Director: Greg Mottola
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.0
A trio of dweebs (Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and the scene-stealing Jonah Hill) come to the teenage conclusion that girls sleep with you only when they're drunk (not exactly the worst idea, to be fair) and go on a voyage for booze and redemption. Too limited to explore the range of teenage-dom that Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe did with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, too clear-headed for Linklater's Dazed and Confused and not quite sarcastic enough to be Clueless, it's more or less American Pie coming at you from a different angle - hell, the most original thing about it is the fact that the two main heroes (Cera and Hill) fail to lose their virginity, ending up literally with each other under sleeping bags (their post-'coital' discussion the morning after is precisely the kind of wit the previous scenes could have used). A lot of the crude jokes and f-bombs do work, but some gags are milked too long (and the outlandish stuff with the cops gets tiring) and it's a lot like a dumbed-down/sleazed-up Freaks and Geeks movie. Oh, and only in the World of Judd Apatow can guys that look like Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill get girls that look like Katherine Heigl and Emma Stone. I say the man's a dreamer, and I'm not the only one ... so here's to dreamers!
