"Knocked Up" getting fantastic reviews!

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:43pm

I'm even more excited for this movie now! It has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and the critical consensus on IMDB is great.

Judd Apatow's Knocked Up is receiving far better reviews than any of the big sequels that were released in May. In fact, A.O. Scott in the New York Times calls it "an instant classic." He writes: "The wonder of Knocked Up is that it never scolds or sneers. It is sharp but not mean, sweet but not soft, and for all its rowdy obscenity it rarely feels coarse or crude. What it does feel is honest: about love, about sex, and above all about the built-in discrepancies between what men and women expect from each other and what they are likely to get." Joe Morgenstern's review in the Wall Street Journal is filled with equal acclaim: "Judd Apatow's high-density, high-intensity comedy of bad (and good) manners is a cause for celebration -- the laugh lines are smart, and they come faster than you can process them. For anyone concerned about the state of mainstream films, this is also an occasion for some wonderment -- at Mr. Apatow's gift for mating the crowd-pleasing raunchiness with a generous spirit, genuine sweetness, uncommon delicacy, zestful social criticism and a moral dimension that provides substance and meaning without ever getting in the way," Morgenstern comments. Claudia Puig in USA Today calls Apatow "the new king of comedy" and calls the movie "a perfectly tuned romantic comedy that is consistently funny, whether reveling in bawdiness or laying bare its soul." Kyle Smith in the New York Post describes it as "a brilliant comedy disguised as a dumb one." And Michael Booth predicts in the Denver Post: "I doubt you'll see a funnier movie this summer than Knocked Up."

Even the AP critic in my local paper gave it four out of four stars.

Anyone planning on seeing this tonight or this weekend?
IMDB

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:46pm

Tomorrow definitely.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:50pm

I can't wait to see this.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:53pm

I'm definetly going to try to see this tomorrow. Damn rehearsal tonight.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:03pm

Can I come with you to see it?

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:12pm

Be my guest sandwich. Better hop a plane.

[xxnewgirlxx]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:12pm

I'm a bit cautious about it as I was disappointed by "the 40 Year Old Virgin". I adore Steve Carrell, but I was underwhelmed by the movie. But Judd Apatow was behind "Freaks and Geeks" so I cut him some slack.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:16pm

This movie looked funny, I will definitely go see it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:18pm

I'll just bold the most damning parts for those who want to miss spoilers. But, obviously, not all the reviews are "fantastic." Clearly, Mike White's recent article about the disturbing twists in Apatow's world view was the first red flag.

"Women Get Screwed"

By Peter Keogh

Having laughed more at The 40-Year-Old Virgin than at any other film in 2005, I expected much the same from Judd Apatow’s second comedy about contemporary sexual mores. And though I confess to breaking up more than once — how can you go wrong with Cirque du Soleil seen from the point of view of someone high on mushrooms? — I also have to report that spasms of irritation and downright anger matched every moment of merriment. So unsettling was the experience that I’m tempted to watch Virgin again to see whether its hilarity is as sweet-natured as everyone remembers it. Or whether it shows signs, in utero, of the misogyny, repressed rage, and reactionary politics given birth to here.

Apatow hides that condition well by casting Seth Rogen, a bearish mix of Albert Brooks and John Belushi, as protagonist Ben Stone, who’s first seen in a montage of beery, bongy, macho antics that are the embodiment of Animal House, 21st-century version. Ben’s roommates in their rancid LA apartment serve as exaggerated versions of his worst and funniest impulses; they’re the kind of guys Coors might use if its beer ads were R-rated. In lieu of employment, they’re working on a softcore-porn-movie Web site; this leads to much gratuitous pop-culture-laced humor (more laughs, I admit) and gratuitous nudity.

But Knocked Up’s attitude toward pop culture is where its ambivalence and hypocrisy start to show. Twentysomething Alison (Katherine Heigl) is a producer for E!, and her opening scene has her coddling Ryan Seacrest, of all people. At first it seems we’re supposed to laugh at Seacrest and this kind of crappy TV. Then, as if to avoid alienating the demographic that actually likes E! and American Idol, the film tries to make him kind of cool. And the same waffling and rationalizing greet the big issues of abortion and marriage. When Alison finds she’s pregnant after a sloppy one-night stand with Ben, her first impulse is to track down the stranger who was too drunk to use a condom or even remember what happened and, career be damned, get the hooks into him. Abortion? It’s the “A” word in a dismissive, comic scene. Real edgy. And Ben, like Apatow, gets gelded, renouncing his “freedom” to become a saintly pseudo-spouse catering to her every (increasingly irrational and hormonal) need.

Don’t think there’s no resentment — the film seethes with misdirected and unrecognized anger. Alison’s grotesquely emasculating sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife — what does that tell you?), represents the nadir of the matrimonial and parental state, incessantly berating her husband (a sad and witty Paul Rudd) for his inadequacies, driving him out of the house and then spying on him. Is this the future for Ben?

