Ooh! Movie buzz! And I am not making this up! The soon-to-be smash hit comedy "Knocked Up"!
...on the heels of 2005's blockbuster The 40-Year-Old Virgin, writer/director Judd Apatow again mines hilarity from the relatably human in a comedy about a one-night stand with unexpected consequences: Knocked Up. Katherine Heigl (Grey's Anatomy, Roswell) joins Virgin alums Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann for a comic look about the best thing that will ever ruin your best-laid plans: parenthood. Allison Scott (Heigl) is an up-and-coming entertainment journalist whose 24-year-old life is on the fast track. But it gets seriously derailed when a drunken one-nighter with slacker Ben Stone (Rogen) results in an unwanted pregnancy. Faced with the prospect of going it alone or getting to know the baby's father, Allison decides to give the lovable doof a chance.
So I went to the website and watched the trailer and yeah what a lovable doof he is and how totally betchin' that he decides to commit to the thin blonde fox he accidently got drunk and then pregnant.
And this is clean white America so no mention of STD's, kay? I mean, she works for E Entertainment Television! What could you possibly catch from a drunken blonde who works for E?
And he looks like he hasn't shaved or showered in three days, so yeah, of course she had to be drunk to sleep with him, duh, but this baby is going to make them fall in love.
Oh, they buy a baby Bjorn carrier together! Cute! Bonding! Nevermind those things are eighty bucks and it doesn't appear the "lovable doof" has a job. Also, script tip, make sure none of the slacker friends works for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has reports of nine infants suffering skull fractures from "slipping through the leg openings of these carriers and falling to the ground." Wouldn't wanna jeopordize the product placement dollars on that one.
Good thing nobody younger than seventeen ever gets to see a movie like this because, shuh, it would be, like, a really mixed message about sexual responsibility to communicate to a young, impressionable person.
Rated R for reprehensible?
UPDATE: I don't want to come across as an anti-sex prude here. And I'm torn about giving this movie any more attention. But seriously, does anyone here think the conversation these two people are having is FUNNY? (This is the, ahem, "European" trailer, NSFW language.)
Um, yes, he actually does ask her if her vagina was drunk. LOL!
Ha, ha! Unwanted pregnancy is so wacky!
ReplyDeleteUnprotected sex is so silly!
Men always assuming protection is the woman's job is so light-hearted!
Jesus.
Another thing: Does anyone really say "slacker" anymore? Has any human being ever actually called someone a "lovable doof?"
ReplyDeleteTell me *one* thing that's lovable about that "doof," please.
Christ, crap like this makes me hate movies. And I love movies.
OMG, this is so depressing on so many levels. And, after renting "Borat" last night, (and walking out of my own living room in order to take a deep cleansing breath and shed a tear for women everywhere, 'cause Twisty is right in every goddamn way about the patriarchy's hatred of women) I have to wonder what it is about me, or the current state of comedy that makes me want to slit my wrists.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't judge this one before I saw it. If one just went by the trailers for The 40-Year-Old Virgin, one wouldn't have thought there was much of value to be found there, either. But that was one of the best films I've seen for challenging head-on the expected norms for straight men. It portrayed men as emotional, loving, complicated, individual. (Women, too.) It conveyed that not all straight men are homophobes and misogynists--and that some are, the ones who aren't can change the others' minds sometimes.
ReplyDeleteJudd Apatow is the guy behind Freaks and Geeks, too. His projects are very specific--they're broad comedies about people (people very much like us, as it happens) who depend on their friends through life-changing expeiences, and come out wiser and stronger and more tolerant on the other side.
That's the history of his work. And because of that history, I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt, anyway.
One of the reasons I got Netflix in the first place is because one day I walked the entire perimeter of the local blockbuster and couldn't find a single new release with any social relevance.
ReplyDeleteThis film may mark a new low. That trailer was painfully unfunny. I knew 40-Year Old Virgin was bad, but imagine a worse concept and no Steve Carrell? Horrifying.
I posted before reading Shakes comment, which was quite persuasive. But that trailer casts major aspersions at least on their marketing people.
ReplyDeleteI'll wait for Shakes review.
"No one has ever gone broke underestimating the taste of the American Public"- H.L. Mencken.
ReplyDeleteI guess if you thought Porky's was great cinema, then this is the film for you.
OMG, this is so depressing on so many levels.
ReplyDeleteYup.
Maybe the fundies are right after all. Maybe Hollywood is indeed morally bankrupt. And also full of really stoopid people...
full of really stoopid people...
ReplyDeleteyes dave, i think that's it. either stupid or imagination challenged.
Sorry, I think you guys are overreacting. The 40 Year Old Virgin was funny and touching, and if this movie is made by the same guy, then that's a good enough sales pitch for me. Trailers are not made by the director; they are made by the marketing department whose goal is to get as many popcorn-munching, soda-slurping asses in the seats as possible. This often results in a misrepresentation of the product, just like with most other advertising. Moreover, humor can be an effective way to expose the pitfalls of unprotected sex.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...
ReplyDeleteI get to see so few movies in the theatre (and not that many more in my living room, truth be told), so I'll definitely wait for some trusted friends to tell me if I'll be happy or pissed off beyond belief that I squandered a rare movie date on this one.
