
First, let me get this out of the way. For a TV fan, this movie is fricken fantabulous for its casting of TV actors galore. From the maker of
Freaks and Geeks and
Undeclared Judd Apatow, it seemed that at least half the alums had a role including
How I Met Your Mother's Jason Segel,
Jay Baruchel,
Martin Starr and a cameo as movie star himself,
James Franco. We got
Growing Pains Mrs. Seaver's
Joanna Kerns,
Firefly's
Alan Tudyk,
The Office's B.J. Novak, perennial TV guest star
Adam Scott, a cameo from
The Office star and
Knocked Up predecessor
The 40 Year Old Virgin breakthrough star
Steve Carrell, and then of course, the two main leads,
Seth Rogen (
Undeclared) and
Katherine Heigl (that little show called
Grey's Anatomy but also
Roswell).
Knocked Up as everyone knows by now, or can figure out by the title, is when pretty girl Allison (a terrific
Katherine Heigl cementing herself as more than just a pretty face on a hit TV show and reminding us that it is only Izzie the character that has become annoying and not the actress) becomes pregnant after a drunken one night stand with pot-smoking Canadian schlub Ben Stone (
Seth Rogen, essentially playing himself, full Vancouver backstory included). The concept is simple. The promos make it look like an idiotic college humour movie. The cast and crew and writing really make it an honest serious look at life changes that just happens to have a lot of dirty words and dirty humour, but never a dirty heart. A feel good pregnancy film you could say. In fact, it's even more heartwarming than
The 40 Year Old Virgin, but it never feels fake or hammy or forced down your throat and as many
other reviewers have stated, its all well deserved and earned sentimentality. In fact, this Hollywood mainstream film felt more like an indie movie with jokes but without the dampness.

The cast is fantastic as I stated before, and add to that,
Leslie Mann as Alison's sister and (the always reliable and versatile)
Paul Rudd as Mann's slightly disappointing husband, the movie is strangely fully well rounded with some uncomfortable humour all due to the fact that it's all so real (which of course, makes it all the funnier).
Knocked Up might not become as big of a hit as
Virgin because the laughs are less broad and not belly-aching laughs (much like in
Undeclared or
The Office), but they hit genuine funny truths about life and what our choices determine how our lives end up. It's about learning to grow up, learning to love, learning how relationships work or don't work, and dealing with our mistakes we made, and trying to make it work for the better. Seriously, quite a wonderful film, masturbation jokes included.
Knocked Up = A- or 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment