Knocked Up

Uproarious. Line for line, minute to minute, writer-director Judd Apatow's latest effort is more explosively funny, more frequently, than nearly any other major studio release in recent memory.

Ultimately, what makes Knocked Up a terrific film--one of the year's best, easily--is its relaxed, shaggy vibe; if it feels improvised in places, that's because Apatow trusts his actors enough to let them make it up as they go, like the people they're playing.

What follows is an extreme case of reverse courtship, which begins at conception and works backward toward getting to know each other, and then moves forward to one of the funniest birthing scenes ever filmed.

Alas, while the verbiage bubbles, the plot slogs. You feel that there's a big pile of deleted scenes waiting to appear on the DVD -- and that a good bit of what's here should have joined it. Funny is good, but it requires sharp if it's to rise to true greatness.

Line for line, Knocked Up isn't quite as funny as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which got most of its laughs from the friction between prissy Carell and his sex-crazed stoner co-workers. But it is equally good as a nutty anthropology of marginal living and as an illustration of how much energy it takes to do nothing in a work-obsessed society.

Debbie gets away with being such a cauldron of extremes because the airy-voiced Mann is extremely good at playing them. She happens to be Apatow's wife (the kids in the movie are theirs), and with the possible exception of Téa Leoni , it's hard to imagine who else could get away with this combination of needling and affection.

Like most of Apatow's work, Knocked Up walks a perilous line between sarcasm and sentimentality, and though it's extremely funny in bursts, the movie flirts once too often with schmaltz before toppling into melodrama in its third act. The fault lies as much with Apatow's casting as his writing.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Not one of my favorites, but it's still a good movie. I remember it not being all that funny for me though.

I felt the much **** (critical) movie of This is 40 is much more entertaining option than this despite the more solemn message this is supposed to be about. It is so much so of the generic formula that I don't care about the characters, story or climax; for I know exactly what will happen. And I don't care about it. The worst part of this is that now I mostly considering movies by Judd Apatow as a white noise source when I am tired or bored to actually watch something substantial. While this is a objective review based on proper proof and reason, take my advise: Stay yhe hell the from this one if you can. The rest is up to you.

I'm waiting for when Seth Rogen will grow out of the stoner comedy phase of his career... I think he might actually be talented. For now, I just don't quite get it.

This movie is a corny chick-flick. There's no dark humor in it at all. If that's what you're into, have a blast. If not, then try "Observe and Report," or "Pineapple Express."