Cube23 wrote:EminemBase wrote:^ I agree about 'Transformers' but not Superbad.
That's instantly one of the best comedies of all time. It's easy to look at it from an outside eye with a bunch of preconceptions as if it's just another silly teen comedy.
It's fucking superb. So many subtle moments interwoven throughout. It's up there with the Python movies for me now in terms of laugh out loud consistency. It's fantastic. It might have a stupid backdrop / theme but it's still a masterclass in comedy.
I have to disagree there on Superbad. It was just a bunch of punchlines thrown into a dialogue. I'd pay money to see teenagers who actually talked like that and delivered punchlines that much. I thought that it was the most overrated comedie I've ever seen until I saw The Hangover.
A fantastic comedy for me is something that has just perfect timing on the moments or the dialogue is what makes it funny, as it's not forced to be funny with punchlines. A perfect comedy for me is Anchorman, Tommy Boy, The Holy Grail, Caddyshack, etc.
I agree about The Hangover, that's a sack of shit. Cheap knock-off of
Superbad.
However, Superbad wasn't forced punchlines at all. It was very naturalistic behaviour in respects to teenage boys, I know because I am one and was that age once. Despite the fact they're American and I'm British, they encapsulated everything about that age (and that
specific generation) so naturalistically and hilariously that it resonated. And I'm not one to be easily impressed, I don't think I'm over-rating it at all. My idea of true comedy realism is The Office (original).
But I've seen a lot of middle aged or slightly older people not rate Superbad. To be honest, I think it's because it's a generational movie. In much the same way that... Older people just couldn't get Fight Club - Not that I'm putting them on a par or comparing the actual material or its execution, totally different films - But point is it captured an era and encapsulated everything it entailed.
And unless you were young and vibrant or... Active in that piece of history, it'll just seem irrelevant and perhaps even silly to you. But irrespective of the generational aspects,
Superbad wasn't forced at all. It was an exercise in cringe comedy. Much like The Office, it's full of people who think they're funny but aren't. So the humour is coming from them making idiots of themselves, crashing and burning over a bad joke etc. Not the actual lines they do say.
That's the irony I feel a lot don't appreciate. Much like a lot of people called the original The Office boring and dull. Well, sue, if you're waiting for zany situations and wacky punchlines it may seem so. But if you watch it through the proper context; A naturalistic 'mockumentary' mimicking real human behaviour and everything that embodies. It's absolutely hilarious.
Then all that aside, you have the actual comedy timing and writing itself. Which is sublime in Superbad. And I don't say that often, I'm a brit and I've grown up on British comedy. For a long time I loathed US comedy and thought it was cheap and flimsy. But Superbad is a masterclass.
PS. Anchorman is a CLASSIC but they Python's big trio still remain unrivalled.
