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Knocked Up (2007)

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459 comments in total

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197 out of 329 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent, but I don't see what all of the fuss is about., 12 June 2007

Author: B_D from USA

I went into the theater not knowing what to expect, not having seen the trailer, and two hours later I felt I had seen a decent movie, quite funny at times, but I couldn't figure out what everyone was making such a big deal about. Compared to a lot of what passes for comedy in the cinema these days, Knocked Up is great, but it's hardly the "instant classic" that I've seen it called in many professional and IMDb reviews. It's certainly worth seeing, but maybe at a discount matinée instead of a full-price evening show.

Much of what is wrong with Knocked Up is simply an over-reliance on Seth Rogen to deliver the laughs. To be sure, Rogen is a funny guy - he handled the jump from second-tier supporting actor (a la 40 Year Old Virgin) to leading man surprisingly well, appearing confident and charismatic. The problem is that as the film goes on, he just doesn't get a whole lot to work with from his supporting cast. Rogen doesn't have enough in him at this point to carry an entire film on his shoulders, but often he is forced into that role, providing the only humor in many scenes (especially in the second half of the movie). At times it almost seems as if Rogen has landed in the wrong film, delivering clever quips and laughs while the barely-likable characters around him remain too serious. Paul Rudd manages to break this up, taking some of the burden off Rogen, but Katherine Heigl and Leslie Mann's unfunny and quasi-sympathetic characters drag them down.

To be sure, the first half of Knocked Up is great, but by the second half the script becomes mired in slow, cliché drama. Marital dissatisfaction and the loss of youth are interesting themes to explore, but in doing so, Knocked Up fails to establish a consistent tone. As the film trudges past the 90-minute mark, it is sometimes humorous, sometimes dour, often clichéd, all resulting in an awkward mix of styles.

Overall, Knocked Up was a good effort, but a little more editing of the script would have helped a lot. I don't mind long movies at all, but 20 minutes could have been trimmed from this film to good effect.

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156 out of 261 people found the following comment useful :-
A simple story is made into a very entertaining comedy, 15 April 2007

Author: Jeff Beachnau (beachna9@msu.edu) from Omena, Michigan

Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) meets Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) at a bar, they get drunk and have a little fun afterward, then they part ways. That is, until a few weeks later, Alison discovers she's pregnant and Ben is the father. This simple story makes up the hilarious film Knocked Up. I really enjoyed this, it has a lot of great laughs and it also has a lot of heart spread throughout.

Seth Rogen does an excellent job, I'm glad he's been given the chance to be the lead in such a big film. And Katherine Heigl is equally entertaining. The two of them are so great together, they're just so much fun to watch on screen. The supporting actors are also wonderful. Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are perfect together. And I think Kristen Wiig steals the show with her small yet hysterical role as one of the workers at E!.

When people go to see this they'll want to compare it with 40 Year Old Virgin. Though I'm not a big fan of comparing movies to other movies, I guess I'll have to go through with it. For me, 40 Year Old Virgin is a funnier movie, but Knocked Up is a better written film and it has more heart to it. Both films based their story on a simple premise (a nerdy 40 year old hasn't had sex, a guy has a one night stand and gets the woman pregnant), but it seems like 40 Year Old Virgin used its idea to just get laughs. Knocked Up, on the other hand, uses its set up and continues the story throughout the film, developing its characters.

So, Knocked Up is a very enjoyable film, it has some big laughs (I particularly love the side story with the bearded roommate) but its also very sweet at times. I'm sure people will love it. See the movie and you'll get more than just laughs.

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98 out of 148 people found the following comment useful :-
Vulgar, Sure, But Certainly Not Stupid., 22 October 2007

Author: RabidED990 from United States

I've noticed a lot of the negative comments about this title tend to focus on this movie's vulgar, 'stupid' humor. Now let's get one thing straight. Knocked Up is vulgar, absolutely it is, but is is not stupid. Stupid humor is crap like "Mr. Woodcock" and "Good Luck Chuck," movies with no real craft to any of their jokes.

"Jessica Alba fell down!!! Ahahahahahaha!"

