A sexy, vulgar, R-rated . . . family values film.

Rating: Null/10 (18 September 2007)

Java Man Reviews "Knocked Up" (2007, R). Written and directed by Judd Apatow. Starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Tim Bagley, Kristen Wiig & Loudon Wainwright III. Running Time: 129 minutes. This review originally appeared in LakewoodBuzz.com.
OVERVIEW:
Ben Stone (Rogan) is a 20-something slacker who, like his similarly unmotivated roommates, lives the life of a college kid without actually attending classes. Their big goal in life is to develop a website that will inform its users as to the exact location of nudity in any given movie. Alison Scott (Heigl) is an unsuccessful but ambitious 20-something broadcast staffer who lives with her bitchy older sister Debbie (Mann) and Debbie's weirdly wayward husband Pete (Rudd). When Alison gets her big break by being offered an on-camera gig with the E! Network, she decides to go out on the town to celebrate. After having too much to drink she meets Ben, accompanies him to his apartment, and unsafe sex ensues.
In the morning, seeing Ben in the full light of his dorkiness, she bids him farewell and is about to begin her new life as a minor media personality . . . until several weeks later when she discovers that Ben has left her with more than just memories. Do I have to spell it out? The movie's inelegant title says it all. The balance of the movie follows the mismatched couple's attempts to work out their newly altered lives.
REVIEW: 3 OUT OF 4 JAVA MUGS
Though I don't like this movie as much as most other reviewers seem to, I must admit that it has grown on me. When I first walked out of the theater, it bothered me that the film seems to say that it is okay for guys in their 20s to do nothing but drink beer and take hits on a bong, and that it's also okay for a 20-something couple to meet at a bar and have a one-night stand. But, thanks to a mix-up in a conversation about condoms, there are consequences; and when I look at this film in retrospect, it seems to be a sexy, vulgar, R-rated . . . family values film. Yet it doesn't come off as an anti-abortion polemic: she knows she has a choice and she chooses to have the baby.
But I'm getting way too serious here. The real reason to see this movie is because it's well-written and funny. Many of the scenes have a Borat-like quality of becoming even more humorous when you think about them later. Two examples are the conversation Ben has with his dad, and Ben's refusal to have sex with a frustrated Alison for fear of crushing the baby.
While Rogen may be an acquired taste, Heigl and the rest of the cast are right on the mark with Apatow's insightful material. Especially good are Mann as the judgmental sister and Wiig as Alison's subtly jealous rival.
As the story progresses into more conventional here-comes-the-baby territory, the editor might have considered performing some surgical snips well in advance of the cutting of the umbilical chord.