Knocked Up – Bawdy rom-com

If I’m being cruel, I could say that if you’ve seen one Judd Apatow movie then you’ve probably seen most of them.  That’s because they almost always feature the same group of socially-awkward guys trying to get with a girl while generally making fart jokes and smoking weed. ‘Knocked Up’ fits that description pretty well.  However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth a watch.

After a drunken one night stand between loser web designer Seth Rogen and E! Reporter Katherine Heigl, the latter ends up getting, er, knocked up.  Now they have to overcome their differences and see whether they can make it as a couple for each other and for the unborn baby’s sake.

Seth Rogen basically plays, er, Seth Rogen - lovable, overweight stoner with a dirty sense of humour.  Katherine Heigl plays - if you believe what you read online - actually a nicer version of herself (note: this film sort of became infamous due to the fact that Katherine Heigl made claims about how bad it was to work on due to all the 'male humour' on display around the set (and it didn't do her career many favours going forwards!)).  But, sticking with the on-screen performances, they seem to have enough chemistry to just about believe that they may get together in some sort of paralell Hollywood universe.

There are plenty of other cast members, all of which don't get half as much screen time.  Rogen's 'posse' of friends are mainly there as walking punch-lines, while more screen time is afforded to Heigl's on-screen family, namely her sister and her husband.  These two went on to get their own 'spin-off' movie, but I can't help but think that may have something to do with the actress' relationship with Apatow.

It's a fun time that offers little new, but has enough gags contained within to make it an easy film to sit through.  If it has a main drawback, like with many Apatow comedies it is slightly longer than many similar stories.  It clocks in at around the two hour mark, meaning there's a lot more to it than you may expect.  In some areas it does drag a little, but luckily not enough to really make it annoying.

It's basically a romantic comedy which follows the conventions beat for beat that every other film of the same genre does.  You could argue that that's a negative, but, if you're in the mood for a 'boy meets girl' story (with plenty of 'adult' humour'), or just a fan of 'Apatow's gang' then this is definitely worth a watch.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that