Knocked Up

Judd Apatow seems to be everywhere. He was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed television show Freaks and Geeks and the writer-director of The 40 Year-Old Virgin. He will also lend his imprimatur to the upcoming teen sex comedy Superbad. In the meantime, he has produced another ribald farce in the style of Virgin (sans Steve Carell). In Knocked Up, a lovable stoner and budding internet-porn businessman played by Seth Rogen impregnates the Ashley Judd look-alike Katherine Heigl. She’s a gorgeous television personality; he’s a loser with a heart of gold. When they decide to have the baby together, laughs ensue. That’s the formula anyway, and what made Virgin work so well was Apatow’s fondness for Altman-like conversation and his healthy respect for these flawed, immature characters. (A plethora of dick- and boob-jokes didn’t hurt matters either.) Here, though, Apatow seems to think he’s making serious commentary on parenthood. Clocking in at two hours and ten minutes, it’s a bit long-winded. Still, much of the humor won’t be matched by any other movie this summer—in particular, there’s a hilarious passage about shaving one’s privates.