Archive: "Knocked Up" (2007)

The guy who brought us "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is back again, this time tackling pregnancy. Writer-director Judd Apatow is the master of comedy with his latest outing, "Knocked Up," a nearly flawless movie that even surpasses Apatow's previous work. With the same mix of sentimentality and raunchiness, we are given an era-defining comedy that is current, genuine, and downright hilarious. It's really something you have to see to believe. This is hands-down the best comedy of the year, and also one of the best movies of the year.

The premise is simple: A shlub hooks up with a successful woman in a bar, they have some drunken sex, the woman gets pregnant, and the shlub does the best he can to help out. This slacker is a guy named Ben (Seth Rogen) who is unemployed, sits around with his stoner buddies, smokes pot, and really has no intention of doing much else. The woman is a career-oriented beauty named Alison (Katherine Heigl) who just got a big promotion at her interviewing job at the E! studio. To celebrate, she goes to a bar and that's when the hook-up happens. Ben and Alison have their little fling, have an awkward conversation over breakfast the next morning, and never really hear from each other again. That is, until eight weeks later.

What's so darling is that these two are not right for each other in every sense. And yet, their growing relationship has a sincere sweetness to it that is undeniable. They are not romantic and are not living some planned-out life together, and you can see the ending to their story from the start, but every single scene getting there is worth it. A sex scene, for example, where Ben nearly faints because he can't stand the idea that his penis might be poking the baby in the face is gut-bustingly hilarious and ridiculous.

Seth Rogen--who acted alongside Steve Carell in "Virgin"--lights up the screen with his infectious down-to-earth demeanor. He cracks crude one-liners like they're nothing, and he's fresh, funny, good-spirited, and self-deprecating. Katherine Heigl from "Grey's Anatomy" is just as lovely here, bringing the same widespread emotions she presents on television. She's hormonal, enraged, and also sympathetic and kind. The two of these actors together makes for great chemistry.

Throughout the movie, we also get quality doses of Alison's married sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann), and her restless husband, Pete (Paul Rudd). Here are two other actors with spot-on comic timing. Their characters in the movie don't exactly provide something for Alison and Ben to necessarily look up to. Their marriage is, as Pete describes, an unfunny version of "Everybody Loves Raymond" that lasts forever, and it provides an example of the behavioral observation that Apatow uses as his comedic fodder. There are lengthy scenes of not only them, but also Ben and Alison, simply arguing with each other. It feels real and like actual arguments because neither side really wins; that's life. The F-word goes flying every other word, and it's totally acceptable because it's used tastefully even in excess. Apatow's trademark mix of the profane and the sentimental is what makes all of the characters, even all of Ben's slacker buddies, feel like real people.

So yeah, Judd Apatow really knows what's up. He knows how to make it feel real, current, and knows how to deliver the laughs. There are even numerous cameos including one from E!'s very own Ryan Seacrest, who dishes out a hysterical tyrant with words you thought you would never hear him say. Many other pop culture references are abound, too, including humorous references to "Spider-Man 3," and even a bash at "Lost"'s Matthew Fox where Ben says something about him we've all already been thinking.

There are boobs, there are the geeks who love the boobs, but there are also the owners of the boobs who have a cry together and try to get into clubs. And then there are the pregnancy tests, the gynecologists, the baby books, and, yes, even a crowning shot. It's all there and accounted for, and somehow ingeniously blended together into one perfect comedy gem. It's in this way that I guess you could call this a romantic comedy for both sexes. It's raunchy enough for the guys and also heartwarming enough for the ladies. But, that's like calling this just one great date movie, and that's not all what "Knocked Up" is. It's a comedy for everyone and a movie about life and the crap life can toss at us and how to deal with the crap and grow from it, and learn from it, and simply mature as adults the very best anybody can.

It's this stuff that makes "Knocked Up" such a breath of fresh air. It's a comedy with a big heart that's in the right place, and it always knows when to be profane and when to be sweet. Everything here is delivered with such sincerity and cheer that you can't help but smile and, of course, laugh your ass off the entire time. It is great fun, it made me happy, and I loved every minute of it.

Archive: '27 Dresses'

Movie Review
27 Dresses (2008)


Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. That's the story for Jane (Katherine Heigl), a good girl who is always watching out for those she cares about while never really caring for herself. She has been a devoted bridesmaid 27 times and has saved all of the shameful dresses packed away in her closet to prove it. And she just one day wishes that one of those special days will be her own. "27 Dresses" is the ultimate in romantic comedy cliches and predictability and yet, in spite of this and its insipid storyline, the movie works. And this is in no small part due to the presence of Katherine Heigl who holds her own for the second time after her success in "Knocked Up." Replace her with a lesser actress, and there would really be nothing worth seeing here.

Aside from basically having the part time job of planning weddings, Jane works as an assistant to an advertising executive named George (Edward Burns). She is secretly in love with him but never has the courage to tell him. And then there's her globe-trotting sister, Tess (Malin Akerman), who sluts around Europe but conveniently comes back to New York just in time to swoop up George. After an initial meeting that devastates Jane, things only get worse for her as the courtship between Tess and George escalates to a proposal, and in a sudden whirlwind, the two are engaged and Jane is left to plan their perfect wedding. While Jane goes along with this, at least she has her best friend Casey (Judy Greer) who doesn't mind tossing her a reality slap. Complicating things is Kevin (James Marsden), a cynic of a guy who musters up enough romanticism to write the tenderhearted "Commitments" column in the New York Journal. This leaves Jane wondering if he's really sincere or if he just comes up with a bunch of swooning crap to collect women.

It's hard to find any cliche that director Anne Fletcher and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (who also wrote the edgier adaptation of "The Devil Wears Prada") didn't hit throughout the course of their movie. Plot entanglements include Tess lying to George and ensnaring Jane's ideal wedding and Kevin preparing a column about Jane as the ultimate bridesmaid without her knowledge. But in terms of the romance, it really boils down to this: the introduction, the banter, the growing on each other, the big argument, the resolve, and there you have it. Sorry if I spoiled it for you. Honestly, though, the target audience for a movie of this caliber isn't out for any originality. They're ready for the routine complications and the mushy gushy kiss at the end, and in terms of that, the movie delivers. All a movie like this really needs is two fine actors to convince us they're in love, and the casting here triumphs.

Katherine Heigl is simply the perfect woman lead for a romantic comedy. She's likable, relatable, pretty, and doesn't mind breaking down once or twice. She's just as appealing here as she was alongside Seth Rogen, and she understands a thing or two about comedic timing. She also has the uncanny ability to bring real emotion to a scene that would otherwise feel forced. Co-starring with her this time is James Marsden, who is, I must say, quite the charmer. The two of them have great, casual chemistry together, and while I may have been cringing for some good portions, it was this aspect of the movie that helps it to occasionally shine. While at the bar, the two of them have a little too much to drink and stand on top of a table together belting out "Bennie and the Jets," the only surprise in their romance.

"27 Dresses" shockingly doesn't suck even for a romantic comedy that doesn't stray from the formula, not even for a second. These filmmakers stay on the path so adamantly, that you would think they were afraid of something. It's baffling why a movie obviously marketed towards moviegoing couples wasn't held until a month later when the biggest date movies are to be released. It would've been a surefire hit. But anyway, I found it mildly enjoyable, in part thanks to Katherine Heigl, even if I knew exactly where the entire thing was headed.