film review: Knocked Up (2007)

Judd Apatow has had a very successful few years… between Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, The 40-year Old Virgin and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, he’s been involved in some of the biggest comedy films in the last four years. While 2006 was quiet in terms of releases he obviously spent the time working on upcoming films as Knocked Up was only one of three films he produced for 2007, the other two being Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Superbad. While I haven’t seen Walk Hard, I can say that I thought Superbad was very funny. However, while Apatow produced those films, he also wrote and directed Knocked Up, it’s the second film he’s directed, 2005’s The 40-year Old Virgin being his first.

Plainly spoken, Knocked Up is the story of one drunken night and its consequences. Alison Scott (played by Katherine Heigl) is a 24-year old who’s been promoted to on-screen after working behind the scenes at the entertainment channel E!. Ben Stone (played by Seth Rogen”) is a 23-year old stoner living off a compensation award with a group of buddies. Theoretically they’re working on a website concept however really… they’re watching out for nude scenes starring famous actresses.

There’s nothing remarkably deep about this film so, don’t go looking for it but I did think it was very entertaining. All the supporting characters were strong (particular mention to Kristen Wiig who played Jill – an exec in E!) and the two leads were very well suited. I found it very funny and the situations, though somewhat ridiculous, were made believable, in the same way we saw in The 40-year Old Virgin to be honest. There was charm to everything and really, it’s just a nice film.

I will say this, I was initially apprehensive when this came about in the cinemas because it looked a bit like a chick film however after hearing that it was great from girls and guy alike and also because of Judd Apatow’s other films I thought I’d give it a go. They weren’t wrong and so I join others in wholly recommending it as a good way to spend approximately 130 mins of your life. I do wonder though, as a girl was it fundamentally a different film for me than it would be for a guy? Not humourwise I mean, just in general… I guess I’ll never really know!

7.5/10