At times Knocked Up plays like an endless episode of Everyone Loves Raymond devoid of jokes and fraught with anxiety. There’d be more laughs if, instead of covertly blasting women, Apatow acknowledged that it’s matrimony, parenthood, and social conformity that are pissing him off and made them the butt of his humor.

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

Updated On: 6/1/07 at 04:18 PM

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:22pm

Where is the review from?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:25pm

That's from the Boston Phoenix. This if from the New York Times coverage of Mike White talking about the shift in Judd Apatow:

"To me, I definitely stand in the corner of wanting to give voice to the bullied, and not the bully. Here's where comedy is catharsis for people who are picked on. There's a strain in Knocked Up where you sort of feel like something’s changed a little bit. My sense of it is that because those guys are idiosyncratic-looking, their perception is that they're still the underdogs. But there is something about the spirit of the thing, that comes under the guise of comedy, where — it's weird. At some point it starts feeling like comedy of the bullies, rather than the bullied."

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:49pm

Apparently those reviews represent the minority Namo:

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

-Joe Leydon, Variety

"Judd Apatow's high-density, high-intensity comedy of good (and bad) manners is a cause for celebration-- the laugh lines are smart and they come faster than you can process them."

-Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

"It's hard enough to find comedies like this at any time, so it's a small and welcome miracle to come upon one in the midst of a typical movie summer, richer than ever in over-budgeted, underwhelming inanities."

-Richard Schickel, Time Magazine

"It may be a bit, um, premature to say so, but Judd Apatow's Knocked Up strikes me as an instant classic, a comedy that captures the sexual confusion and moral ambivalence of our moment."

-A.O Scott, New York Times

"If you want to hate on Judd Apatow's Knocked Up -- and the anti-crowdpleaser contingent will surely ding it -- then get ready to be drowned out by the sound of laughter from the rest of us."

-Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"An era-defining comedy classic to rank with Little Miss Sunshine. It is this generation's When Harry Met Sally..."

-Kyle Smith, New York Post

As much as I enjoy reading the Boston Phoenix every week, I'm inclined to listen to the critics from the New York Times and Time Magazine first.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 5:02pm

It's a little unfortunate that it's called "Knocked Up" though...

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 5:09pm

I can't wait to see it. I like the title..it deff. get's your attention.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 7:09pm

"It is this generation's When Harry Met Sally.."

Oh, talk about a frame of reference that REALLY clarifies things. Damning with faint praise and all...

I don't care about the Phoenix review, it's just nice that somebody is looking at the subtext that Apatow's former co-creator points out.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 10:23pm

I loved the Mike White piece in the NYTimes. I'm personally tired of the 30 year old perpetual state of adolescence male characters that dominate the genre (and its many sub genres).

I remember a first take on SIDEWAYS, and what I loved most about it was its insistence on skewering that new prototype. And critically, along the way, they actually dramatized, gasp, a real woman, not a caricature, played so winningly by Virginia Madsen. God, she acted like ... what's the word ... a grownup, in the entire film. As much as I howled at VIRGIN, I'm ready to see male characters who've arrived, with self-knowledge, not as money-grabbing yuppies, but as mere ... men. Male characters with ... character ... who don't grow up because they find out there's more to life than sex and bong. They grow up because it's the better way to experience the planet. This particular rite of passage -- the giving up of video games and weed and porn for, uh, you know, like, responsibility and all that, has been over-explored. I wish Apatow well. I bet it's funny as hell. I'd just like to see other takes on men ... as grown-up and smart and thoughtful ... as ... as Virginia Madsen was in SIDEWAYS. Wait--she was a woman. That's radical.

[theatreholic]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 10:24pm

Jonah Hill, who plays a charcater named Jonah, is my friend from Stagedoor Manor's older brother.

[ExpressThis]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 10:34pm

i just got back from the movie and i thought it was great. the audience was very receptive, and it was just funny!

[cabarethed]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 10:41pm

I'm going on Tuesday and I cannot WAIT. I am in love with most of the cast-- pretty much anything Apatow does for that matter. I still don't think it could ever replace 40 YO Virgin for me, but we'll see.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 11:37pm

It was hysterical.

I usually don't go for these kinds of movies. "40 Year Old Virgin" made me chuckle a few times, but that's really it.

This movie made me bust a gut. I had such a great time.

If you want to laugh...go.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 11:44pm

And how was the sexual politics, those who saw it and loved it?

[DG]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 11:51pm

Well, the male-bonding group who makes this stuff still knows what to push - it's HER that's on the cover of Entertainment Weekly this week. And they made sure she's all glammed up and showing off her . . . assets. And to make sure you know they're celebrating the TOTAL woman, they even have a pacifier dangling from one of her fingers.

One can only imagine that it's for the rest of the cast.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 11:53pm

Though the Grey's Anatomy connection was a very smart (some might even say cynical) touch.

[sweetdisaster]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 12:00am

I've really been looking forward to this movie. Can't wait to see it tomorrow! The reviews sound great.

[Mrs.LinkLarkin2]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 1:00am

I'm not usually a fan of these movies either but it was hilarious! Very rated R