Knocked Up (2007)

Knocked Down--the Movie that wasn't, by Griz Bear

Now 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.