Knocked Up (2007) - Movie Review
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In this comedy that is both a heartwarming story of a man and woman trying to find love where there is initially none and an edgy, dialogue-driven slap-you-in-the-face guys film (I can't quite bring myself to call it a "stoner" film), Seth Rogen, best known for his supporting role in The 40-Year Old Virgin, stars as Ben Stone, a man who has spent 10 years living off a $14,000 insurance paycheck. He lives in a rundown Los Angeles home with his loser friends, doesn't have a job, and spends most of his time getting high. Slightly overweight with curly hair and a consistent scruffiness, who knew that he could land the bed of sexy, up-and-coming E! Channel reporter Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl, of "Grey's Anatomy")? Regardless, he does, and eight weeks later he finds out that his misuse of a condom has led to a pregnancy. From two different worlds and hardly a right match, Ben and Alison decide to take a go at a relationship, but over the next seven months, they find that things are much harder than they could ever have expected.
Knocked Up works on so many levels, it is hard to believe. Ranking in at 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, I am not the only critic to say that this film, directed by Judd Apatow, the man responsible for The 40-Year Old Virgin and the critically popular but financially cool television shows "Undeclared" and "Freaks and Geeks", is a laugh-out-loud romantic comedy that breaks the gender barrier and also offers something fresh and "more real" than your fluffy piece of crap. As a guy, I found Knocked Up hilarious, as Apatow and Rogen seem to strike a chord by identifying every awkward moment that could happen in a 9-month relationship such as this and drilling into each one until the audience is falling off their seats. Knocked Up works because it takes advantage of real life situations and presents them in a funny way, and, of course, sprinkles some sharp dialogue throughout the film to piece everything together. Every actor works seamlessly with one another to create a consistently funny, entertaining and high quality film.
Some of the highlights are simple situations such as the girl meeting her boyfriend's odd friends for the first time (a little Asian girl with a speaking impediment is a highlight), Ben and Alison searching for the perfect gynecologist, two men taking jokes overboard at a nice restaurant, completing ignoring the fact that their women are getting heated with every new word, and more. Apatow and the cast know exactly how to tickle your funny bone, and they do it for over two hours.
In addition, besides being just funny, Knocked Up is a sincerely good movie. The characters are likable, the chemistry between Ben and Alison is believable and the romantic element, while not nearly as stereotypical as most romantic comedies, has you cheering for the two to remain together (and that includes you guys, too).
Knocked Up is one of the funniest films of 2007, and in reality is a much better film than The 40-Year Old Virgin. This is a movie that both sexes can and will enjoy, together or with a group of friends. Highly recommended.
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Anonymous says:
October 9, 2007Now that I have seen "Knocked Up" on DVD, I still have to say the still photo of Ben and Allison sitting in the doctor's office was the funniest part of the movie, because, for my tastes, the film relies way too much for its humor on completely unfunny crude sexuality and vulgar language and sex jokes--ha! ha! Not that some of the humor didn't work--the "knocked up" couple's interviews with gynecologists were quite funny. Ben (Seth Rogen) is a very likeable and very well-acted character, and it's too bad his admirable qualities often get lost in a whirling cesspool of crude sex jokes and dialogue in which every third word is the F-word, Now I have nothing against the F-word in very small doses--it comes in handy sometimes, but a constant barrage of it is annoying and, in the end, numbing. It's really too bad the movie is a cesspool, because it actually has a serious story line that explores some valid issues concerning relationships. Really, the movie cannot decide what it wants to be--a serious comedy or a typical gross-out flick that panders to the lowest common denominator (like the "spring break" flicks that periodically come up the sewer line and bubble up through backed up toilets into our movie theaters). Ben's shiftless buddies are an all too familiar type that I had more than my fill of in college, before I decided to grow up. It's not that they're bad characters--and they are well acted--it's how they are played up in the movie (for laughs, only I am not laughing, I am cringing). A better decision for the film-makers would be to show them as they are, but have them serve as foils for Ben, who, despite all appearances, is at heart not really like them--when he "knocks up" Allison (Katherine Heigl) a sweeter, more responsible, caring side of him emerges and we see him struggle and finally mature. Actually, I think the real Ben is the man who actually WANTS to go shopping for baby clothes with Allison, not the Ben who makes crude jokes. Ben's buddies, if the movie had been done right, could have served as a kind of foil for the maturing of Ben's character. Another strength of the movie was the the well-acted and poignant troubled relationship of the married couple, Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), and how that played off the relationship between Allison and Ben. And I have to give the movie-makers lots of credit for a birth scene that was MUCH more realistic than the typical Hollywood birth scenes which most often make me want to puke for the ignorance they typically show about childbirth in the real world. So I will conclude by saying that this movie was basically over-rated by the brain-dead movies cirtics, who somehow missed its glaring faults. Male crudeness and sexual stupidity does not even have to be annoying if handled right--I found "Sideways" to be hilarious and a far better film. "Knocked Up" could also have been a very good movie, but it was drowned in a torrent of sewer water. All I can say is that this is a better movie than "40 Year-Old Virgin" which isn't saying much since "40 Year-Old Virgin" is one of the very worst movies I have ever seen. Too bad the film-makers and script writer wasted some very good acting and a potentially very good story with some good human insights by allowing for an excess of annoying crudeness and vulgarity in the failed attempt to play for laughs. Next time hire a good editor!
Cheerio, mates!
Grade: C-
One star (*) out of four.
Anonymous says:
June 1, 2007I just went to the screening of this movie. I thought it was quite funny at times, but other times i was not so impressed. I think it needed something more but i dont know what. But if you're in a funny perverted mood it would be alright to watch. Although, there were a few images i could have lived without.
Anonymous says:
June 1, 2007I have not yet seen this movie, but it already has two strikes against it (three strikes and yer out), since it has some of the same actors and the same director of "The Forty Year-Old Virgin" (see my review of this movie on this Web site) which was my own personal choice for Dog of the Year in 2006--I simply could not abide a reprise of my college days when everything my college buddies said about women and how to get them could not have been more wrong and watching a bunch of dorks who failed to reach maturity give bad advice about women and sex I have already heard and found to be wanting). In other words, this flick will need to go a helluva long way to win me over. Perhaps it might (I'll wait for the DVD), and I might give it a chance unless I get advance notice that I can expect more of the same (like someone saying, "If you liked The Forty Year-Old Virgin, you'll love Knocked Up!") I did read a rave review of the movie in my local newspaper, but I usually ignore the brain-dead movie critics, except whn they're right. However, the still from the movie was hilarious, showing the hysterically mismatched Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen sitting stiffly in a doctor's office beneath a picture showing the developmental stages of a fetus. Maybe the still is the funniest moment in the movie, but, on the basis of just that one picture, I will give it one more shot at my fast ball, but if it swings and misses, well, three strikes and the movie just might make my Dog of the Year list joining losers such as "Closer"--and "Forty Year-Old Virgin."
Anonymous says:
May 25, 2007I loved 40 Year Old Virgin. And this looks really cute. Can't wait.
Donna A.