Reviews and More

Seth Rogan is one of the hottest names in comedy right now, with two of his most recent films, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin both grossing well over $100 million at the box office. Last summer, Rogan co-wrote, executive produced, and starred in Superbad, a teen comedy that ended up being another 9-figure smash hit to keep his string of successful endeavors intact.

I really wanted to see Superbad in theaters, but never got a chance, so I made sure to snag the DVD on its first day of release. Let me tell you, it was well worth it!

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Seth (played by Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera) are high school seniors who have been best friends ever since grade school. They are a couple weeks away from graduation, after which they’ll have to part ways to go off to different colleges, Evan to Dartmouth, Seth to someplace considerably less prestigious. Of course, like a lot of high school seniors, they don’t want to be virgins when they hit their college campus, so they’re going to do their best to get some action before they leave.

Things look promising when Seth gets invited to a party thrown by Jules (Emma Stone), a cute girl that he’s had a crush on all year. Seth assures Jules that he can bring alcohol for everyone — but that’s obviously going to be a problem since both he and Evan are underage. So it’s a good thing that their mutual friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) recently bought a fake ID. Seth and Evan convince Fogell to buy liquor for the party, and he agrees to test out his McLovin driver’s license for the first time.

While in the liquor store, however, McLovin gets punched out by an armed robber. As a result, he has to give a statement to the two cops, Officer Slater (Bill Hader) and Officer Michaels (Rogan) about what happened. The cops aren’t the sharpest guys around, so they buy the McLovin ID, and even offer to give Fogell a ride to his party after they’re finished. Seth and Evan see Fogell going off in the squad car, figure all is lost, and set out to find their liquor some other way.

The rest of the film then deals with the various (mis)adventures that these two groups of characters (Seth and Evan on the one hand; the cops and Fogell on the other) have as they all eventually make their way to the same party.

My Reaction: I have to admit that I was a bit worried that Superbad couldn’t possibly live up to all the hype it generated during its run in theaters, but that turned out to be a non-issue since this was one of the funniest teen comedies I’ve ever seen (and yes, that includes all the John Hughes stuff from the eighties). There were lots of big laughs in this movie, and it was very entertaining all the way around.

I thought Seth and Evan were very likable characters played by good actors. That obviously helped the movie a great deal, as those two were in a majority of the scenes. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera were believable as nerds, as best friends, and most of all, as regular high school kids who want what most guys that age want. Identifying with their motives was easy, as was rooting for them to succeed.

I didn’t like the cops/McLovin scenes as much as the ones involving Seth and Evan, but there were still some laughs in that plot as well. The movie on the whole was a bit long for my taste, but again, it was pretty entertaining throughout, so the nearly two-hour running time didn’t detract from the overall experience very much.

The bottom line here is that Superbad is about as good a comedy as you will find these days. I give the film 7.0 stars out of 10, and definitely recommend that you check it out!

I never got into Dawson’s Creek during its six-season run on the WB network beginning in 1998 because I’d had my fill of teen dramas at that point. Plus, I know that fan reaction to the show was all over the map, ranging from high praise to outright scorn, and I didn’t want to get caught up in yet another inconsistent series.

But one of my best friends absolutely swears by the show, and has offered to loan me all six seasons on DVD so that I can watch at my leisure. I haven’t taken her up on that offer yet, but with the writers’ strike still going on and an extended period of primetime reruns likely coming in the near future, I might watch a few eps of Dawson’s Creek to see what it’s all about.

I’ve seen bits and pieces of episodes over the years, just from flipping through channels and whatnot, so I know that Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams, and James Van Der Beek starred in Dawson’s Creek from the beginning. I also know that the series showcases some beautiful Wilmington NC real estate (where it was filmed on location), and is more or less a semi-autobiographical account of screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s high school years.

I don’t know… I guess it could be worthwhile to check out the series at some point — especially if my only other option is to catch reruns during the strike!

Grey’s Anatomy was back with a brand-new episode last night. It was actually part two of the episode that aired on Thanksgiving Day, so we just got the conclusions of those storylines. Looking back at my post about Part 1, I realized that I only gave you random thoughts instead of recapping the whole thing. I guess it wouldn’t make much sense to do a recap now, so I’ll just post my reactions to “Crash Into Me — Part 2″ here.

– The END of the George/Izzie coupling is in sight!!! I hated that George dismissed their lack of chemistry as the reason that things aren’t going to work out (blaming it on the timing instead), but whatever. At least they’re done! (I’m pretending I didn’t hear that they might try again later.)

– Seth Green was a guest star in this episode as well, but I barely saw him. That’s because every time his scenes came on, I had to stare up at my ceiling. Exploding carotid arteries and tons of gushing blood are just not my cup of tea… YUCK!!

– I’ve read a lot of negative fan reaction to Rose (the OR nurse who’s suddenly on Derek’s radar), but I don’t mind her. As long as Meredith and Derek aren’t a couple anymore, I don’t care who he decides to kiss.

– Kudos to Alex Karev for calling Ava/Rebecca out on her bullshit. That was long overdue, and much appreicated, IMO. Now if the character would just disappear altogether, I’d be a much, much happier viewer!

– I find that I’m not hating Lexie as violently as I did in the first couple of eps this season, but I would still prefer that she not join the core group at the house. I think it’s a little too soon for them all to suddenly be buddy-buddy, and besides, she’s still a bit too pathetic for my tastes (”I have no one.”)

– Wow, I didn’t like how Bailey purposely mutilated the supremacist’s swastika. I thought she was all about “rising above”? What happened there? Yeah, the guy was a poor excuse for a human being, but by mutilating his tattoo like that, Bailey pretty much sank to his level.

– Not at all interested in watching Bailey’s marriage fall apart. We never saw much of her home life in the first 3 years of the show, so why start now? Besides, didn’t we already have this storyline with the Chief and Adela last season? No need to rehash things so soon. I mean, what’s going to happen? Don’t tell me Bailey would move into the Grey house after the divorce!! That seems to be where most of the cast lives these days….

– Sloan, Callie, and Hahn seem like they would all be friends, so it was cool that they went out for drinks together. Hopefully at least one of them will get a substantial storyline soon, otherwise it’s just such a waste of good characters. Sloan gets my vote, because I’ve definitely grown to like him a lot over the past year and a half.

Well, that’s all I can think of, so I’m going to stop right there. I’ve heard that the next new GA episode won’t air until January, and after that, there won’t be anything until the writers’ strike gets resolved. We’ll have to wait and see how long that lasts, I guess.