Knocked Up

I decided I hadn't been to the theater in awhile and saw Knocked Up. I loved The 40 Year Old Virgin so much that I was anxious to see the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen team in action again.

Written and directed by Judd Apatow, the film is about a one night stand that ends up in an unwanted pregnancy. Katherine Heigl stars as Alison Scott, a young woman who works at E! and desires to be an on-air personality. She gets her wish and is out celebrating her recent promotion when she meets Ben Stone (Rogen). They have a wild, drunken night that ends in Ben spending the night at Alison's place. She realizes in the morning what a loser he is and cuts and runs. They had fun, but Alison is focused on her career and Ben is a perpetual stoner who's career goal consists of starting a pornographic website.


Fast forward 8 weeks later when Alison pukes while interviewing James Franco on the air. She realizes she's late and begins panicking. Alison discovers that she's pregnant and decides to tell Ben. They arrange to meet with Ben assuming she wants another piece of him. They decide they want to keep it and that they will try to get to know each other and see what happens.


The humour is kind of hit or miss. The film has some of the same humour from The 40 Year Old Virgin, but it doesn't work as well. There was an elderly couple sitting in my row and I wondered what they thought about all the jokes about balls and pot and being gay. The best comedy came from the relationship issues that arose between Alison and Ben, and also between Alison's sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband, Pete (Paul Rudd). The same sex bonding time between Alison and Debbie and Ben and Pete was also very funny. Ben's friends were also meant to bring comic relief, but there was five of them, which seemed too many and didn't allow the viewer to really connect with them as an ensemble, also the humour somehow seemed out of place. Although it was still funny at times.


I really liked it, but it didn't quite hit the bullseye the same way The 40 Year Old Virgin did. It was a very humorous look at the emotional rollercoaster that a couple shares when they are expecting a child and trying to get to know each other. The two couples were great. The group of Ben's friends did a good job with their characters,but it just didn't seem to work the way it was meant to. I chose two quotes, both from Pete, one humourous look at marriage and one more profound look at why he feels there are problems in his marriage. Enjoy....

Pete: Marriage is like a tense, unfunny version of Everybody Loves Raymond, only it doesn't last 22 minutes. It lasts forever.

Pete: Do you ever wonder how somebody could even like you? The biggest problem in our marriage is that she wants me around. And I can't even accept that? I don't think I can accept pure love.

More ramblings to come.....