"He yelled 'sex' really loud!!! Pssshhahahahahaaheheheheeee!"

No. Die.

Knocked Up, on the other hand, is actually pretty clever most of the time. And even the movie's vulgarity isn't done in an over-the-top, simply-for-gross-out way (cite the fat bitch from Good Luck Chuck). It's what I guess you could call 'relevant vulgarity.' Anyway, the movie is extremely funny. Every joke is naturalistic, but not expected. The movie's characters are all convincing and multi-dimensional, and above all likable. Seth Rogan really does make the movie, though. He is hilarious, but he comes off more like a real nice, frank, down-to-Earth guy. Just the kind of guy you'd like to sit down and have a beer with. The kind of guy you'd more than like to get smashed with. The kind of guy you'd really like to have ill advised unprotected sex with. The kind of guy you'd love to raise a bastard child with. Needless to say, he's the reason the movie works.

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92 out of 140 people found the following comment useful :-
Abortion of a Comedy, 28 June 2007

Author: warmtrooper from Berkeley, CA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Every newspaper seemed to give this movie 4 stars, so I saw it, curious as to what passes for comedies these days. What I saw was a profane, unbelievable, and highly uncomfortable movie to watch, reveling in stereotypes of men, women and drug users.

The plot is: fat pothead unemployed unshaved loser with stain on shirt goes to bar with his pothead friends, meets blonde bombshell who takes him home for one-night stand. Somehow she becomes pregnant and calls him 8 weeks later and the whole story is how they decide to keep the baby and work together to have it, even though they are polar opposites.

There was enough cussing to make Joe Pesci blush. Well-placed cusswords are fine, but all the time? Besides that vulgarity, the characters were over-the-top yelling at each other and this was supposed to be either funny or dramatic, I couldn't tell. The scene when Debbie loses it with a nightclub bouncer was either trying to be funny or serious, I couldn't tell.

The adults in this picture were completely selfish and unsympathetic; characters were written very badly.

Ben's pothead friends were 2D stereotypes of marijuana smokers, a disservice to enlightened marijuana users, making them all look like bums, and sexist bums to boot who are trying to run a porn site where you can look up which movies have nudity and when. It was uncomfortable to watch such crass stereotypes used as humor.

The worst part of the movie was the confusing premise: A successful, beautiful, square Hollywood reporter woman who just got promoted somehow falls in love with an uncouth, broke, potsmoking fat hairy slob after finding out she's pregnant with his baby after a one-night stand. I mean that was so incredible, esp. after she met all his disgusting loser friends and found out he doesn't even care enough about her to read some baby books she purchased for him. It was difficult to maintain sympathy for her, for the dramatic scenes, and the comedy in this movie consisted of adults acting like children, yet still having enough dough to afford a house and a separate cottage, a Mercedes, 1600 dollar cribs, and go shopping for their gynecologists as if they were shopping for a good DVD player.

Finally, the end scene in the hospital was overly graphic (yes, we see "crowning") and ridiculous, because Ben all of a sudden "becomes a man" I guess, and yells at his sister-in-law to stay out of the delivery room (instead of simply asking her--after all, she could provide comfort to Alison, who's having her first baby), but most of all, when the doctor tells them they must deliver right away, with drugs, because the umbilical cord could choke the baby, they make a big deal out of how they wanted a "natural childbirth",and pressure the doctor to wait, without even discussing the issue. Never mind the baby might die; this never crosses the selfish couple's minds.

My final feeling after seeing this Abortion of a Comedy is that we, in America, are in deep trouble if irresponsible people like this think they can bring babies into the world, without the slightest clue for planning or acting mature and responsible. When Ben asked Alison what he could do after finding out she's 10 weeks pregnant, she says "nothing". The better answer was "get a job".

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153 out of 263 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly Funny, 23 March 2007

Author: Kristen Kallahan from Seattle WA USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

From the title I expected an idiot-teen comedy, but it was quite a grown-up comedy. I envision teen boys liking the first 10 minutes (a chubby slacker gets to nail a hot chick after meeting her in a bar), then fleeing when the movie gets into REAL "adult themes". Uh-oh. She's pregnant. Now what happens?