It sounds a bit formulaic for my taste, but I have been pleasantly surprised before. It's just that I'm almost always disappointed, though!
(I just bought Casino Royale on DVD and I can't wait...I have yet to hear or read a bad review.)
Okay. Somebody pitches a movie to me whose premise is a professional woman who's career is going somewhere gets so drunk she sleeps with a stranger, is too drunk to either be aware that he is wearing a condom or too drunk to care. She gets pregnant and rather than "go it alone" invites him on a second date where he humiliates her by asking if her vagina was drunk too.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that through the tremendous humanity and sensitivity of the director, as demonstrated in his earlier movie The 40 Year Old Virgin, (yes, I saw it and was underwhelmed, sorry) we should wait and see because, while yeah, the set up us basically correct, the trailer guys didn't make this movie. They just pull out the "funny parts" and put them up to sell tickets.
And I'm supposed to tell my senior high school students what? That it's just a movie? That while, yeah, the two characters behaved badly (they endangered their health and frankly the woman endangered her life sleeping with a stranger she met in a bar after getting that drunk imo) they probably find out in the end that what really matters is not the initial commitment, maturity, and mutual respect that we wish every parent would give every child born into this world, what matters is that a cute baby and wacky friends can teach us to make up for our "mistakes."
Count me out. I have two daughters and they are going to understand from the get go that they do NOT GET DRUNK in public, period. That they put their health, their lives, and their self-respect (and YES fucking God dammit dammit that is just as important as the other two) at risk if they do so. They will also be taught (at 3 and 4 1/2 they're a little young for this talk yet but soon) that sleeping with just any guy you met tonight 'cause he's funny and cute and you've had a little too much to drink is OUT in their mother's book. I don't give a rat's ass if I sound like a prude. My mother taught me self-respect meant saving myself, not necessarily for marriage, but for a man WORTHY of me. That self-worth is the least I can give my daughters.
Rant off.
"Over-reacting" my Quaker hyney. Dumb is dumb. Got better things to waste my time with. The 40 Year Old Virgin was utter crap. The only thing I found "touching" about it was that I was 'touched" for the rental fee. Couldn't get that puppy back into the return envelope fast enough.
ReplyDeleteRant, on, BG.
I have to agree with both BG and QD. How many 'kids' are going to spot the 'pitfalls of unprotected sex'? Hell, it hasn't been spotted in several millenia, why would the 'light' get turned on now in hormonally-challenged young brains?
ReplyDeleteThis movie is 'lack-a-brain fodder' for the masses, just like so many that are considered funny by the general public, because if you don't think it's funny, then you aren't part of the fricking social construct that you should have been programmed to adhere to by now (BTW,I'm sure the gladiatorial games was considered great fun for the whole family in Rome at one time).
I have no real opinion of the movie in question; however, I do have an opinion about this type of movie. It's not a good opinion and I don't waste my time on them. This opinion isn't because I'm prim or proper (hell, those who know me will wholeheartedly agree with that), but because stupid is still stupid, no matter how 'cute' you make it and thinking that getting a woman drunk and 'accidently' pregnant ranks right up there with 'frat-boy' humour. People, we're smarter than that.
This movie is not a documentary on dating. It's a comedy. Presumably, Blue Gal, by the time your daughters are old enough to watch movies like this, they will have received several years of serious guidance & education regarding the consequences of unprotected, and for that matter, protected sex and will therefore see these movies as the banal-but-sometimes-satisfying entertainment that they are and nothing else. This movie is not a suggestion for how young people should act. It's a comedy with outrageous scenarios and stupid one-liners. Besides, it's rated 'R,' so why are we even discussing its impact on children? In fact, with all that's fucked up about the world, why are we even discussing this movie at all? AAArrrrggg! Now I have that feeling I get whenever I read an article in the "Entertainment" section.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of being drummed out of the BG Fan Club, I gotta go with Shake's Sis and Big Daddy on this one. I agree the trailer is lame, but not for the social content...it just ain't funny.
ReplyDelete1. It's a movie, not a primer on who or how to sleep with someone.
2. The issue of birth control and STD risk seems to be an equal opportunity screwup. True, the man assumed the woman used something, but the same could be true of the woman.
3. If it's social commentary you're after, you could easily use it as an example of what NOT to do, rather than something that encourages bad behavior (which sounds a little like the Dobsonian response to birth control - it only increases the likelihood of sex.)
4. And speaking about Dobson, doesn't he routinely trash movies he hasn't seen? I'm not accusing anyone of that level of stupidity here, but still...
5. Everyone is right. BG, it's your prerogative to trash the movie (it DOES look like a stinker to me) and those who want to see it are free to see it as well.
I didn't take BG's review as a call to censor anything, just her opinion that it's a stupid movie full of swill she'd rather not see, that was neither funny nor socially correct...and that's OK with me.
I guess what confuses me is what it is about this particular movie that makes it any better or worse than the other 47 movies each year that plow the same field with equally crappy results.
At the end of the day, it's only a movie, and oddly enough, one that will unite left and right in thinking it's crap they won't see.
