The Rant: Knocked Up

There are certain eras where a filmmaker puts out movies that cross over exactly into what I want out of movies at that specific time. There’s the Kevin Smith era, the Cameron Crowe era, the Quentin Tarantino era, the Richard Linklater era…After Talladega Nights, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and now, Knocked Up, I think TC and M is heading into the Judd Apatow era.

So, I caught Knocked Up over the weekend with medium sized expectations. When the leads are hot, but annoying Izzie from shitty Grey’s Anatomy and one half of the “You wanna know how I know you’re gay?” guys from 40 Year Old, you can’t help but be a little leery. All fears were set aside as soon as I heard “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” by Ol’ Dirty Bastard over the opening credits. As usual this isn’t an actual review, just some observations, and it this case it’s actually a celebration, bitches!

Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan need to be in every movie. All of them. I don’t care if their in the corner throwing lines like “You look like Babe Ruth’s brother, GAYbe Ruth”. Just having them on-screen talking shit gives a movie a plus for authenticity.

As a sucker for relationship movies, “Knocked Up” is one of the more genuine depictions of a relationship I’ve ever seen. The four main characters are all loveable, contempt worthy, compassionate, and self destructive all at the same time. The great thing is that “Knocked Up” gives the characters the time to let them earn it. The movie doesn’t make judgments either. It just lays the situation out there and let’s you confront your own views of relationships to make a decision. You don’t feel a certain way just because they tell you to. Compare this to the atrocious Last Kiss I saw last year.
There are a lot of “OMG this is my life” scenes in “Knocked Up”. Two in particular stood out.

There’s a bit where Leslie Mann’s character is telling Heigl how to deal with a man in a relationship. It involved continually pointing out the man’s shortcomings to the point he feels so bad about himself he has to change. It was like she was reading from the handbook of “Women who have dated Paj”. Needless to say I quivered out of anger in that sequence.

The second scene involved Leslie Mann trailing Paul Rudd thinking he’s having an affair, only to find out he’s been lying to sneak away for a Rotisserie Baseball draft. Now this happened to me TWICE! Not exactly how it happened in the movie, but on two separate occasions and two separate girlfriends I was busted trying to fly to my Fantasy Football draft and not telling them. Both times it led me to not going. It directly led to my being dumped the last time it happened. It’s awesome decision making on my part that can explain why my football team is stuck being named after a homosexual Japanese singing group for yet another year. Well on the bright side, I have a career winning percentage of 37%.

“Oooh Baby I like it Raw” - Anyone that hears me speak in a non-professional setting knows that I have a pretty fuckin’ bad potty mouth. Well after watching the fuckin’ movie I feel like I’m mutherfuckin’ not so fuckin’ bad after all. Really, the dialogue is fuckin fuckin every other fuckin word at times. Thanks for fuckin keepin it fuckin real, yo!

The bit players in “Knocked Up” have some great scene stealing moments. Kristen Wiig from SNL is great as a passive aggressive corporate monkey. B.J. Novak has a great moment of inappropriate smooth. Some guy does a Jabba the Hutt impersonation that the person two rows in front of me is still laughing about as we speak. Still the best cameo is by Craig Robinson aka Darryl from The Office. His doorman scene was the shizzle. There aren’t many actors who can pull off consoling someone by telling them “if I could I’d take you home and turn that old ass out” or something to that effect. One of my favorite scenes in the movie. Dinkum Flicka, yo!

I know there are other reasons for this, but the fact that Katherine Heigl’s bra stayed on even during the sex scenes actually helped the movie. As in, subconsciously there’s still a level of acceptance that hasn’t been reached yet and, hopefully, as the relationship evolves, someday Seth Rogan will get to have sex with her AND see her naked boobies.

Oh yeah, there’s a crowning shot. Wait no there’s actually two. It’s like the Franks and Beans scene from There’s Something About Mary for women.
Really, yo. See this movie. I’ll be busy putting this on the TC and M Mt. Rushmore.