Knocked out

Rating: 1/10 (2 August 2009)

Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) is a slacker who represents many of the problems with society today yet somehow he's supposed to be a good, sensitive guy. He has sex with a drunk Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), impregnating her and putting the narrative proper into motion. His only means of support for the baby are a get rich quick scheme. This scheme is a website that tells its patrons what part of a movie naked women are in. Even with this disgusting idea, he bullies the aesthetics of others by putting down Steely Dan to his pal Pete (Paul Rudd). Writer and Director Judd Apatow might get male bonding between Ben and his friends as well as Pete and Ben right, but the female characters are treated less equitably. Alison's girlfriend Debbie (Leslie Mann) is portrayed as a controlling bitch and Ben tells her to get out of the room after arriving late to his baby's birth. Even Heigl criticized the film for its taut misogyny. Pete points out late in the movie that marriage is like "a long episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, except without all the pissy dialogue." Speak for yourself Apatow. For those of us who didn't grow up on TV, this is simplistic drivel. As is the rest of the movie.