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</script></div>{/googleAds}Anyone with a pulse knows that when Judd Apatow, the creator of short-lived, small screen favorites Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared, took a stab at writing and directing his first full-length feature film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the result was an outrageously filthy and hysterical blockbuster. But with baby #1 screaming comedic classic right out the gate, the pressure was on for Apatow's sophomore directorial-brainchild, Knocked Up, to repeat at least a portion of Virgin's explosive success. So, does this hormonal roller coaster that carries one couple from beer goggles to baby bottles, actually deliver another perfect blend of Freaks, Undeclared and Virgin alums, hilarious improv raunch and smartly scripted romance? Let's just say that sometimes, lightning does strike twice.
Meet Alison (Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl): a smart, beautiful woman whose recent promotion to on-air personality at the E! Entertainment News Channel is about to open a world of possibilities for the career-driven twenty-something. Saving money by living in her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and brother-in-law, Pete's (Paul Rudd) luxury guest house, Alison's plan is working out perfectly. But when she and Debbie head out for a night of hard-core celebration and she crosses paths with Ben (Seth Rogan), her life, well, takes an unexpected detour.
Polar opposites, Ben is the quintessential slacker, whose life consists of smoking weed through gas masks, hosting gladiator-style championships in the back yard with fellow stoners Jay (Jay Baruchel), Jonah (Jonah Hill), Jason (Jason Segel) and Martin (Martin Starr), and compiling â"data" for his new web-site fleshofthestars.com; a convenient place to find how much film time elapses before you spot some famous T&A. No job, no responsibility, no muscle tone and with settlement monies received after being hit by a Canadian postal truck dwindling, his future doesn't look so hot - that is, of course, until a half-drunken Alison unexpectedly walks into it.
One too many shots chased with cerveza and the chubby McCreepy with a self-proclaimed jew-fro and whiter-than-white rhythm is miraculously transformed into a strobe light McHottie, complete with sharp-witted personality and unparalleled dance moves. But after a round of drunken sex and slumber, Alison awakens to find that the beauty (gulp) of last evening is suddenly overshadowed by the unused condom laying on the floor (a mild misunderstanding) and the strange and somewhat grotesque, bare behind now protruding from her bed.
With Ben sans cell phone (â"payment complications...I'm not poor or anything...but I eat a lot of spaghetti"), Alison thinks she is safe from future contact; but then, the on-air vomiting commences. Eight weeks and thirty pregnancy tests later, her worst fears are confirmed - that regrettable one night stand with a guy with questionable DNA, has just given birth to a lifetime commitment.
Despite Alison's own mother (Joanna Kerns) and half of Ben's friends advising her to get that thing that rhymes with â"smush-shmortion," Alison decides that, with or without Ben, she is going to keep the baby. But after a heartfelt talk with his Dad (a fantastic cameo by Harold Ramis), Ben decides that he is in - diapers and all - for the long haul. With date #2 romantically taking place at the gyno so to hear their baby's heart beat, the newly linked and strangely mis-matched couple decides to give romance-in-reverse a try; and ultimately, each discovers that sometimes, the best things in life are never planned.
You've probably seen the trailer a million times - the jokes about Ben's friend wanting to â"rear" his child, Ben playing â"fetch" with Debbie's kids or Jay hysterically walking into a very graphic, â"crowning" scene only to emerge crying that he â"shouldn't have gone in there." These, alone, would suggest that Knocked Up - whose title pulls no polite punches - is a full-on testosterone filth-fest. Surprisingly, however, Apatow's hysterical look at Life and its infinite relationships - friends, siblings, husbands and wives, parents and children, boyfriends and girlfriends, and of course, baby momma drama - smartly walks a fine line between a chick flick with raunch and a guy's gross-out with heart.
That is what makes Apatow's film so darn attractive to both sexes - it goes there - lending a shocking and comical view to those immature, yet natural, slices of co-ed life that other film makers tend not to touch for fear of getting pink eye. Whether it's Ben stopping mid-sex for fear of stabbing the baby's head, an already tightly-wound Debbie flipping out on a bouncer (The Office's Craig Robinson) for refusing to let the mom of two in because she's too old, or Ben realizing that he has to stop growing pot and instead, grow the hell up, as much as we hate to admit it, these are our lives. Apatow is just pointing at us and making fun.
And making it so freaking fun is the regular cast of characters who grace Apatow's endless production projects. Mann (Apatow's wife in real life) and the always reliable Rudd are the hilariously confused view of Alison and Ben ten years down the line; Rogen and his one-time real-life roomies offer an orgy of improv hysterics and one-liners; and Heigl proves that she can hang with the current frat-pack of uncouth comedians, as the straight-laced, hormonal freight train trying to balance career with motherhood (a role that originally went to Anne Hathaway, but who is rumored to have dropped out due to â"creative differences" with Apatow).
But even the bit parts - Apatow's real life kids admitting that they â"googled" murder, endless pop-culture references to Cirque du Soleil (as if one needs to be on mushrooms to be freaked out by that) and Spiderman 3 (a film probably playing in a neighboring theater at the time of its release), Ryan Seacrest's on-air freak-out, or a scene-stealing Kristen Wiig (of Saturday Night Live fame), as Alison's passive-aggressive boss who cannot legally tell her to lose weight, but suggests that she weigh herself, subtract twenty and then â"be" that number - make Knocked Up a whopping 133 minutes of both subdued laughs and out-loud, face-hurting antics that hit from every corner.
Not to mention, if you couldn't get Knocked Up enough in the theater, well, it is now unrated and unprotected on DVD, featuring a mother-load of bonus features and deleted hysterics, for your viewing pleasure. (Including Jonah's extended Brokeback Mountain tirade on how Ang Lee should have focused less on Hathaway's breasts and instead, forced Gyllenhaal to â"take in" more of Ledger on screen.) Don't worry, I'm not going there, but Jonah does...and then some.
Smart yet brainless, Knocked Up is as surprisingly affecting as it is amusing in its free-fall into unplanned parenthood. With its no-holds-barred approach to courtship and child-rearing (and not necessarily in that order), it shoves the harsh and humorous realities of adulthood in our faces, while trying to pry our fingers off our irresponsible selves, in an effort to force a comical compromise. And it works. Like its older sibling The 40-Year-Old Virgin, this baby will undoubtedly offend the ears (and for some, the eyes), but in some insane and twisted way, this newly anointed Mother of 2007 comedies, will also warm the heart.
DVD Details:
Screen formats: Widescreen Anamorphic 1.85:1
Subtitles: English; Spanish; French
Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; deleted scenes; extended scenes; director and cast commentary; gag reel.
* Commentary: Feature-length commentary track featuring Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and Saturday Night Live cast member, Bill Hader.
* Deleted scenes and extended, alternate takes:
o Line-O-Rama
o Gag Reel
o Topless Scenes
o Kids on the Loose
o Raw Footage
+ Geisha House (10:30)
+ Swingers (7:20)
* Music Video - Loudon Wainwright and Joe Henry
* Documentary
o Roller Coaster Doc
o Directing the Director
o Gummy: The 6th Roommate
Number of discs: - 1- Keepcase packaging
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