Knocked Up (2007)

Starring:
Seth Rogan
Katherine Heigl
Paul Rudd
Leslie Mann

Directed by
Judd Apatow

You know how when you haven’t had sex in a while and you forget how good it is…..It’s like a beast, a beast that was asleep. Now the beast is wide awake and it wants to be fed and the food that Alex gave it was good food, George.

Although Katherine Heigl spoke those words as Izzy Stevens, they could just as easily have been written for Alison Scott, the character Heigl plays in Knocked up. Allison is a career woman who works behind the camera for cable network E Entertainment. She has just been told that she is going to get a promotion, and will now work in front of the camera instead of behind it, although they do ask Alison to go home, weigh herself on a scale, write that down, subtract 20 from that number, and then weigh that because they aren’t really aloud to tell her to lose weight. But instead of planning her new diet regimen, Allison decides to go out with her sister to celebrate at a nightclub by downing a few beers.

Ben Stone and his roommates just happen to be occupying space in that very same nightclub. And I do mean occupying space because to know Ben and his buddies is to know that their goal in life is just to occupy space. In other words, Ben and his friends are the kind of guys who have made slacking a new art form.

They do have one aspiration to improve themselves though. They are planning an on line web site where anybody will be able to search any film to see if it has a nude scene and then find out exactly where in that film the nude scene is. In other words, they have to spend a lot of time watching movies with naked women in them, so you get the idea.

On the night in questionBen wanders over to the bar to order a couple of beers, at the exact same moment as Alison, whom is trying to get the bartenders attention to get some beers for her and her sis. Ben reaches over the counter for his beers, and being the swell guy that he is ends, up giving them to Allison and her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann). Sister Debbie soon heads home to take care of her kiddies, leaving Ben and Debbie to get better acquainted.

Now I don’t know if you have ever been out to a bar, had a few drinks, and then ended up with somebody you wouldn’t even give a passing glance too if you were cold stone sober, but I have. You have a tendency to look at them through rose-colored glasses which is obviously how Allison sees Ben after what must have been ten beers. But when that beast Izzy Stephens was talking about needs to be fed, you really can't nitpick a great deal. There just isn't time to get to know your partner in depth or to find out if he watches the Cartoon Network or the Sundance Channel.

In the process of getting that beast fed though, things can get a little hectic and while partner Ben is trying desparately to get the old condom to fit snug and secure, he misinterprets Allison’s pleas to hurry up as a request to just forget about the protection and get down to business. Ben is happy to oblige of course, even though we know it all spells trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for baby.

The next morning, Allison sees Ben the way he really is, and it is a one night stand she’d just as soon forget about. Eight weeks later, Allison begins to think she might be just a little bit pregnant especially when she goes on a hilarious vomiting rampage while interviewing James Franco. And just to be sure of course she stops and buys ever home pregnancy test on the market on her way home. Afterwards, it is time to first find Ben, and then call him so she can tell old Ben the good news.

So can two people who have a one night stand and have absolutely nothing in common find a way to get together for the sake of their unborn child? And could they just happen to fall in love in the process? As it is, there is one thing both Allison and Ben have in common. They are good people who want to do what’s best for their unborn child, and there have been relationships based on less than that. And despite the fact that they may be opposites, they find out that they really do like each other in spite of those differences. I mean, he does make her laugh and isn't that important?

One of the things I liked most about Knocked Up, is not only that the film is incredibly funny, but that writer/director Judd Apatow never sacrifices themes or characters for the sake of the comedy. We root for Allison and Ben because we like them so damn much. And just to be sure, Apatow makes the relationship between Allison’s sister Debbie and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd), an integral part of the film instead of just having them become comedic window dressing so we root for them too. Debbie doesn’t understand why Pete doesn’t seem to want to be around her, and Pete doesn’t understand why Debbie even loves him so much. In essence, they give both Ben and Allison something to compare their own relationship to.

There are some really classic moments in this film that shouldn’t be missed ranging from a lesson in how to get pink eye, how to chew out a doorman, the aforementioned scene with James Franco, another one with Steve Carrell, an earthquake moment that I won’t soon forget, and an absolutely fall down, all out in the aisle, hilarious trip to Las Vegas with Pete and Ben. And just to keep things going, the dialogue is sharp and witty throughout with some lines destined to become classic.

So while the Blockbuster Sequels continue to rake in the big bucks this summer, you would probably be doing yourself a pretty big favor by escaping from Super Hero over saturation and heading in to see this film instead. You’ll be glad you did, just as I was and if I’m glad to see any film I just have to give it my grade, and for Knocked Up, that would be a very pregnant A.