This movie kept the audience laughing throughout. Most comedies tend to fall apart part-way through, but this one kept the laughs going. It constantly surprises and never settles for the clichéd joke.

There's more sex and nudity in this movie than you usually see in comedies, but it just makes the comedy more real. It's real -- so it's real funny. We've all found ourselves in awkward, yet hilarious, sexual situations like this. (Well, if you're lucky!)

All the actors are comedy experts -- many of them from Judd Apatow's other ventures: "Undeclared" and "Freaks and Geeks". Steve Carell, star of Judd's "40 Year Old Virgin" has a cameo. As does Ryan Seacrest who plays himself as a total asshole. (Makes you wonder why he agreed to do this.) Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader from SNL are great in their small roles.

Seth Rogan at first glance seems an unlikely leading man. But as the movie goes on, you grow to like him more. We see what the girl comes to see in him: he's funny and supportive and has a loving heart.

She's a 10 and he's a 5, so at first you don't think they could make it as a couple, but looks can be deceiving.

Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan at Cirque d'Soleil in an altered state is a hilarious scene. (That's how Cirque makes me feel when I see it anyway! Like a bad trip.)

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142 out of 248 people found the following comment useful :-
knuckled under, 8 June 2007

Author: pookey56 from canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I was uncomfortable through out this film, having to watch stereotype after stereotype, mean-spirited "jokes" and juvenile toilet humour. Let's look at the good:

Leslie Mann: Her shallow, annoying character was played very well by Ms. Mann; and by the end, she was even somewhat sympathetic. Harold Ramis: His two-minute scene was the ONLY truly likable character in this entire film. I loved him. Paul Rudd: Despite his woe-begone fatalistically brow-beaten character, Rudd was genuinely good. Too bad his character was "resigned" to what looked like a life not worth living.

The Bad:

The jab at a guy like Stephen Hawking. Yeah; this film sinks that low. The stereotype that "pot-heads" are all unemployed, long-haired dopes with prurient life goals; think again... Heigl with Rogen's character? No way. This is a guy who grabbed his BONG during an earthquake without a thought to her safety. I could relate to her exasperation with Ben and his friends...but ending up with him? Sure....

The conversations about Munich were very insensitive; but then, this entire film was, so at least it was consistent. Endorsing De Beers?? The toilet humour..really. The reference to a woman's anatomy using the C-word, more than once, is misogynistic and really dumb. The kids, played by Apatows daughters, were cute; but I felt like they were being exploited. "I googled murder" today? Lovely. That list with the Canadian Beavers, headed by Pamela Anderson, Lolita Davidovich, Natasha Henstridge, and another woman, wasn't funny for me.

Even the second bar scene, where Mann and Heigl, who had previously pushed their way to the front of the line without a thought to "the ugly people" waiting in line, didn't play out as sympathetic at all. We are suppose to laugh at a situation where, they are now barred from line-jumping because Heigl is pregnant and Mann is "too old"? And the 5% quota for certain races? I felt sick.

This film wasn't completely unfunny. Some of the scenes with the Hollywood execs. played quite well by Kristin Wiig and Alan Tudyk, were humorous. "This is Hollywood. We don't like liars here...".

Even the title of this film is offensive to me. I went because I loved The 40-yr Old Virgin, and because it was reviewing very very well across the board. Instead, what I saw was a crass piece of work that has been done many times before, by a director who is capable of much much better. If I were ever trapped with these characters, I would smile feebly and back out of the room asap.

What scares me is how popular this film is. What does that say about us? Maybe, this film isn't that influential in the long run. But it definitely reflects the taste rampant in the throngs of people lining up to see this horrible film, for a SECOND time, and declaring it the funniest "comedy" they've ever seen.

I don't think so.

