Knocked Up (2007)

Director:

Judd Apatow

Writer (WGA):

Judd Apatow (written by)

Release Date:

1 June 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Save the due date

Plot:

For fun loving party animal Ben Stone, the last thing he ever expected was for his one night stand to show up on his doorstep eight weeks later to tell him she's pregnant.

Plot Keywords:

Canadian Stereotype | Ping Pong | Strong Language | Breakup | Restaurant

Awards:

3 wins & 10 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. May 18	9:00 PM	HBO
Mon. May 19	3:55 AM	HBO

Cast

Seth Rogen	...	Ben Stone
Katherine Heigl	...	Alison Scott
Paul Rudd	...	Pete
Leslie Mann	...	Debbie
Jason Segel	...	Jason
Jay Baruchel	...	Jay
Jonah Hill	...	Jonah
Martin Starr	...	Martin
Charlyne Yi	...	Jodi
Maude Apatow	...	Sadie
Joanna Kerns	...	Alison’s Mom
Harold Ramis	...	Ben's Dad
Alan Tudyk	...	Jack
Kristen Wiig	...	Jill
Bill Hader	...	Brent

Also Known As:

Untitled Judd Apatow Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, drug use and language.

Runtime:

USA:129 min | 133 min (unrated DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Taiwan:R-12 | France:Unrated | Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Malaysia:18PL (cut) | USA:R (certificate #43288) | Italy:VM14 | Canada:14A (Manitoba) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Sweden:7 | Philippines:R-18 | Germany:12 | Australia:MA | Netherlands:12 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-13 | Singapore:M18 (also unrated version) | Brazil:16 | South Korea:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Argentina:16 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Denmark:7 | Norway:11 | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Del's Saloon - 12238 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Jay Baruchel is terrified of roller-coasters. In the opening sequence where they are at the amusement park he was forced to go on it by Judd Apatow. He only agreed to ride it once, whereas the rest of the cast rode the coaster 7 more times to get all the right takes.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Ben and Alison are drinking and dancing the night they meet at the club, her hair alternates between neatly up and down. When they are shown exiting the club, her hair is once again neatly pulled back.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jay: I got to get off! I got to get off! Got to get off! Got to get off!

Movie Connections:

References Transamerica (2005)

Soundtrack:

King without a Crown

Accepts Itself

Even the lowest brow films reward if you allow yourself to watch the machinery of the thing as well as the thing itself.

The narrative itself is unrewarding. The humor is weak, the romance ineffective. But what the thing actually is charms.

A standard romance has the wonderful girl, the clumsy guy who gets the girl, loses the girl by some complication, and then gets her back, usually involving some public, folded activity. These things are billed as date movies and have highly evolved values for both men and women.

The woman's stuff is usually handled by making the guy solidly desirable at root, and supplementing that with some truth about the internals of a woman's life. But the formula is so worn out that studios put heavy attention into innovations that tap the same energy and use the same bankable conventions, but in new ways.

So here we have a new twist on the woman's angle. Oh, it has something for the guys, who apparently can be appeased by a few jokes about how doofy we are. The fact that so little will carry us while other complicated narrative dynamics are spun, says more about how doofy we are than the truth of any joke.

Those complicated dynamics have to do with the girl-to-girl conversation about the world they have to tolerate. By that I mean the wall of incompetence they face in emotional support. So this is a romance with a loser but its okay because all men are losers.

Interestingly, it works. It works better than I would have expected, and that's trying to see it from both sides.

Its a clever experiment perhaps two steps closer to defusing the fantasy of the genre is a self-critical fashion.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.