A Profane, Entertaining "Romantic" Comedy from Apatow & Crew

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2008)

Judd Apatow's second feature film doesn't have nearly as much raunchy humor as his first, but injects it with more heartfelt moments to balance it all out. In the film, slacker Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) gets career-minded Alison Scott pregnant after a drunken one-night-stand and the two come together in an attempt to create a relationship out of their situation. I didn't find the film as "laugh-out-loud" funny as Apatow's first movie, but this was still a great movie in it's own regard. There were points were I felt the length of the movie (the unrated version runs 2 hrs. 13 min.) but I never got bored and I never stopped laughing.
One thing you'll find when watching an Apatow film is that he uses a lot of same cast for each film, and I'm glad he does because he's managed to network with some of the funniest performers in modern film. I continue to believe that Seth Rogen is one of the funniest men in entertainment and this movie only strengthens that belief. He's hilarious at all the right times here and gives a sincere performance that helps you like the character, even when he does something stupid (and he does, multiple times). Katherine Heigl is enjoyable and seems like she had a great time in her role, but I couldn't help but lose a bit of respect for her after she complained about the movie following it's release. For me, the best parts of the film involved Ben's friends (Jonah, Jay, Jason, and Martin) or Paul Rudd (who's got great chemistry with Rogen). Whenever these guys were on screen, it cracked me up.
As I'd mentioned, this film doesn't come with as much raunchy humor as Apatow's other film, though it still has some. People should not jump into this film expecting the usual romantic comedy because they will be disappointed (and probably shocked). At it's core, the film has a warm-hearted story about a slacker rising to the challenge to become a father-figure for his arriving child. Filling it out are plenty of sexual humor, drug use, and the usual profanity. So, if you think about it, it'd be pretty easy for this film to appeal to both men and women.