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Monday, May 28, 2007

Review: Knocked Up

Judd Apatow should win an Oscar.

No, wait, something better than an Oscar. Give him something bigger. He deserves something more. Pulitzer, MacArthur Genius, Nobel Prize, whatever. The man has earned it.

He deserves it for his television shows, for The 40 Year-Old Virgin, and now, and especially, for his new film Knocked Up, a film which bravely tackles the challenges of being a comedy about unwanted pregnancy, and being over two hours long. Both of those challenges end up being nothing that Apatow and his crew can't handle.

The premise here is that Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), a sub-par Mr. Skin wannabe (one who's also never heard of Mr. Skin), who spends his days looking for actress' tit shots in films, goes out one night and meets Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl), a girl who's just beginning to move up in her television career. It's a meeting of a stoner-slacker going nowhere and a woman who's beginning to see a very bright future for herself. But of course, the movie is called Knocked Up for a reason, and that's because Ben and Allison hook up one night, and don't see each other again until Allison calls Ben up to let him know the news. This is all in the trailers for the film, and all of it is played hilariously, but the moments after that (and by that, I mean the last two-thirds of the film), are what turn this into one of the very best comedies in recent memory.

I hardly want to address any of the comedy in this review, because to even allude to it would dampen some of the jokes, and that would be a shame. But suffice it to say, this film breezes by on its comedic strokes. It's a masterwork in keeping the funny flowing, and you don't feel a minute of its run-time sag at all. Part of this comes from the rapid-fire jokes, always on display, always absolutely hilarious; but a bigger part is that the film has a huge investment in its story, and the payoff for that is what makes this film an instant classic.

As far as I can tell, this is the best film I've seen about pregnancy, let alone an unwanted one. The tone that this film establishes isn't right, it shouldn't be this fun to watch people honestly deal with the life-changing ramifications that pregnancy holds, especially for people in their mid-20s trying to establish careers. It should be a rather melancholic film, and if not, then it should probably make the issue as lite as possible. But Knocked Up doesn't. It fairly honestly shows these people making extremely important decisions about this extraordinarily difficult time in their lives, and it still maintains its hilarity.

It's an absolutely incredible achievement, and credit needs to be given to the cast. Rogen and Heigl are incredible here, that much is clear, with Rogen playing his comedy pitch-perfectly to Heigl's relative normalcy. It's in her that the emotional honesty of the film is carried, and she succeeds at that job while being a comedic force herself in the film.

But two actors don't make a film, and thankfully, the supporting cast here delivers in a phenomenal way. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are the perfect suburbanite couple and their interactions work wonderfully as an image for Allison to strive for in her life, but the two of them maintain a hysterically passive-aggressive attitude towards each other.

Ben's roommates might just be the thing that makes this film work so well. Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, and Jason Segel are just comedy machines that don't stop until the last uproarious segment of the film (a segment where I found myself unable to breathe I was laughing so hard, something that I can't remember happening all too recently). It's an incredible ensemble, and for every second that they play as hilariously goofball people, they play as mostly honest characters, pathetic as they may be.

All in all, this film is a powerhouse of a comedy. In an age where it seems that films are getting too long and bloated, it seems strange and almost appropriate that a comedy would come along and be the film that shows you how two-plus hours can breeze by in a theatre. Thank god it did.

9/10

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Labels: Knocked Up, Reviews

Continue reading Review: Knocked Up

Posted by Shane Yaroch @ 9:17 PM :: (0) comments

Thursday, February 01, 2007

"Was your vagina drunk?!"

Update: Head over to Yahoo! Movies for the official North American trailer and Empire Online for the Quicktime version of the international trailer.

The international trailer for Judd Apatow's Knocked Up has appeared on YouTube. Watch your speaker volume, worker bees, as a few f-bombs accompany the bits of Rogen-esque hilarity seen in this short but sweet trailer.

Source: AICN, YouTube, Yahoo!, Empire Online

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Labels: Knocked Up, Trailer

Continue reading "Was your vagina drunk?!"

Posted by George Merchan @ 5:00 PM :: (0) comments

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Seth Rogen's Seed Spreads

Following up on the brilliant simplicity in design of The 40 Year-Old Virgin's one sheet, Ain't It Cool brings us one of the new Knocked Up sheets above. And Seth Rogen's look says more than a million floating heads ever could.

Here's a quick look at two other designs. The one with Katherine Heigl is great too since, again, so much is told in one shot. For a bigger look at the one sheets, head over to Ain't It Cool by clicking any one of these pics.