Knocked Up is as good as everyone is saying it is. I was resistant, I didn't want to believe it. I thought it would be as good as The 40 Year Old Virgin (director Judd Apatow's previous film), and I knew it would be outright hilarious, but I didn't expect it to be as good as it is. It will definitely become the new Virgin, lending itself to countless repeat viewings to get all the jokes and quote the lines with your friends.
It's more than that, too. Similar to last year's The Break Up, Knocked Up serves a bit more of truth and honesty from it's characters. The jokes are funny, some outright hilarious, but the balancing act is quite impressive. And more than anything, it showcases the brilliant talents of Seth Rogan, a man destined to become a hero to slackers and stoners across the country.
Knocked Up is the story of Ben (Rogan) and Alison (Katherine Heigl), two people who meet up one night and... well, if you've seen the previews or a commercial (or read the title of the movie, really) you know what's going to happen. They're having a baby together, and the question now becomes will these two fall in love. (Or how long will it take these two to realize that they're supposed to be together). Obviously they're very different, Alison being of the career-minded set while Ben prefers getting high with his friends and searching for the parts in movies that have nudity. (It's to put on the website they run). Naturally, the news of a child isn't ideal to either of them, but they decide to give it a try.
There are so many good lines and characters and genuinely funny scenes throughout, and it's filled to the brim with some of the funniest actors out there that it's hard to single out anything (although, the riff on Munich made me lose it). Leslie Mann plays Alison's controlling sister, who is maddeningly married to Paul Rudd, and they are perfect together. (Rogan and Rudd have a brilliant jaunt to Vegas together and recapture their "You know how I know you're gay..." magic from Virgin). Ben's friends (Jason Segal, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruschel, and Martin Starr) live in the house together, and are so funny a movie could be made about them whenever Ben's not around, and it would be just as funny. You believe the camaraderie between them, and you want to spend more time with them. (If you can stand a bunch of pop culture nerds who enjoy smoking obscene amounts of marijuana, but luckily those are my peeps).
But this is Rogan's movie, through and through. You watch him, and you realize what an awesome guy Ben is. He is the sweetheart who never gets the girl, who's always getting his heart broken, and who's scared as hell about the prospect of losing everything in his life that he knows. He wants to do the right thing, but sometimes just doesn't know how he can best do it. Sometimes he fails miserably with his choices, but all his decisions are based on real human emotion and not plot contrivance. Ben's choices are his own (as are Alison's), and they stem from a genuine place. And Rogan NAILS it. If this movie doesn't make him a household name then there is something seriously wrong with the moviegoing public. Rogan's the real deal: genuine, talented, and funny as all hell. (And he kind of looks like me if you squint, which makes me smile, and allows me to relate to him on screen a little too well at times).
Knocked Up is genuinely fantastic, and it grows on me the more I think about it. I loved spending every moment with these characters, and I obviously want to spend more time with them all. Especially my on-screen doppelganger, Seth Rogan. Apatow and Rogan knock this movie out of the park and continue to show that they are some of the smartest and funniest people making comedy today. Here's hoping there will be more movies like Knocked Up, but in the meantime, savor this movie as much as you can. You know, until you're sick of your friends quoting it every ten minutes, but by then, there will be another Apatow/Rogan creation to quote.
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