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Knocked Up
(directed by Judd Apatow)
Judd Apatow's movies are a bit schizophrenic; one minute they're making you laugh hysterically over a poop or pot joke, and the next your heart is melting from some adorable sentiment about relationships. An "eww" and then an "aww" reaction, then another "eww"? It can be awfully confusing for the average moviegoer. But, it's difficult to fault Apatow for making movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin or his newest, Knocked Up, which could seem all over the map, if they weren't so damn charming.
Knocked Up stars Seth Rogen (previously of Apatow's short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared) as the stoner lay-about Ben, who one night impregnates the adorable career woman Alison (Katherine Heigl) after picking her up in a night club. Despite the urging of her sister (played by Apatow's real life spouse, Leslie Mann) and her husband (the ever delightful Paul Rudd), Alison decides to keep the baby and embark on a real relationship with "the kind of guy she never goes for."
It's a real testament to a movie's ability to entertain that half way through you actually start thinking about seeing it a second time. The dialogue (particularly the banter between Ben's loser-ish housemates) and the situations (like Rogen and Rudd's brilliant visit to Cirque du Soleil tripping on mushrooms) have an amazingly loose, natural and improvisational feel, yet are instantly quotable. But as side-splitting as the one-liners are, the sentiments about growing up, committing, trying to communicate and appreciating the love of family are equally as genuine and heart-felt. Apatow may have only been trying to make a movie with lots of laughs, but in the process he's crafted a true classic.
Other new releases this week include Kevin Costner as a diabolical yuppie killer in Mr. Brooks, a documentary about a married couple who viciously fight and then fall head over heels, Crazy Love, the second installment in the Russian vampire trilogy Day Watch, and the soccer chick flick Gracie.
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Doesn't this Apatow guy's work strike anyone else as a stream of improbable, self indulgent fantasies?
Yeah right a freshly-minted E-reporter would go near the guy, let alone not abort the fetus immediately.
Wouldn't the 40-year old virgin have called a damn escort around year 25 or so?
The guy a break. His movies are fun and it's about escapism. If you're looking for realism, you're in the wrong country.
Killer Commentator, don't you know that gorgeous women love schlubby, aimless dudes in movies? Don't expect to see the reverse, though, unless it's the entire point of the movie (i.e. "Circle of Friends"). Sheesh.
It's a MOVIE, Wow, with the nitpicking already....radioactive spider bites don't give you super powers, etc...
Cut the guy some slack - he's funny and we all need funny in our lives. Must people rip apart everything?
Call me when the movie where the hot guy knocks up the schlubby girl and decides he wants to "embark on a real relationship" is showing.
Thank you, 10:42, thank you. Imagine the "nitpicking" with that plotline?
Ditto, 10:42. I also await the network premieres of "Handsome Dude and the Girl Geek," and "Average Josephine."
trust me when i say, the studio execs that greenlight this stuff all look pretty much just like the schlubby guy (with or without the few extra pounds). the guys that WRITE this stuff pretty much all look just like the schlubby guy. By the way, judd apatow is a schlubby guy and is married to the hot blonde that plays the sister of the hot blonde that gets knocked up. so hey, it CAN happen in real life. but only if the schlubby guy is a studio exec or a big writer/director... or an agent... or a producer... or a plastic surgeon... anyone that can do anything for the career of a hot blonde.
i guess judd should have kept the premise, but made the schlubby guy a rich director and the hot blnode an actress. that would have grounded it in reality.
all that being said... i saw it and laughed very hard but every now and then would say aloud, "the chronicles of narnia was more realistic than this!" and cause my friend to shoot root beer out her nose.