Title: Knocked Up
Genre: Comedy/Romance
Cast: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, …
Director: Judd Apatow
Release: (2007)
As a writer, director, producer and all-around brand, I like Judd Apatow. But as a bar alias, I love the guy. Seriously, who is higher on the list of celebrities with recognizable names and unrecognizable faces for pretending to be when trying to pick up socially ambitious women at a cheesy bar? No one, that’s who. The list, in order, consists of Apatow, Ben Folds, Mark Ecko, either of the Coen brothers, and any of the Beastie Boys. While there are several other good ones, many of which are accompanied by varying levels of risk and potential traps, I find these ones to provide the best combination of no-one-knows-what-they-look-like-ativeness and no-one-is-really-sure-how-old-they-are-itude. So, for all he’s given me that he will never know about, I like to try to support anything that Mr. Apatow does. Even if I did think that (brace yourselves, frat pledges) The 40 Year Old Virgin was sporadically funny, at best. (Go back and watch it sober at least once before you start flinging your poo at me, Stuff Magazine readers). And anytime he does something with the cast of the widely underappreciated Freaks and Geeks, which I suppose is actually just anytime he does something, I’m doubly in. And by “doubly”, I mean “several months late, after anyone cares anymore”.
Knocked Up is the patently implausible tale of a chubby, lazy, slacker/stoner’s one night-stand with a tall, gorgeous, blonde, national network entertainment news correspondent – and the resultant pregnancy, relationship, baby and happily-ever-after that come with it. Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl star as the unlikely, unlucky undulaters, but I’ll leave it up to you to guess who plays which role. You might be surprised! But probably not. In the whirlwind that follows, the characters learn a little about themselves and each other, learn to see what’s important in life, reassess their relationships with the people around them, figure out how to grow up a little without losing touch with who they are, and just generally learn how to find love in this crazy, imperfect world. Laugh, cry, giggle, sigh, wash, rinse and repeat. And, honestly, I’m really not trying to sound condescending about that in any way. I did actually find the whole movie to be pretty likable, but what else do you want me to say about the story? Do you really think there’s anything unexpected at all in the plot line that you couldn’t guess within a few minutes of seeing the trailer? The whole thing is basically constructed with a three scene rotation: Funny pot-talk scene → Fumbly, sweet romantic scene → Slightly contrived plot advancing scene → back to Funny pot-talk scene, loop continuously. That doesn’t mean there’s anything bad about it, it just is what it is.
As far as the slightly contrived plot advancing scenes, some are obviously more contrived than others. It just depends on the strength of your own ability to suspend disbelief about these kinds of things to determine how much any of them might bother you. Since mine sucks eggs, a few of them really freaking bothered me. Like for example: even more than the entire concept of Seth Rogen picking up Katherine Heigl within 5 minutes at a bar, even more than the idea that she would ditch her own sister for the chance to take him home, and even more than the chances that she would ultimately fall in love with him and want to build a family with a broke, pasty, chubby guy struggling to launch a soft-core porn website with his stoner buddies – the one thing I had more trouble getting over than anything else in the entire movie was that he actually got into that bar in the first place. Really? The one with the line of people waiting to get in stretched three-wide and a block deep behind that velvet rope? The one that the bouncer was only letting the hottest and richest VIPs into? The one that Katherine Heigl and Leslie Mann were rejected from at another point for not being young and hot enough? That bar. That bar is where Seth Rogen and his scruffy band of broke, stoner misfits were hanging out in their fading t-shirts and rumpled pants. That’s your story. That’s what happened. …come on!
But, like I said, that kind of thing probably wouldn’t bother everyone as much as it does me. As far as the acting goes, most of it was already done in the casting stage. Seth Rogen spends much of the film playing the exact same character he’s played in every role of his career up to this one, though, as an actor, he is imminently more talented and enjoyable in those few scenes where he stops trying too hard to be the pot-talk Jesus of college freshmen everywhere and just plays a real part. But the guy does know his audience, so I can’t fault him for that. As the bitchy princess and Rogen’s sleepy-eyed buddy, Leslie Mann and Jason Segal are also pretty much just asked to reprise previous roles from other projects. Even Kristen Wiig, in a bit part as the passive-aggressive, insecure E! Network executive, is just recycling her only signature character from Saturday Night Live (though, I have to admit, she is good at it). A handful of celebrities also make cameos, therefore literally just playing themselves, including the long-awaited reunion of one-time Freaks and Geeks “Most Likely to Succeed” cast member James Franco. My first thought was that, after their recent string of successful movie and TV projects, maybe Franco finally felt like Rogen, Apatow and Segal were cool enough to be seen with him again. But after the fifth reference to Spiderman 3 that I counted, I’m leaning more towards the idea that the whole thing was just a promotional gimmick, negotiated by studios and agents, for which Franco spent twenty minutes on set to fulfill and the others just tried to play off as a sarcastic, inside joke.
I hope that in the end, you don’t come away from this thinking that I am giving this movie a negative review. For the most part, I’m just trying to fill space with some thoughts and observations because I’m not sure what else there really is to say about this movie. I certainly appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this space, but there’s pretty much no need for anyone to ever read a review to try to decide if they want to see this movie. This movie is exactly what you think it is, and all you need to do is see a poster or hear the promotional tagline, “From the guy who brought you Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin …” to know instantaneously whether you’re going to love it and spend the next ten months quoting lines from it, or just not really get it. Trust yourself, you know the answer to this already.
Either way, just do yourself a favor and try not to think too much about that infuriating bar scenario. Or, if that doesn’t work, maybe just assume that they got in by telling the bouncer that Rogen was Judd Apatow and his buddies were the Beastie Boys. You’d be amazed how many doors that rap can open if you know how to sell it.
Grading
Story: C
Acting: C
Visuals: C
Originality/Innovation: C
Enjoyability: B+/A-
Overall: B
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