It may be Harry Potter season ladies and gents, but when Knocked Up opens next week, make sure you haven't spent all your temp-job earnings on The Deathly Hallows. What we have here is a strong contender for Comedy of the Year.
The film is directed by Judd Apatow, who also brought us The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and several actors from the 2005 film are back again for this one. If you have yet to watch Virgin, please beg/borrow/rent/rip/steal it now.
But back to Knocked Up. The film has already torn up the box office in the US, holding its own against trilogy flicks like Spiderman, Shrek and Pirates. Not bad for a film where Grey's Anatomy cutie Katherine Heigl is the only semi-mega star.
The plot is pretty simple:
- Career-minded girl Alison (Heigl) meets stoner/loser guy Ben (Seth Rogen) at a club.
- One one-night-stand after, Alison realises she's pregnant.
- Forced together by circumstance, the seemingly incompatible couple try to make things work for the sake of the baby.
The fun is in the telling though, and it's here that Apatow kicks up a storm. Laughs come hard and fast - weight jokes, beard jokes, sex jokes - I haven't laughed this hard since Borat, and that's really saying something.
But unlike Borat, the real surprise about Knocked Up comes in the tenderness of the tale. Alison and Ben are three dimensional characters with their own individual flaws - Ben smokes pot all day, while Alison acts like she doesn't know him when she meets her friends.
Their unlikely romance is paralleled with Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd), Alison's sister and brother-in-law, who are facing marital problems. Apatow really gets under the skin of each character, such that anyone who's ever been in a relationship will appreciate the problems both couples face.
Nevertheless, let me re-emphasise that this IS a comedy, and an uproariously funny one at that. Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd riff off each other hilariously; just as they did in Virgin ("do you know how I know that you're gay?"). Ben's bong buddies are a riot, as are minor characters like the Door Man and Alison's bosses.
Best of all: Ryan Seacrest's cameo - who knew the American Idol host could act!
In 1995, Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore starred in a similarly themed blah-fest called Nine Months. Unlike that lesser rom-com, this is a pregnancy story with juice to spare - a comedy that Jackass fans AND chick-flick lovers can identify with. Trust me, you'll laugh so hard you'd think you were getting contractions. hooked
HOOKED's rating: 4.5/5
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