Knocked Up [DVD]

For those of us who saw The 40 Year Old Virgin and came away wishing that they'd given 'that funny guy with the beard' roles that could have saved Bruce Almighty and suchlike fro mediocrity, Knocked Up is like our prayers getting answered. Rogen is on fantastic form as Ben - a waster seemingly locked in a happy stasis of living off court reparations with a house of similar stoners, playing duel and table tennis, gtting high, and watching movies for nude bits in the hope of setting up an internet lexion of film nudity - the man who has a drunken liason with TV presenter and career gal Alison (Katherine Heigl) and gets her pregnant. The movie's story could be summed up with the phrase 'deal with it' - it is the story of how these two work out their fundamental differences and prepare for the birth.

The film works because Judd Apatow, much like in his movie debut, manages to juggle the vulgar and the sweet, the crass and the romantic, without ever seeming to side to heavily on either side. An 'eurgh' is never too far away from an 'aww' and vice versa. For critics of the film who have suggested that this wouldn't happen - that they'd just go their separate ways - you have to say that had that happened it would have been a pretty short film: guy knocks up girl, girl deals with it on own. The End. No. Instead Apatow looks at the conflict as they struggle to make it work. Unlike most romcom heroes, Ben is a highly flawed character: yes he does have genuine goodwill and yes he does foolish American bumbling very well and comes across as endearing, but he is also a lazy guy who is incredibly scared of growing up and leaving behind his childhood. Again, much like the 40YOV, Apatow has created a field where his central protagonist is a clueless and afraid, and has to make tentative (often hilarious, sometimes tragic) steps into an area that is unknown. Heigl is excellent as Alison, exuding the same sense of comfortability in her role that fans of Grey's Anatomy will be instantly at home with. Her comic timing is perfectly equal to Rogen's and the chemistry between the two is wonderfully awkward. Again it has irritated me that there are those that have criticised the (alleged) lack of chemistry between the two leads. Rogen and Heigl, from their (importantly) drunken encounter, lurch from faux-responsible businesslike brusqueness about the whole thing, to being alternately scared, disappointed in one another, proud, earnest, optimistic, pessimistic - in short every nuance of the rollercoaster of emotion one would expect over those crucial nine months. They are backed up with wonderfully understated turns from Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.

In short Knocked Up is another Apatow success. It is by turns funny, dramatic, romantic, rude, crude and thought provoking. But it is a romantic comedy - there is no reason to make it the most gritty piece of realism - and so the sugar sweet ending may be forgiven at least if not endorsed. After all, most of Shakespeare's comedies ended up with the 'happily ever after' and he still managed to say a few things about relationships and society. If Judd Apatow is taking a couple of pages out of the Bard's textbook (eve if indirectly) in can hardly be a bad thing can it.

I didn't know anything about this film, but was expecting a typical romcom. It started off promisingly, with a lot of crude and rude humour, not to mention plenty of swearing, but then turns into a flick about an unlikely couple muddling through pregnancy.

I felt the premise was unrealsitic, as I just couldn't see this suave and ambitious girl trying to make a go of it with such a hopeless, unattractive, unappealing and penniless slob.

I didn't find any of the characters particularly appealing, although the two female leads had some amusing moments when they were out on the town. As for the guys friends - yuck...

To be honest, after 90 minutes we'd had enough, and couldn't believe that we'd another 40 minutes to get through. Definitely too long for us, and a let-down if you're expecting a lot of laughs.

The film is based around the story of social dropout played by Seth Rogen who on a drunken one night stand with Katherine Heigl gets her pregnant because he is too drunk to use protection. It then explores the developing relationship between the two as she goes through her pregnancy.

For this film, it feels as if Judd Apatow has tried to create an all emcompassing genre movie. On the one hand it is designed to appeal to fans of romantic comedy via the relationship between Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl but balanced against an attempt at a modern day Animal House within the boys house. Even a road trip is thrown in for good measure. Mixing the crudeness and vulgarity that is obviously designed to appeal to the male audience with the romance partly works but it doesn't quite gel; not to the quality of his previous films anyway.

There are lots of extras on this two disc edition, ingluding deleted / alternate scenes, gag reels and featurettes. For once there is actually too much content - I tried to watch it and got bored part way through, more due to the volume of it rather than the lack of quality.