Knocked Up (2007)

Dave’s 3-Word Review:
Hilarious for some.

This film was selected from ‘The 250’

I may be a little late for this, but Happy Father’s Day! I thought a great idea for the holiday was to review a movie about parenthood – and you guessed it. Knocked Up was up to bat. Judd Apatow is a curious fellow. I’ve seen most of his work…which surprises me…because I’m not really the biggest fan of his. I think he does a fine job with a lot of his films, but they aren’t usually my thing. My bias against them effects my overall score, so if you’re wondering why I don’t love it as much as you – that is why. When you get right down to it, there ya go. Knocked Up is one of those movies.

Most know the plot of this movie, I mean it’s self-explanatory in the title, but let me expand on that. In the film, Seth Rogen plays Ben Stone, who of course is a loner and a stoner. He’s basically a loser with no real responsibility and spends his time making an adult website with his other stoner loner friends. On the other side of town, there is Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl). Alison is more or less the opposite – with a lucrative career in entertainment. When these two meet in a bar, they drunkenly sleep together and the next thing you know…sure enough…she’s pregnant. So a one-time casual hookup between an unlikely couple turns into a hilarious living and growing experience.

What’s so great about this movie is that it doesn’t take a lot of creative thought to make it work. It’s a comedy based on life itself, and an event hundreds and thousands of people go through every day – so it’s definitely a comedy people can connect with, after all – life is like a box of promiscuity. You never know what your gonna get. People have been experiencing happy miracles their whole lives, whether planned or not. I myself went through a non-typical pregnancy, so there were some things about this movie even I could connect with, but for the most part I didn’t care for it.

The comedy was based on a lot of crude humor and the reality of the situation. I myself have never cared so much for stoner or mainly sexual comedies, and this was both. The reason why I didn’t get overly bored was because I do enjoy a good-quality film that pays strict attention to how people actually react to things they are not ready for. I thought the film was very, very well done and smartly written in terms of realism and mirroring what other people go through all the time, but I actually didn’t laugh at all. My score may be high, but that’s my professional opinion – my personal would be much lower – in the 60’s percentile. However, I do see why people like it, even if I’m not a part of that circle.

Obviously, the movie also had a lot of famous names popping off, which I won’t list now. It’s always fun to see a lot of actors come together for a movie, but don’t get me wrong. That never impresses me or helps my score in any way, if anything – it risks the score getting lower. As far as writing goes, that tells me that they cared more about getting famous names to make an appearance than to tell a good story.

Also, this is more or less a coming of age story, which I never really care about – mainly – a coming of age tale about a manchild needing to learn a valuable lesson in order to become a respectable man. Let’s be honest, we’ve seen that in so…many…movies before that it’s ridiculous. However, I do have to say that their take on changing people for the better being because of parenthood – was a brilliant move. You see a lot of these types of movies, but I’ve never seen such an honest look at what can forcibly change somebody, which turns into a change that everyone can look forward to and respect.

The Good:

This is a very successful comedy for a lot of people in a very specific market – it’s realistic but also very funny at the same time. Complete with an astounding performance by an entire cast with great chemistry.

The Bad:

If you’re like me, you aren’t actually in that market. I would have personally given this a score in the ~60-64% “Skip It” range because as much respect as I have for a lot of the things it does, I really couldn’t care for it. I didn’t even laugh. So this is a very weird review for me.

The Random:

This movie was originally going to be a follow up to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, having Seth Rogen and team to reprise their roles as the Smart Tech team.