Eisenberg is rejected for Apex here. — Bill Simmons
Stewart is rejected for Apex here; her peak is located around later Twilight films, distinct from her later fashion and independent-film reputation. — Juliet Litman
The soundtrack has aged well, with praise for the Replacements’ Bastards of Young, Bowie’s Modern Love, the Rolling Stones’ Tops, Hüsker Dü’s Don’t Want to Know If You Are Lonely, Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over, the Cure’s Just Like Heaven and INXS’s Don’t Change. — Bill Simmons
The amount of Lou Reed and Velvet Underground music divides opinion, with another listener enjoying the repeated Pale Blue Eyes. — Bill Simmons
Repeated Rock Me Amadeus is praised as a running joke that makes the characters hate the park’s music. — Bill Simmons
Continuing to call her Lisa P after other Lisas have apparently disappeared is an appealingly familiar naming habit. — Bill Simmons
Lisa P’s unmediated local celebrity and slow-motion entrance remain appealing, as does the recurring erection joke. — Bill Simmons
Mixtapes have aged well because their handwritten selections and fixed sequencing required more thought and effort than an editable playlist. — Bill Simmons
The stepmother’s use as a partial villain and her period haircut are praised. — Bill Simmons
Joel’s resigned line that worse things have happened to Jewish people is praised as an effective throwaway joke. — Bill Simmons
The satire of liberal-arts graduates and Em questioning why travel writing requires journalism school have aged well. — Juliet Litman
The carnival is an unusually effective central setting, compared with Big’s partial use, the Knoxville park film and The Way Way Back’s water park. — Bill Simmons
James’s first day is nominated, particularly learning that the giant-panda game is unwinnable and that some targets are glued in place.
The first-day tour exposes rigged games and absurd park rules, with Joel’s jaded guidance setting the tone and puncturing James’s innocence. — Bill Simmons
Em’s party is nominated for the recurring erection joke. — Bill Simmons
The remodeled house convincingly communicates the stepmother’s influence. — Bill Simmons
James and Em’s drink with the lounge singer performing Hot Blooded is nominated, especially the singer pointing out his nephew during a solo. — Bill Simmons
The Lisa P date is nominated because Frigo interrupts and tries to extract favors after discovering James was telling the truth. — Bill Simmons
The pot-cookie sequence through bumper cars, the Cure and Hader’s baseball-bat intervention is nominated for its escalating comic chaos. — Bill Simmons
James and Joel’s hillside conversation about Melville’s obscurity is nominated, showing that Joel can match James’s literary interests. — Bill Simmons
The final rain conversation is important for its observations about perception and facing people one has hurt, although it is explicitly not offered as most rewatchable. — Bill Simmons
The first Razzmatazz ensemble scene and Lisa P’s dancing are another scene candidate. — Juliet Litman
The pot-cookie-to-baseball-bat sequence receives two explicit final scene choices; the Adventureland tour receives one.
Title sequence and 1976 funk song; 70s funk soundtrack; the title; DTF; drunk-women theme; Slater and Michaels; Seth's lines; Cera's performance; McLovin's store terror; slow-motion catch trope; homeless guy
The opening title sequence uses Too Hot to Stop, a real 1976 funk song that was licensed rather than written for the movie.
The mostly 70s funk and disco soundtrack and title reflect 90s kids trying to be 70s cool in a 2007 movie; confusing if you think hard, and the stars were often asked what super bad means. — Sean Fennessey
"One Crazy Night" would not have the same feel; one theory is kids who played the Pulp Fiction soundtrack a lot, and the shirt he wears suggests a setting around 2001. — Chris Ryan
Rogen tweeted on the 10th anniversary that the movie invented DTF; Jersey Shore people said they got it from the movie and the Situation trademarked it on shirts. — Bill Simmons
The theme that you should not take advantage of drunk women was ahead of its time in 2007, unlike 70s and 80s comedies with Animal House the worst offender; the guys are horny but have a decent moral compass. — Bill Simmons
Rogen and Hader are in their own buddy-cop movie that intersects this one; a Slater and Michaels show or where-are-they-now movie would be watched and crowdfunded. — Bill Simmons
Seth's lines, including anti-poon, the back located on his cock, cargo shorts, who directs his porn and the lube line, are part of his 20 great lines. — Bill Simmons
A request to let others say some lines, followed by the police car running red lights, doing donuts and shooting it while on fire.
