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Avg. Critic Score: 76 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 16+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

100

San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle
For pure laughs, for the experience of just sitting in a chair and breaking up every minute or so, Superbad is 2007's most successful comedy. Read full review
88

Rolling Stone | Peter Travers
It helps that the fun doesn't stop. It helps even more that the pitch-perfect script doesn't step out of character for a joke. Read full review
88

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
The movie is astonishingly foul-mouthed, but in a fluent, confident way where the point isn't the dirty words, but the flow and rhythm, and the deep, sad yearning they represent. Read full review
80

Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano
What with everyone so focused on the raunchiness, it comes as a complete surprise to find that Superbad is in fact a love story. Read full review
75

USA Today | Claudia Puig
Side-splitting laughter, along with some powerful cringing, are likely to be audiences' dominant reactions. Read full review
75

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
Superbad is cute if you like guys who aren't even remotely bad, in a coming-of-age tale so old-fashioned the girls might just as well be wearing bloomers. Read full review
70

The Hollywood Reporter |
Some of the patter is funny, but the movie lacks the clever plot developments and the character nuances of a classic like "American Graffiti." And it's missing the belly laughs of earlier raunchfests "American Pie" and "There's Something About Mary." Read full review
70

Washington Post | Ann Hornaday
Christopher Mintz-Plasse steals the movie in his screen debut as a nerd di tutti nerds, a kid whose fake I.D. reads "McLovin." Read full review
70

The New York Times | Manohla Dargis
Horny is as horny does in the sweetly absurd high school comedy Superbad. Read full review
70

Variety | Todd McCarthy
The bawdy jokes score big points, but it's the rueful acknowledgement of adolescent embarrassment and humiliation that most distinguishes Superbad, another ultra-raunchy and commercial sex comedy from the Judd Apatow laugh factory. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Superbad on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Super bawdy, super profane -- and super funny.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this high school comedy has been marketed squarely at teens (the wide online circulation of an R-rated "red band" trailer helped a lot). Heralded as an instant-classic teen comedy on the level of Dazed and Confused or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it seems destined to be a hit. But parents should know that, like many real teenagers, the characters are obsessed with losing their virginity and talking about sex. Sex and, to a lesser extent, booze fuel every conversation, with very graphic dialogue about genitalia, sex acts, and pornography. "F--k" (and many derivations thereof) is used almost nonstop, and there's also a lot of underage drinking and a scene of adults smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine. American Pie seems PG-rated by comparison.

Families can talk about what teens think of sex, how many of their friends they think are having sex, and what parents think of teens having sex. Do teens consider it a stigma to graduate from high school a virgin? This is a good opportunity for parents to answer teens' questions about sex, drinking, and the safe, responsible way to handle both. Parents may also want to put an over-the-top comedy like this in perspective. The movie's antics come at you fast and furiously, making some of the laughs mostly about the shock value. For example, do you think real cops would ever act like the two in the movie? What other movies and TV shows have a similar comedy style? Do you think there's danger here if a viewer doesn't understand the comedy on that level?

The good stuff

Positive messages: The underlying message could seem to be that scoring alcohol for a party will grant even the nerdiest kid "cool" status for a night. But by the end of the film, it's clear that the film's real point is that true best friends love each other unconditionally, not selfishly.

What to watch for

Violence: McLovin gets pistol-whipped in the head by a robber; a fight breaks out at a party, where a few of the men suffer bloody wounds; a hobo kicks, punches, and pounds on various people at a bar; Seth accidentally punches Jules in the eye. In a daydream, Seth envisions a security guard slashing his throat. A woman's menstrual blood ends up on Seth's pants, causing a fight.
Sex: Sex (and various sex acts), virginity, and pornography are discussed in graphic detail throughout the entire movie. The near-constant conversation about oral sex and genitalia is finally matched by two short scenes of drunk, semi-clothed teenagers about to have sex -- although neither couple finalizes the act. There's also a scene that displays many drawings of penises, supposedly done by an 8-year-old.
Language: The dialogue is filled with nearly ubiquitous curse words, primarily the "F-bomb" and its derivatives. There are probably two short conversations in the entire film that don't feature constant swearing; otherwise, they're the most commonly used words -- including "s--t," "dick," "p---y," "ass," "tits," "bitch," etc.
Consumerism: Old Milwaukee beer, plus other liquor brands that sound familiar but aren't real, probably because real alcohol companies didn't give permission to be used in a movie about underage drinking.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: The plot revolves around buying alcohol for a high school party, so there's obviously a great deal of underage drinking. Teens also smoke cigarettes and are present at a party where adults are smoking marijuana and snorting cocaine. The main drug, of course, is alcohol -- from vodka to beer.

Common Sense Media An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.