Vulgar and Offensive but by no means dull.

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2009)

I finally had the chance to see Judd Apatow's follow-up movie to his monster hit the 40-yr old Virgin. I've read reviews about this one and after watching the movie, I can understand why so many women think this movie is sexist (and too vulgar). Even its ridiculously pretty star Katherine Heigl is on record calling this movie "a little sexist," and elaborates:
"It paints women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as goofy, fun-loving guys. It was hard for me to love the movie."
I don't think that's the case however. Heigl's comment seemed to me that she was looking at the glass half-empty instead of half-full. Yes, one female character, Debbie (Leslie Mann) was shown to be a bit of a nagger, and one of those clingy type but she was that way only because she puts premium on having a close relationship with her husband. She says she likes to have him "around" and wouldn't mind watching Spiderman 3 with him. I know a lot of guys who would kill for a girl like that.
There was a scene also wherein Debbie showed her husband a "sexual-offenders" map of their neighborhood, Debbie takes offense when her husband, seemingly uninterested, jests, "So we'll skip those houses when we go trick-or-treat." Some say this particular scene paints Debbie as "uptight" while the husband is cool and "goofy". But the flip-side is, any guy could blow off and say: "Hey! this scene shows men as "insensitive" and portray women as "concerned,"that's a little unfair" See? easier to see it half-empty than half-full.
Then there's Heigl's character Alison, well on her way to a successful promotion in her job as an Entertainment News correspondent until a night of celebration with a little too much booze ends up in her getting pregnant from a one-nighter with a jobless, pot-smoking overweight dimwit named Ben. Alison here is portrayed as a career woman (rarely bad) while Ben is shown as your stereotypical man-baby, slacking and getting high in the daytime while turning into lecherous bar prowlers at night. Now if there's anyone who should be offended by this, I don't think it should be the ladies. I mean C'mon!? men are not ENTIRELY like that! (You can stop snickering now lady hehe)
I guess what I'm saying is that Knocked-Up showed weaknesses in BOTH sexes and is a very funny movie because there is honesty in it-- Men, being "men" and women being "women."
The plot may be a bit tired (slackers finally owning up to responsibilities) but the humorous banter between the characters and the subtle commentary breathes life into an otherwise mediocre shot at comedy.