'Superbad' More Super Than Bad

Low-budget teen comedy rakes in $31.2M at box office despite R rating

(NEWSER) - Ribald teen romp "Superbad" triumphed at the box office this weekend, raking in $31.2 million despite an R rating and a modest budget under $20 million, reports Variety. It marks the seventh biggest opening for an R-rated comedy, edging out Judd Apatow's other summer hit, "Knocked Up," which opened in June and has earned $147 million to date. More»

Critics describe high-school comedy as aimless, 'listless'

(NEWSER) - Combine the talents of the creative team behind Superbad and Knocked Up with the considerable charms of actor Owen Wilson and what have you got? The "dispiritingly mediocre tweener comedy" Drillbit Taylor, writes Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle. He's far from alone in his assessment of the movie, about three dorky freshmen who hire a homeless Army deserter (Wilson) to protect them from a bully. More»

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones return for alien flick

(NEWSER) - Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones.

• The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times . While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory."

Michael Cera and original storytelling make this a winner

(NEWSER) - Critics generally love the inventive storytelling of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very modern romance that stars Michael Cera. It's based on a graphic novel, and it shows.

• Joe Neumaier, Daily News : "Plugged into some kind of mental electrical socket by director Edgar Wright, this is a romantic adventure for the ADD age, a pop poem for Millennials that could just as well be titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Old Ways of Storytelling."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com : It's "an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and hipster romance," tied together with "unconventional filmmaking techniques." It might be the norm in 10 years, but "for now it's almost revolutionary."

Jonah Hill and Russell Brand score with Apatow formula

(NEWSER) - Jonah Hill and Russell Brand keep the critics largely amused in Get Him to the Greek, another Judd Apatow-produced flick that has a nervous record exec (Hill) trying to get a troublesome rock star (Brand) from London to NYC to LA's Greek Theatre:

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle : "The golden age of comedy—this new golden age, which will only be apparent years from now, when it's over—continues with the release of Get Him to the Greek, which is so comically fertile and yet so grounded in the reality of its characters that it's really a kind of marvel."
• Andrew O'Hehir, Salon : "An awkward, intermittently hilarious and mostly enjoyable mishmash."