Knocked Up (2007)

Director: Judd Apatow
Writer: Judd Apatow
Cast: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Jay Beruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr, Charlene Yi, Harold Ramis, Kristen Wiig
Genre: Comedy, Romance

The biggest problem with Knocked Up is the many kind of movies it tries to be, and how it fails at delivering any of them balanced and focused. The comedic entourage of Apatow makes Segel, Beruchel, Hill and several others line up as supporting acts, but their adolescent part of the story isn't in sync with the rest. Worst of all; it's really not that funny either. Rudd and Mann are set-up as the regular couple, with all the problems coming along, as a cautionary tale for our protagonists. As with the entourage, this couple doesn't either manage to either elevate them self into a major part of the primary story, or as a worthy sub-plot.

Thus far we're not happy, but it gets worse. Our leading one night stand couple are also divided as to which story they are spread at. Some parts aiming for comedy, some parts aiming for character development according to the new circumstances and some parts aiming for romance. Again. This can work, but just doesn't in this particular movie.

How come I still manage to rate it at five of ten? I do enjoy several scenes a lot, there's no doubt quite a lot of comedic talent here and some of the touchy romance stuff is also triggering that this-is-so-sweet-I-can-forgive-the-ten-minute-set-up parts. It doesn't defend more than two hour runtime, but every so often it shows in glimpses what each story could bring to the table on its own. That's some reward, but it also makes you wonder if there wasn't material enough for two different movies being a lot more focused, balanced and funny on its own.