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by Willie Waffle

Knocked Up 

Katherine Heigl stars as Alison Scott – a successful producer at E! Entertainment Television (I hope they paid a pretty penny for that product placement) who gets promoted to an on camera gig that will make her rich and famous (at least as rich and famous as you can get on basic cable, which sounds like a dream to this wannabe rich and famous broadcasting personality who is not so rich and famous).  Anyway, she heads off to celebrate with her sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann), and one thing leads to another.  “Another” in this case is named Ben (Seth Rogan) – a lackadaisical internet entrepreneur wannabe and all around stoner who happens to be Mr. Right Now.  He is charming enough to pique Alison’s curiosity, especially after a few adult beverages, and let’s just say neither one is a 40-year old virgin after this encounter.  As you can imagine from the title, Alison gets pregnant, and Ben wants to do the right thing by helping out and taking responsibility for his fatherhood. 

Can these complete opposites get through the pregnancy without killing each other?  Will they find out the one night stand has turned out to be a real relationship?  

Knocked Up is a raunchy, vulgar R-rated comedy in the spirit of Wedding Crashers and director Judd Apatow’s classic masterpiece, The 40-Year Old Virgin, but not quite as funny or heartfelt.  Don’t get me wrong.  Knocked Up is hilarious.  However, it is trying to hit those same fun and sweet moments those two aforementioned movies did, but never quite gets there, since Ben is not as lovable as Andy the Virgin.  It’s kind of like comparing Derek Jeter to Babe Ruth.  Jeter is a great one, but The Babe is immortal. 

Rogan and Heigl are perfect for the roles.  Heigl is the woman parents hope and pray their sons will bring home as the classy, beautiful and accomplished professional woman, while Rogan is the man all parents fear their daughter will come home with as the guy who revels in his slackerhood, rudeness, crudeness, pot smoking and questionable career goals.  The two have good chemistry together as each one adapts to the other, and each actor is smart enough to show how their character is changing in small, and some noticeable, ways.  While we all know Rogan can handle the comedy, it was a treat to see Heigl’s timing and comedic chops on display in impressive fashion, while Rogan gets to prove he can handle the leading man role.  

However, you might find yourself wishing for more appearances by the movie’s supporting players like Leslie Mann, who practically steals the movie with her appearance as Alison’s foulmouthed shrew of a sister, Debbie.  She gets the wickedest lines, has a few moments to win us over to support her, and proves to be one of the funniest people in movies today.  Paul Rudd, another 40-Year Old Virgin co-star, plays the sister’s husband, and makes the most of his henpecked character who, along with Debbie, makes everyone in the movie reconsider marriage.   

Knocked Up is a bit too long, and the ending seems to be crying out for a faster paced madcap explosion, but you can’t go wrong with Knocked Up if you just want to laugh, and feel a bit dirty about it later.    

3 ½ Waffles (Out of 4)

Knocked Up is rated R for sexual content, drug use and language  

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