Knocked Up was an absolute Knock Out.
From the same director of The 40 Year Old Virgin (which I really didn’t care for) comes a comedy based on the lives of Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) where a chance meeting and drunken tryst lead to a little bundle of confusion.
Stone has no life and no apparent future. He’s lived the past 10 years on a $14,000 settlement after getting his foot run over by a Canadian mail truck (he’s an illegal BTW). Scott has a bright future, working for E! she’s just been promoted to ‘on camera’ by a boss (Alan Tudyk) who insists that she ‘tighten up.’ IMHO that girl has nothing to tighten up, she’s probably the only reason you’d see Gray’s Anatomy in HD glory at my secluded Island retreat – but I digress.
In the middle of his party animal lifestyle and development of a website that will fund all his bongwater dreams, Stone runs into Scott at a night club, gets wasted, and wakes up after finally getting laid by someone ‘prettier than him.’ This flick touches on every topic, awkwardness of unexpected pregnancy, drunken dating, life goals, cultural differences, asshole doctors, and even the paradox of how life problems are only funny on the silver screen. Heck, even Harold Ramis makes a cameo as Ben Stone’s father. What more can you possibly want?
All along, we get to see the bouncing baby developing through the weeks and months until the inevitable (and mildly graphic) birth scene. I tell ya, nothing says big opening weekend like a prosthetic vagina and gyno jokes.
This movie is ingenious. Not only is it a laugh out loud comedy, but it successfully touches upon the pro life / pro choice debate in a way that could only offend an idiot or a college student. Now I don’t want everyone to think this is a movie ruled by an agenda – every movie these days seems to have one – but the message is undeniable. I whole heartedly applaud it for a positive display that option #2 – keeping the kid – can also lead to a happy ending.
At a little over two hours, it is a long movie and your rear end may get uneasy – but it’s got enough comedy packed in to the many morals of this story to keep anyone laughing enough not to care about a sore ass. That, and avoid bringing the young ones – plenty of cursing and the aforementioned prosthetic vagina might be a bit much for ’em. 🙂
Cheers
