Starring Michael Cera (of Juno fame) and Jonah Hill
TMG Scale 7.0
TMG is really embarrassed to admit it, if not a bit shocked, but this totally juvenile if not slightly moronic film is really, really funny. Had the overly gratuitous graphic sexual humor been toned down a tad, the film would have had wider appeal and commercial success. Hollywood never realizes sexual humor can be very funny without three references to female sexual organs in the same sentence. The screenwriters failed to recognize that it is Michael Cera that makes this film work, not the pathetically overweight and over done banana character played by Jonah Hill. Two oversexed high school guys (sort of redundant terms I think) trying to get through senior year, get drunk and score with the hotties is the basis of this exploit.
This was not Fast Times at Ridgemont High and never will (or should) become a classic, nor did it capture the full spectrum of high school like Dazed and Confused, but I laughed and laughed and laughed. TMG realizes that young women have changed, but that guys of any generation are pretty much the same and will like this movie. Twenty something females we spoke with said they thought this film was “awesome.” However, TMG thinks their forty plus moms would find it borish, a bit offensive and more than a casual relation to why half of them divorced at least one man in their lives.
I am sure many a fourteen year old year old boy has sneaked in on this one in his buddy’s basement, but TMG suggests this film earned an R rating for very good cause (though I saw the uncut and unrated DVD version). Hip adult couples will gut laugh and spill beers over this one. Just don’t plan to watch this with your teens or you should be rightfully embarrassed, if not deservedly creeped out. TMG is no prude but two taboos remain in this world, parents hearing about their kids having sex and vice versa. The latter certainly will and should remain as the last frontier for anyone to have to ponder. But there is a place for overcooked films like this and since my last three films were either hostage or war films, I appreciated the laughter and cheap humor.
TMG cannot in his right mind give a film like this more than 7.0 rating, but this one deserves a 9.0 in its class—whatever that class, or lack thereof, may be.