Officer Michaels on having a gun: like having two cocks if one of them could kill someone.
Cera's line about conversing with adults and a man who climbed five mountains cuts to Jonah chugging. — Chris Ryan
Who won between Jonah and Michael is interesting; Cera redefines his one-pitch persona with perfect, singular line readings and facial expressions. — Sean Fennessey
The movie nails McLovin's fear in the store, with the camera zooming in on his abject terror. — Sean Fennessey
Added late: the slow-motion leap to catch something soaring through the air, like the Risky Business egg, with the Goldschlager bottle here.
Also added late: the homeless guy attacking McLovin behind the restaurant and later recognizing him on the bus as McMuffin.
Watching with subtitles reveals a line in the bar as they arrive: someone yelling at the bartender to get these nuts out of their shells. — Sean Fennessey
The first 32 minutes are called unassailable: everything during the day is rewatchable until they get in the car with the guy who hits Jonah Hill and the movie shifts to night. — Bill Simmons
The opening phone call is smart and well crafted; Michael finishes the call five feet away before getting in the car, classic best-friend stuff from the call-only era before texting. — Bill Simmons
The Vagtastic Voyage debuts here, with a co-host joked to be its patient-zero, platinum-club subscriber.
Planning which porn site to subscribe to once he gets to college, including the line about who directs the porn he watches, is singled out as funny. — Chris Ryan
The mom cameo and the tits/teeth exchange are called very high-schooly. — Bill Simmons
A favorite comedy mode, traced to Chevy Chase, is someone doing something inappropriate behind a person who does not know; Jonah's home ec monologue about never needing to make tiramisu is the example.
The dick-drawings confession goes all in; Evan Goldberg's brother drew hundreds of them, and the Ghostbusters lunchbox treasure chest is a classic.
The driver's license scene unleashing McLovin is so funny; it was also the screen-test scene on YouTube, and Jonah's anger ("between that and Muhammad") makes it.
A Ringer piece says Jonah was mad at Mintz-Plasse, who did not care and stepped on his lines.
Seth telling Evan he got invited to the party has the most great Jonah Hill lines in two minutes: calm down Greg it's soccer, iron chef of pounding vag, Seth's own dressing, DTF.
Worked-up Jonah is compared to Chris Farley's energy; he could have done 20 more years of it and does some in Funny People. — Bill Simmons
The whole liquor store sequence could go in; the Seth dream sequence buying vodka is proposed, and at the party Seth coins the verb "perioded." — Bill Simmons
A favorite Hader scene is his bar explanation of his marriage and group sex on the wedding night, guessed to be ad-libbed; McLovin getting cockblocked by the cops, the cops generally, and the ending are also praised. — Bill Simmons
The Coke party with Kevin Corrigan's brother-from-Scottsdale speech is called the most rewatchable scene, better than Boogie Nights, with Cera singing These Eyes compared to Damian Lillard in a fourth quarter. — Chris Ryan
After an invitation to Sean, the dream sequence is chosen for Jonah's line readings such as "That would be lovely."
The stretch of McLovin buying booze, the robbery, Michaels and Slater interviewing Mindy and McLovin, the Seth-Evan lube fight and Joe Lo Truglio hitting Seth is called a favorite 15-minute stint. — Sean Fennessey
The following party scene captures the high school feeling of being somewhere with older kids where you are not supposed to be.
Agreement on the 15-minute stretch, adding the breast-reduction and "warlocks" riff and the plan to go down on her for several hours. — Bill Simmons