I mean, come on. A dumb teenage sex romp that can unite people can't be all bad can it?
Hmmm... Movie shows drunken one-night stand resulting in pregnancy... Why that's positively PROMOTING BINGE DRINKING & PROMISCUITY! Now every young whippersnapper is going to want to go out, get drunk, have unprotected sex, and become pregnant (and won't they be disappointed if they don't get pregnant on the first try!).
ReplyDeleteUm, anyone ever notice that comedy can be used to ridicule absurd behavior? (And morality plays are soooo five centuries ago.)
That said, I didn't think the trailer was particularly funny. But comedy is entirely dependent on context, so it's quite possible that this particular scene might be a lot more humorous if we knew more about the characters and the events prior to the scene.
I have to at least partially agree with Shakes and Big Daddy. It's only a movie. And ostensibly, a comedy. Comedies can draw their material from any source, whether the source is funny or not. Mel Brooks, who was funny once, has mocked the Nazis and the Spanish Inquisition. It's not the filmmaker's responsibility to make sure our impressionable little tykes get the message that unprotected, drunken sex is a no-no.
ReplyDeleteAnd we don't know whether this flick is going to have a message, much less what that message might be. Maybe she learns her lesson, aborts the pregnancy, and then becomes godmother to the progeny of the slacker's next accident.
I don't know. I don't care. It doesn't look like it's going to be funny. If I hear good things about it, I'll consider catching it when HBO gets around to running it.
Whoa, buckaroos. This comment thread sure has taken on a life of its own since I was last here. I know I'm late in jumping back in, but I've been taking the day job on the road to parts of the midwest so desolate that cell phones don't work and people actually stop and look up when a motorized vehicle drives by. Internet? You must be kidding.
ReplyDeleteI'm still with BG on this one. The plot line smacks of right wingnut Christian morality: Uppity career gal gets her well-deserved comeuppance for bad behavior, i.e., pregnancy, and discovers that said pregnancy is, instead, a rare gift and the key to finding true love and fulfillment in her life.
Hollywood, for all its right wing detractors, hates women as much as any other western institution. This "comedy" is just another regurgitation of the SOS. And while it's possible that the actual movie will not resemble the advance publicity, the publicity itself is worth reviewing for what it reveals about the audience this film hopes to attract.
I'd feel less depressed if I believed for two seconds that a significant number of viewers might be capable of discerning the subtext of this sort of movie - that viewers might actually analyze the content and context for say, five minutes?
Then again, no one ever wants to go to the movies with me 'cause, as one friend so lovingly put it, "you're too fussy."
BG, I'll buy the tickets if you get the popcorn, but I'm not seeing this film with you or anyone else.
Right. Kids younger than 16 NEVER watch R-rated films. Uh-huh. And they certainly are never influenced by what they see in the media. I know I'm convinced.
ReplyDeleteQD, by that line of reasoning no movies should ever get made. Hannah and her Sisters, Last Tango in Paris, The Godfather, Jaws, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and many, many more wildly successful and critically acclaimed films portray several forms of bad behavior. Should we ban them all because some neglected kid might get the wrong idea? What about rock music? Jazz? Blues? Theater? Or perhaps absolutely every work of art or bit of media should be geared to seven-year-olds, eh? Leave the censorship-disguised-as-child-overprotection to Tipper Gore.
ReplyDeleteUnplanned and unwanted pregnancy - the laff riot will never stop.
ReplyDeleteAnd as long as we're talking about how this will impact impressionable youth: the heroine's choices are have the baby or have the baby.
This does not get the Tengrain Seal of Approval.
Regards,
Tengrain
But seriously, does anyone here think the conversation these two people are having is FUNNY?
ReplyDelete*waves hand sheepishly and says*
"Me?"
I'm with Shakes on this, BG. Apatow earned major league credits in my book with Virgin. I'm reserving judgment.
Well, first off, nobody's gonna get kicked out of any BG circle over this dumb movie. In that regard, it is just a dumb movie.
ReplyDeleteThen again, sexual responsibility, both practiced personally and supported at the government policy level, is one of several themes at this here blog.
I told Shakes that if she sees this movie and likes it, I would rent it. I promised.
Maybe I'll blog it again after that.
The trailor leaves much to be desired, and is certainly a reason why I would probably not pay to see this movie -- at least not "pay" as in going to a theatre.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and didn't bother to see it until I turned on one of the premium movie channels I have (can't remember which one) and there it was.
While it's not the best movie I've ever watched, I found that I actually enjoyed it much more than I would have thought.
So I'm going to play the role of '2008 presidential candidate' and say that I agree with both Shakes AND BG.
BAC
I judge these things by a bizarre criteria -- do I laugh or not. I laughed at the trailer. I don't give a rat's ass about the messages it sends or the social commentary it espouses. It's not that I don't care about those things, it just I don't expect to find them in every funny movie.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it WILL be a funny movie, but some of the comments here are just a little bit holier-than-thou.
Oh and Blue Gal, you have just guaranteed that your daughters will, in fact, get drunk in public. Just like my son is gonna worship Jesus.