DVD Release Date:  September 25, 2007
Theatrical Release Date: June 1, 2007
Rating: R (for sexual content, drug use and language)
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Run Time: 129 min.
Director: Judd Apatow
Actors: Seth Rogan, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, Joanna Kerns, Harold Ramis, Alan Tudyk, Kristen Wiig

It’s not every day you open your thesaurus looking for synonyms for words like “vulgar” or “obscene,” but reviewing a movie like Knocked Up will do that to you. The film has some great comic appeal. It has many endearing emotional moments. It even has an uplifting pro-life message. Unfortunately, you will have to stomach a mountain of obscenity to get to good stuff.

As anyone who has ever had a child can tell you, the issues of pregnancy and childbirth are certainly ripe for comedy. And this sort of “Oh no, we are having a baby, what do we do?” story has been told before. But with today’s mores, however, filmmakers can take can takes the coarseness of a film to a whole new level. Which isn’t to say there aren’t a lot of laughs here--there are. It’s just the sickening, frat boy crudity makes it difficult to truly enjoy them.

Entertainment journalist Alison (Katherine Heigl), goes out for a night on the town with big sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) to celebrate a promotion at work. At a club she meets lovable Ben (Seth Rogan), and the two hit it off. After a few hours of drinking and dancing and more drinking, the two stumble back to her place for sex. In their inebriated state, miscommunication occurs over the issue of contraception and it is subsequently overlooked. Then, the next day when everyone sobers-up, it is clear that the two are horribly mismatched. Put-together, professional Alison discovers that Ben is a slovenly slacker who lives with four roommates, can’t afford a mobile phone, and smokes a great deal of weed. His “job” is developing a web site that catalogs nudity in film.

The two move on from their “one night stand” never to see each other again except . . . Alison starts getting sick in the middle of her interviews and uh-oh, discovers a baby is on the way. She quickly gets back in touch with Slacker Ben for “date” #2 to give him the news; he’s going to be a daddy.

You would expect Ben to freak out, and he does at first. But he quickly readjusts to the situation. After a round of silly advice from his goofball friends he turns to his father (the tragically underused Harold Ramis). In one of the film’s most poignant scenes, Dad tells Ben that sometimes life throws you a curveball and you just have to make the best of it. This gives him the gumption to tell Alison he is on-board for whatever she decides.