with other movies so you have an idea what its like.

What if Quentin Tarantino collaborated with John Hughes on a teen comedy? Superbad is a decent approximation of what the result might be. As with Borat, there are no sacred cows here. The movie, produced by Judd Apatow, written by Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg, and directed by Greg Mottola, pushes the genre's envelope a little farther than anything before it has done. It recalls American Pie but with less nudity (in fact, there's none to speak of) and dialogue that is more clever and more profane. The movie is frequently amusing and occasionally uproarious.

I liked the way he started out by giving us an idea of just what the whole movie was like, without even getting into what the story was about yet. I also liked how he started out comparing superbad to Borat and American Pie because it gives you another idea of what kind of movie it will be, although I would never have compared the movie to American Pie because it doesn't relate to the movie at all. Another thing that I didn't like was when he used the name John Hughes, because I have know idea who he is, and I think that he could of gave an example of a movie he directed or some description. Next he went on to give a short description of the main characters in the movie.

The protagonists are three stereotypical male high school seniors whose thoughts turn to sex once every 3.5 seconds. There's Evan (Michael Cera), who's close to an "average guy" - shy around girls but open with his friends. Seth (Jonah Hill) is overweight and pugnacious, and aware that his appearance doesn't make him a babe-magnet. Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is the uber-nerd whose social inadequacies and lack of emotional maturity allow him to think that the single moniker of "McLuvin" is a good name on a fake I.D.

I thought that he gave an alright description of the characters, but it was pretty brief. The description was good because it lets you know a little of what each character is like without telling you what actually happens in the movie, but there is more to the characters than that and I thought that he could have easily given a more detailed description without giving anything away. Throughout the review James Berardinelli makes you think that this is one of the best comedies there are, which I disagree with.

The prime requisite of any comedy - that it generate laughs - is amply met.

I like this movie and thought that it was funny, but wasn't that funny and sometimes predictable so i disagree with him there. He also said that the movie's trailers did not present the movie well enough. I disagree with that also, because the movie was exactly like I thought it would be after watching the trailers for it. In his review he hardly ever talks about any of they movies plot, even though that plot is not too complex I thought that he should have given some kind of summary.