First, this movie is mostly fantastic, though slow in a few places, but will be a classic. If you don't want to read on, at least take that away and go see it.

Now, for a bit more depth...

The director/producers understand guys. They may not understand girls that well, but they understand guys. This movie was painfully funny in places because I knew those guys in highschool, I was those guys sometimes in highschool. Just like 40 year old virgin and knocked up, beneath the "filth" is truth about how not everyone is cool, not everyone can just have the world open up to them, how people can "miss the boat" in various stages of life, and yet how you can still try to work it out somehow and make the best of it.

Superbad is basically a more realistic take on the "weird science" model, and I had a good time with it.

And while yes, this movie could have been PG-13 without the over the top vulgarity, it was fine as a vulgar R because that IS how a lot of kids talk and act. Not all kids, no, but a lot of kids do, so why not just show THAT guy? Didn't you know THAT guy in school? I did. Seth (the character) is THAT guy. Evan wasn't really comfortable with the language, nor was McLovin, but they hang with Seth, so that's life. Should we not make a movie about THAT guy because he's vulgar? That's censoring life. Seth doesn't kill anyone, or intentionally hurt anybody. He doesn't glorify violence. So what's so bad about it? That he's a stupid kid with a potty mouth? Horror!

I think people who are offended by the reality of how some 18 year old loser behaves need a reality check themselves. Seth's behavior was psychological- obvious COMPENSATION for a life he never experienced. His reaction to his fear of girls and the unknown future was through swearing and pornography, because he didn't have any real life experience to go on. I mean, on more than one occasion, when presented with the reality of the things Seth talks about, he himself freaks out and nearly pukes. That's why it rung true, real, to me. It wasn't as gratuitous as the critics make it out to be. Seth was a real person. A real, really vulgar person.

But he "learns" a lot about life in 24 hours, and learns his lesson at the end, that girls worth dating may not really be into that sort of thing, and to just chill out. Unlike American Pie, these kids grow up versus just "gettin' some" and it rings a heck of a lot truer.

And of course, there's totally room for Superbad 2, where Seth visits McLovin and Evan for a weekend in college... ;)