Knocked Up

Jay: Ben, I will be there to rear your child.
Jason: Hear that Ben? Don’t let him near the kid he wants to rear your child!

Knocked Up is the side splitting follow up to Judd Apatow’s first film The 40 Year Old Virgin and it is a total laugh riot, but still maintains enough heart to make it real and relatable to the audience. This hilarious film is executed from it’s commanding performances from the always funny Seth Rogen (Superbad) and the talented Katherine Heigl (27 Dresses) but the real scene stealers are it’s supporting actors Paul Rudd (Role Models) and Leslie Mann (The 40 Year Old Virgin) who are just plain amazing as they portray a complicated married couple who despise each other. There are numerous other supporting players that I’ll get into later, but for now I want to point out that Judd Apatow is the funniest man in Hollywood.

We have a pretty simple plot here, but I’ll try and elaborate on it. Ben Stone is a stoner who lives with his four or five best friends who all manage a “porn” website. Elsewhere, we have Allison Scott, living with her sister Debbie and her husband Pete. After Allison gets a promotion at her job at E!, she goes out to a club to celebrate with her sister. Ben is at the same party with Jason and fliers with Allison. After Jason and Debbie leave, Ben hooks up with Allison and they part their ways the very next day. Eight weeks later, Ben receives a call from Allison, they meet at a restaurant and she tells him she’s pregnant. Now this mismatched pair has to deal with being in each other’s lives and how they are going to raise the baby.

One great aspect about this film is how comfortable everyone is on screen because most of these actors have worked together before on previous films (Rogen, Rudd, and Mann) which makes it even more entertaining watching them go back in forth with their hilariously graphic arguments throughout the course of the film. Leslie Mann in particular really portray’s her true acting talent in this movie due to her hilarious anti-chemistry with her husband. Every single time she gets enraged and begins yelling and cursing and screaming it cannot help but produce laughs.

On a partially unrelated note, I’ve heard people say that Seth Rogen plays the same stoner-loser in all his films. Let me tell you this: Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, and The 40 Year Old Virgin are the only films where he portrays somebody on drugs. Hasn’t anybody seen Funny People? Seth Rogen was genius in that film as he was in all his films (even the underrated The Green Hornet). In addition to that, I am looking forward to seeing Rogen in future projects including the cancer comedy 50/50 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Okay, back to this movie: Seth Rogen was absolutely brilliant as Ben Stone in this while maintaining the personality of a guy trying to adjust to the fact that he’s having a baby despite the fact that he also wants to stay true to himself which is something that is relatable to audiences.

The script here is filled with brilliance. Apatow once again proves he is the leading funny man of Hollywood. It’s uncommon for a director to make two flawless films in a row, and as of today, Judd Apatow has made three flawless films in addition to being the lead producer for countless comedies every year (most recently he produced the box office surprise hit Bridesmaids) and it’s always a pleasure watching films by him. One scene in particular in this film blew me away; Ben is having dinner with Allison and she tells him that he is pregnant and his immediate response is “fuck off” followed by “you’re pregnant… with emotion.” I had to literally pause my blu-ray player after that because I was laughing my bottom off! That one scene and those two lines prove to me that Judd Apatow is the funniest man in film to date, surpassing my favorites which include Adam McKay, John Hughes, and even Hangover director Todd Philips.

The humor in this film is a lot less big laughs and a great amount of little laugh-a-minute jokes. That is surprisingly the best style of comedy that Judd Apatow has used in all his movies (except Funny People). A great portion of this films humor consists of sex jokes, which may offend some but Apatow balances raunchy and heart at the same time which maintains a good setting with a dirty plot like this. Most of these jokes are from Ben, which creates the sub plot of Allison having several thoughts that Ben does not contain enough maturity to be her boyfriend or even raise a child with her. A really funny sequence is when Allison calls Ben to meet up and Ben and his roommates are making absolutely hilarious but incredibly obscene and inappropriate body gestures implying that Ben will get “lucky” again. While this humor may sound stupid and childish but that is just a small excerpt from what is really raunchy and funny humor. With all that said, Knocked Up is the perfect comedy that I highly recommend to everyone.

Pete: You look like Babe Ruth’s gay brother. Gaybe Ruth.