Finally got around to renting it last night. I liked it, but I didn't love it, and I can't quite figure out why. Some parts drag a little, for sure, and too many of the funny bits seem tacked-on. There are more pop-culture references than you can shake a stick at, most of which are extraneous and self-indulgent - it's almost as if writer/director Judd Apatow wants everyone to know that he's watched more movies and TV shows than you could ever hope to, but Apatow doesn't really strike me as that type of writer, so...what gives? The guy is hugely talented, adept at penning scenes that drip with realistic awkwardness, and unlike too many mainstream comedies, his feature characters that ring truer to life than most dramas can manage. (Except in the case of Paul Rudd here - I just couldn't get a bead on his character, which I think is a case of underwriting. He has a bunch of funny lines that don't add up to any kind of cohesive picture of a person. Apatow must have thought that Rudd could take a bare-bones outline of a character and run with it, but...not so much.)

My point is that Judd Apatow doesn't need to go the Seth MacFarlane route of pop-culture references disguised as hilarity (much as I love Family Guy, that kind of comedy can't last for a 90-minute feature, especially one that aspires to something a bit more human and emotional like Knocked Up). He's plenty funny on his own merits, and he picks great actors to work with: Seth Rogen is perfect as the shlub with a good heart, Leslie Mann is hilariously oddball, the band of stoner geeks are funny without trying too hard, and Katherine Heigl is a knockout. I've never watched more than five minutes of Grey's Anatomy and generally don't give a rat's about Heigl's inability to censor herself when giving interviews, but I think it's safe to say the Emmy win was no fluke - she's plain terrific in Knocked Up, running the gamut of emotions while staying nicely under-the-top and grounding the movie with her Everygirl sense of relatability. And the scenes between Heigl and Rogen are, unequivocally, the best-written in the movie, and a reminder that when Judd Apatow is on his game, he's pretty close to untouchable.

So Knocked Up needed a more tight-assed editor and a writer who wasn't afraid to let the situations (and characters) speak for themselves as a rule, rather than the exception, but overall I enjoyed it. I think Apatow has better movies in him - truly great ones, the kind that don't need a million "fuck"s and masturbation gags to goose laughs (damn these extended and unrated DVDs). I'm looking forward to seeing what he does next once he gets the Superbads and Walk Hards out of his system.

This entry was posted by Darryl, on Sunday, January 20, 2008. You can leave your response.