Lame and Badly Cast and Badly Written and Directed

Rating: 1/10 (30 September 2007)

My low rating of one star (there is no opportunity to give it a lower score, unfortunately) is not because of the language, nudity, etc. I am no prude and am frequently profane and nude myself.
My only deal-breaker on anything is vomit. And it keeps showing up more and more. In fact, that car scene in "The 40-Year Old Virgin" where the chick upchucks is the only thing I didn't like about "40 Year Old Virgin," which I consider to be a work of genius. But if "Knocked Up" is any indication of what to expect from Apetow in the future, "Virgin" will stand alone among his work. Maybe all he had in him is the one genius fluke of "Virgin" -- the film-director equivalent of a one-hit wonder.
I was drawn to this film by "Virgin," and the uniformly great reviews in the press and on TV of "Knocked Up." Never will I believe a review or movie hype again. (Read the IMDb reviews -- overwhelmingly negative.) Maybe I'll just watch Wes Anderson movies from now on. He reaches for the stars every time.
The casting of "Knocked Up" is the worst of my complaints, although the premise, writing and directing all compete for first place. I liked Seth Rogan in "Virgin" and I think Heigl is a beauty among beauties. But obviously that "don't" mean the woman can act. I have never watched "Gray's Anatomy," so I was not familiar with her acting chops. Well, if this is an example of her best work, she is pitifully bad at what she does. I saw her bragging on herself on a TV interview about her delivery-room screaming. Even that was lame. If she had ditched the make up and appeared agonized and bathed in sweat, like in real life, it might have been a funny scene. Rogan and Heigl had no chemistry whatsoever. And, on top of that, we're supposed to believe that Heigl can't do any better than him and actually evolves into loving him. Now that's funny.
There was zero realism in any aspect of this movie, which certainly is NOT a comedy since there was nothing even remotely funny about it. Oh, except for Ryan Secrest, who did the best acting in the movie, and I don't even like Secrest.
Everything about this movie was phony, lame and embarrassingly bad. And it is filled with ugly actors who can't act, just what red-blooded women need to see.