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55 out of 78 people found the following comment useful :-
Decent comedy at best, 17 June 2007

Author: Phenom67 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's amazing to me how average low brow comedies like this show up in the top 250 ahead of real deserving movies such as "The Odd Couple", "Plains, Trains, and Automobiles", and "The Naked Gun", but I would guess thats because a lot of the teenage and college movie goers rate this one high . Anyway, I went to see this the other night and got a few laughs and a chuckle or two every once in a while. But it was hard for me to get past the notion that this beautiful, successful, career woman would want anything to do with a dopey, unemployed, bonghead who doesn't shave once in the entire movie. Just the fact that he tossed his condom away right before the moment and didn't tell her and she only gets a little upset and still wants to be with this guy? Ridiculous! Anyways if you want a few sophomoric laughs and decent acting, this is OK.

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78 out of 127 people found the following comment useful :-
Another in a long line of dull movies., 13 June 2007

Author: tdzz1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie was like deja-vomit all over again. If you think this is funny look in the mirror for your lobotomy scar. One reviewer said this was the funniest movie of the year. Did we see the same movie? See Hot Fuzz if you want to see a much funnier movie. When will Hollywood stop cranking out this stock crap? This movie starts with the standard "we are cool" single guy scene where a group of guys demonstrate how hip and now they are by doing jackass like stunts (hence the spoiler,just in case that was an important plot point for you). Then it goes into a standard set of impossible, only in the movies series of events. Ugly boring guy meets beautiful girl blah blah blah. Yuck.

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46 out of 65 people found the following comment useful :-
Did not live up to the previews, 3 June 2007

Author: mummy99 from Colorado

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

My 17 year old daughter and I had been looking forward to the release of this movie for quite some time and we went on opening day. Both of us like Katherine Hiegl and we were looking forward to a witty, funny film. Instead, we both thought that there was a negative edge to all of the humor that relentlessly followed the cast of characters from scene to scene. The main male and his friends were all unkempt slackers and it was hard to find something to like about them. The drug use was annoying and excessive - are there adults out there who really behave like this? Every negative stereotype about pregnant women and women not accepting their aging gracefully had to be dragged into the plot. The one nice male seemed to love his spouse but was unable to communicate his interests or feelings toward her and seemed like such a wimp. Even the two studio executives were tired stereotypes that denigrate women. Did the characters really have to be so cynical and negative? With the exception of the two sisters, it didn't seem like any of the characters really liked each other or really wanted to be around the others. I think the excessive drug use and nasty attitude toward sex was annoying. It is interesting to see that both males and females under 45 are rating this film very closely and much higher than both males and females over 45. It's certainly not a movie that we will see again.

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95 out of 166 people found the following comment useful :-
Just Do It Already, 25 April 2007

Author: David Ferguson (fergusontx@gmail.com) from Dallas, Texas

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Greetings again from the darkness. "Freaks and Geeks" lives on through multiple tie-ins - not the least of which is writer/director and producer Judd Apatow (best known for his smash hit "40 Year Old Virgin"). This is a sharp comedy and cutting insight thanks to a terrific script, excellent comedic timing from Seth Rogen and Apatow's feel for a scene.

Rogen plays Ben Stone, a slacker who spends all his time smoking pot with his friends and conceptualizing an "informational" web site. One evening, while hanging with his buds in a club, he stumbles onto a ridiculously beautiful and ripe for the taking Katherine Heigl (Izzie from Grey's Anatomy). One thing leads to another and the next thing we know Heigl's character, Alison, is knocked up.

It would be easy to classify this as a slapstick comedy in the mode of "Wedding Crashers", but in fact, Apatow's script offers up some insightful commentary on marriage, family and relationships of all types. Apatow's real life wife, Leslie Mann, plays Heigl's sister who dreams of the perfect marriage, but is crushed when she discovers her husband's secret (not what you think). Mann's "cheating" husband is played brilliantly by Paul Rudd ... who flashes a very nice DeNiro impersonation.

The only weaknesses of the film are the shortage of scenes between Heigl and Rogen, and the fact that the film probably lasts 15 minutes too long. The whole Las Vegas sequence could have been cut. Still, this is not your typical comedy and please be prepared for some harsh (and loud) language and some very graphic visuals ... it is rated R for more than one reason! Apatow is creating his own look and feel and shows flashes of brilliant comedy writing. He could challenge the Cohen Brothers in the near future for the throne of off-beat comedy. Don't miss the fine songs from Loudon Wainwright III - especially the one playing over the closing credits.

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