Released in 2007, Superbad was a coming-of-age comedy that starred Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as three awkward high school students who want to lose their virginity before graduation. It fits in well with many movies from the past, and the final result was a higher quality movie in the National Lampoon stylings. With Judd Apatow as the producer, it comes as no surprise.
Apatow had his hands in everything from the groundbreaking TV show Freaks and Geeks to movies like Bridesmaids and Knocked Up. Compared to those movies, Superbad fits the format of Freaks and Geeks, as a film about kids who are just trying to figure things out in a world of crazy adults. Here is a look at some great comedies to watch if you loved Superbad.
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS (2008)
Seth Rogen has his hands in comedies of all sorts, but most of them include the same type of characters you found in Superbad. In his 2008 comedy Pineapple Express, the friends were grown up, but they were still out of place losers who weren’t sure their right from left. This was an action-comedy about two potheads (Rogen and James Franco) who go on the run from a corrupt police officer and hitmen after witnessing a murder.
EASY A (2010)
Easy A proves that you don’t have to be a guy to take the lead in a raunchy sex comedy. What makes Easy A even more interesting is that the lead character accused by classmates of being a slut was actually not guilty of anything she was accused of. However, Emma Stone’s Olive was so angry at the accusations that she played the role to show her classmates something they never expected to see.
BOOKSMART (2019)
The best part of Superbad isn’t all the raunchy and low-brow jokes; it is the sweetness and heart that the movie possesses. If you are looking for a great film with a ton of heart, seek out Booksmart, directed by Olivia Wilde. The movie is almost just like Superbad, a re-telling of the coming-of-age story, but with two high school girls instead of two guys. The film won Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.
KNOCKED UP (2007)
Before Seth Rogen was producing his own movies, he was part of Judd Apatow’s world of movies and TV shows. He took the lead in the 2007 comedy Knocked Up, along with ER actress Katherine Heigl. In the film, Rogen is a slacker who hooks up with a hot chick for a one-night stand, but when she ends up pregnant, the two have to come to terms with what this might mean and whether they can co-exist or not.
OLD SCHOOL (2003)
Before he created one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies of all-time with The Hangover, Todd Phillips directed the buddy comedy movie Old School. This film starred Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, and Vince Vaughn as three former college buddies suffering from a midlife crisis. They decide to start their own fraternity when Wilson’s Mitch moves into a house that was determined as part of the university, and soon it becomes the go-to party house on campus.
GOOD BOYS (2019)
Take the kids from Superbad, de-age them by about five years, and then put them in situations that not even the actors were allowed to see in theaters without parental supervision, and you have Good Boys. The film was produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the same men who wrote Superbad.
Good Boys is about three sixth grade boys who set out to attend a party with their popular classmates. The boys start to struggle, grow apart, and eventually reconnect. It is as close to Superbad as you can get if you want to see middle school kids discovering adult situations.
BLOCKERS (2018)
The entire premise of Superbad is seeing three high school seniors trying to lose their virginity before graduation. If you want to see a movie with girls trying to lose their virginity before graduating, from the perspective of the parents trying to stop it, look no further than Blockers.
Released in 2018, this is another movie produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and is just a slight twist on the premise. John Cena turns in one of his best post-WWE performances in films, joined by Leslie Mann and Ike Barinholtz.
THIS IS THE END (2013)
If you love the people behind movies like Superbad, a can’t miss comedy for fans is the 2013 film, This is the End. The great thing about this movie is that the actors all play heightened fictionalized versions of themselves, all attending a party when the world starts to come to an end.
Highlights include an obnoxious and arrogant Michael Cera meeting his grizzly demise, an angry and vindictive Danny McBride, and a gloriously over-the-top James Franco. The cameos alone make this movie worth watching for comedy movie fans.
DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)
The oldest movie on this list is the Richard Linklater 1993 classic Dazed and Confused. This film is a period piece taking place in the ’70s with high school kids preparing for a party on the last day of school. The seniors are on their way out, the incoming freshmen are on their way in, and Matthew McConaughey is the guy who could never leave high school behind.
The cast is a list of whos-who stars of the future, including Ben Affleck, Jason London, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Renee Zellweger, and Parker Posey.
THE 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN (2005)
Judd Apatow is not just a producer mastermind behind some of the best sex comedies of the last three decades, but he is also the director of some pretty amazing entries as well. In another twist on the theme of losing your virginity, Apatow left high school and headed to middle age with Steve Carell in The 40-Year Old Virgin.
The movie is what it claims to be, with Carell playing a toy hobbyist who has never had sex but sets out with his friends to try to lose his virginity. Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Banks, Kat Dennings, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann all appear in this film.
CAN’T HARDLY WAIT (1998)
Released in 1999, Can’t Hardly Wait is another high school graduation party movie. The movie stars a massive cast of the top young stars of that era with Ethan Embry as the main lead Preston Meyers. He decides that he will finally tell his long-time crush how he feels about her at the party, but things go wrong.
The crush is Jennifer Love Hewitt, and the rest of the main cast is filled out by high school weirdo Kenny (Seth Green) and the individualist friend of Preston, Denise (Lauren Ambrose). Jerry O’Connell also has a big uncredited cameo appearance.
WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001)
The original film for Wet Hot American Summer hit in 2001 with a cast that included many cast members of the MTV sketch comedy series The State. There is also a considerable amount of smaller roles for some huge actors that most people know, including Paul Rudd, Christopher Meloni, Molly Shannon, Elizabeth Banks, and Bradley Cooper in his movie debut.
This was a summer camp movie that focused mostly on the camp counselors and their interactions. Fourteen years later, Netflix brought the film back as an original series.
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999)
Over the years, Hollywood has adapted William Shakespear to the big screen in some very unique ways, with many films telling Shakespear’s stories in a very different light. Arguably, one of the best versions of his plays in a movie came in 1999 with 10 Things I Hate About You.
In this movie, Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in a re-telling of the Shakespear play The Taming of the Shrew. The re-telling comes in the form of a high school movie where the new kid in school tries to set up an ill-tempered girl with the high school bad boy to force her dad to let him date her sister.
HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010)
While Superbad is about three high school kids who want to lose their virginity, Hot Tub Tima Machine is about three depressed friends who wish they could go back to their high school days where things were much better in their lives. John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry star in the film.
The twist here is that they end up in a hot tub that sends them back in time, and all three have a chance to not only relive their teenage years but make changes to improve their future.
AMERICAN PIE (1999)
Superbad has three friends wanting to lose their virginity, but American Pie has an entire group fo friends trying to navigate the pitfalls of sexuality in their high school years. The movie has five best friends — all virgins save for one (Seann William Scott’s Stiffler) — who want to lose it before they graduate. The film was a massive success and featured three sequels.
