I never really liked The 40 Year Old Virgin. So I wasn't really looking forward to watching Knocked Up since it involves a lot of the same people (Judd Apatow, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan etc), which would mean it uses the same formula, ergo it would disinterest me.
But as George F. Will once said, the nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. Knocked Up pleasantly surprised me, and I can safely say millions of others (I rotten-tomatoed it).
It's simply about a girl who had a one night stand with the most unattractive man (lest you believe in the inside beauty crap) only to find out 8 weeks later that she was pregnant. She was pretty, smart, and a host at E! channel while he was barbaric (as were his friends), broke and a co-founder of fleshofthestars.com, a website focusing on celebrity on-screen nudity which had been under construction forever. It goes without saying that they were two very different people. How the hell did she get herself knocked up by the most philistine of men, you might wonder, but I'm not judging.
You might hate Ben (the ugly knocker) at first for not putting on a condom thus impregnating Allison (the knocked up) thus making him the bad guy. But as the movie unfolds (and the Stockholm Syndrome sinks in), you'll start to pity the guy because obviously he was a loser in all terms, and picking up girls at bars was not his forte. Let alone the hot ones. Getting a famous girl pregnant was the last thing he needed in his fucked up life.
At the hands of other directors, this movie would have focused only on the main character (think Steven Spielberg and War of The Worlds) or it would have been a bland movie peppered with lame one-liners but embellished by awesome CGI (think Michael Bay), due to its very simple premise. Luckily we have Judd Apatow to make sure that it's as funny as it is sweet and touching. And the one-liners are sure to make you laugh so hard you fall off your seat (or in my case, the bed).
One of my favourites are :
Ben : You're pregnant... with emotion?
Knocked Up also offers insight into married life. After watching this, all I can say about marriage is don't do it just because life catches you off-guard, do it when you're fully ready and can take responsibilities.
Given the fact that it was much, much better than I thought, I give Knocked Up 9/10.
