Release Date: 26 July 2007

Synopsis :

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.

An overgrown kid who has no desire to settle down, Ben learns that he has a big decision to make with his kid's mom-to-be: will he hit the road or stay in the picture? Courting a woman you've just "Knocked Up," however, proves to be a little difficult when the two try their hands at dating. As they discover more about one another, it becomes painfully obvious that they're not the soul mates they'd hoped they might be.

With Allison's harried sister Debbie (Mann) and hen-pecked brother-in-law Pete (Rudd) the only parenting role models the young lovers have, things get even more confusing. Should they raise the baby together? What makes a happy lifetime partnership after all? A couple of drinks and one wild night later, they've got nine confusing months to figure it out...

Movie Review:

The 40th Year Old Virgin left me panting (from laughing) from one comedic set up to another and it was one of the rare flicks that left a jaw cramp in that year. With that wonderful memory of the first expose to director Judd Apatow’s deft touch on sexuality comedy, the expectation of his next film which incidentally had a sexual theme to it, left a craving for more of the same very crude but very effective humor.

What’s more, it’s about a pudgy and below average looking guy, Ben (Seth Rogen) scoring with very attractive lady, Allison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and accidentally made her pregnant. Incidentally belonging to that group of pudgy and below average looking group of guys, I can’t wait to relate to this “heroic deed” and perhaps learn some tricks from it.

But what was presented instead was a rather quick and almost “automatic” progression of Ben and the very gorgeous Allison hooking up. It felt that the focus wasn’t on the process of knocking up but it’s just a motif to showcase the difference between man and woman. Even the decision of keeping the baby and this unlikely couple becoming a couple seemed like so rushed and direct that there isn’t any much grey area to consider or poke fun at.

Rather then to milk all there are on the unlikely hook up or the decision to keep the baby for all it’s comedic worth , Knocked Up squandered much of the precious time on the very different mindset between the male and female species. It went on and on about the male ego and the female’s need, sidetracking to Allison’s sister problematic marriage which felt too much of a lecture on what make the male and female tick. Instead of entertaining, it felt like one had unsuspectingly walked into a married couple consultation session that was hard to sneak out from.

Perhaps this cynical and cranky review belongs to the minority as Knocked up is a major hit in the USA both critically and also to the casual viewers but personally, it’s was one of the most insipid comedy of the year and any social commentary that it tried to make, failed to make any impact that last longer than a one night stand.

Movie Rating:

(A mildly heartwarming comedic that neither loveable nor dislikeable, just unremarkable)

Review by Richard Lim Jr