Knocked Up It’s a rare filmmaker who can not only make you constantly laugh out loud throughout the course of his work, but also make you sit back after you’ve finished it and go, “Damn, that was a GOOD movie.” Comedies by their very nature usually don’t carry the same weight as dramas, and the good ones are thus often dismissed as not being “good films.” With his last two features, writer/director Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) is obliterating this long-held belief. Although TV viewers failed to appreciate Apatow earlier in his career – Freaks And Geeks and Undeclared were both beloved by their loyal (read: miniscule) audiences, but ignored by the masses – he has fashioned a new career as the go-to guy for intelligently bawdy comedies that delicately conceal a more uplifting message. Knocked Up follows in the footsteps of The 40-Year-Old Virgin as a vulgarly entertaining laughfest that also makes a poignant statement about relationships and the personal growth that often comes along as a result. Ben (Seth Rogen, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) is a shiftless layabout who, along with his stoner friends, has come up with an idea for a website where not only will its customers be able to view their favorite actresses’ nude scenes on demand, but they’ll be able to tell how far into the movie they occur. Turns out no one ever told these guys about Mr. Skin. It seems unlikely that a loser like this would be able to land Alison (Katherine Heigl, Grey’s Anatomy), an impossibly beautiful PA for E! Entertainment Television who receives a promotion to on-air talent, but after a chance meeting at a club and lots and lots of alcohol later, the two retreat to her place to hook up. A mishap with a condom – they work better when they’re on your cock and not on the floor – leads to Alison getting pregnant and hilarity ensues. The film follows the twists and turns in Ben and Alison’s burgeoning relationship while simultaneously comparing it with the seemingly loveless marriage of Alison’s sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann, The Cable Guy) and her husband, Pete (Paul Rudd, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy). This is where one of the strengths of Knocked Up lies – in the characterization of its four principal characters. Each of the four has a distinct arc that allows us to see them move from one point to another in their lives throughout the course of the film. This is uncommon in today’s comedy world as there are too many Wild Hogs and Epic Movies where logic and intelligence take a vacation. Adding to the skillful characterization, there’s also a comfort level with the actors as (with the exception of Heigl) all worked with Apatow in the past. This results in great interplay and hilarious improvisation, particularly between Rogen and Rudd. I’m telling you – put those two onscreen for an hour and a half and just let ‘em go. Pure comedy gold. Although Rogen struggles somewhat in trying to carry his first film as a lead and nothing in the movie approaches the daringly inspired (and notorious) chest waxing scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, there’s still enough here to put Knocked Up ahead of 99% of the other comedies that Hollywood has been shitting out lately. You could do much, much worse than this.
Dirty Rating: 82/100
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