Superbad: the genders weigh in

For better or worse, most of Superbad seems to have formed from the rotting cesspool where God banished all the one-liners that weren't quite classy enough for The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Throw in but the barest touch of deeper meaning, and you have the recipe for an almost cookie-cutter incarnation of teenage angst saved from mediocrity by the power of the penis. And that, of course, is what makes it brilliant. It is hard to explain just why men of all colors, shapes, and sizes find the member so engrossing. We are all united in by bonds of sophomoric awkwardness and an unwavering devotion to decoding the secret of girls' pants. Put simply, the phallus is the universal symbol of that brotherhood... plus it's just really funny to look at. Superbad taps into this well with the story of two friends coming to terms with their coming of age. Michael Cera (Evan) and Jonah Hill (Seth) deliver riotous performances throughout the film, and yet their scenes might've been stolen from the editroom floor of '90s teen comedies were it not for the sheer volume of raunchiness. Part of the movie's strength comes from its ability to make its rather limited range of jokes an art form. However, it is not Cera and Hill that make the film really memorable. That honor belongs to one mononymed Hawaiian blood donor. For all the power of the peter, the movie's true saving grace goes by one name: McLovin. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays the nerd-king Fogell, who scores an elusive fake ID only to give himself a wildly unrealistic alter ego. He is quickly joined by Officers Slater and Michaels (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) and from this moment onward every single scene is a winner. McLovin typifies the hapless hero inside each and every guy. Often smart and always hilarious these scenes really help the film find definition in a genre that has become far too stale.