Knocked Up (2007)

For fun loving party animal Ben Stone, the last thing he ever expected was for his one night stand to show up on his doorstep eight weeks later to tell him she's pregnant.

Director:

Judd Apatow

Writer:

Judd Apatow

Stars:

Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd

4 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Seth Rogen	...	Ben Stone
Katherine Heigl	...	Alison Scott
Paul Rudd	...	Pete
Leslie Mann	...	Debbie
Jason Segel	...	Jason
Jay Baruchel	...	Jay
Jonah Hill	...	Jonah
Martin Starr	...	Martin
Charlyne Yi	...	Jodi
Iris Apatow	...	Charlotte
Maude Apatow	...	Sadie
Joanna Kerns	...	Alison's Mom
Harold Ramis	...	Ben's Dad
Alan Tudyk	...	Jack
Kristen Wiig	...	Jill

Storyline

When Alison Scott is promoted in E! Television, she goes to a night-club to celebrate with her older married sister Debbie. Alison meets the pothead reckless Ben Stone and while having a small talk with Ben, Debbie's husband Pete calls her to tell that their daughter has chicken pox. Debbie leaves the place but Allison stays with Ben, drinking and dancing along all night; completely wasted, they end up having a one night stand. Ben does not use condom and eight weeks later, Allison discovers that she is pregnant. She calls Ben and they decide to try to stay together and have the baby. However, Ben needs to grow-up first to raise a family of his own.

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Plot Keywords:

One Night Stand | Condom | Party | Website | Club | 

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Taglines:

A one night stand that turned into something more.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [es] Official site [jp]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Judd Apatow Project

Filming Locations:

Del's Saloon - 12238 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,583,998 (UK) (24 August 2007)

Gross:

£8,165,211 (UK) (28 September 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Apatow Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min 133 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Much of the dialogue was improvised by the actors or fed to them in the moment by Judd Apatow just before a take.

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Goofs

In the scene where Jonah and Jason are playing Ping-Pong, Allison's car is shown in the background.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jay: I got to get off! I got to get off! Got to get off! Got to get off!

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Crazy Credits

Baby photos of the cast and crew are shown during the closing credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Chelsea Lately: Episode #6.193 (2012)
Chelsea mentions the movie by name.

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Soundtracks

"Biggest Part of Me"
Written by David Pack (as David Robert Pack)
Performed by Ambrosia
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User Reviews

Decent, but I don't see what all of the fuss is about.

I went into the theater not knowing what to expect, not having seen the trailer, and two hours later I felt I had seen a decent movie, quite funny at times, but I couldn't figure out what everyone was making such a big deal about. Compared to a lot of what passes for comedy in the cinema these days, Knocked Up is great, but it's hardly the "instant classic" that I've seen it called in many professional and IMDb reviews. It's certainly worth seeing, but maybe at a discount matinée instead of a full-price evening show.

Much of what is wrong with Knocked Up is simply an over-reliance on Seth Rogen to deliver the laughs. To be sure, Rogen is a funny guy - he handled the jump from second-tier supporting actor (a la 40 Year Old Virgin) to leading man surprisingly well, appearing confident and charismatic. The problem is that as the film goes on, he just doesn't get a whole lot to work with from his supporting cast. Rogen doesn't have enough in him at this point to carry an entire film on his shoulders, but often he is forced into that role, providing the only humor in many scenes (especially in the second half of the movie). At times it almost seems as if Rogen has landed in the wrong film, delivering clever quips and laughs while the barely-likable characters around him remain too serious. Paul Rudd manages to break this up, taking some of the burden off Rogen, but Katherine Heigl and Leslie Mann's unfunny and quasi-sympathetic characters drag them down.

To be sure, the first half of Knocked Up is great, but by the second half the script becomes mired in slow, cliché drama. Marital dissatisfaction and the loss of youth are interesting themes to explore, but in doing so, Knocked Up fails to establish a consistent tone. As the film trudges past the 90-minute mark, it is sometimes humorous, sometimes dour, often clichéd, all resulting in an awkward mix of styles.

Overall, Knocked Up was a good effort, but a little more editing of the script would have helped a lot. I don't mind long movies at all, but 20 minutes could have been trimmed from this film to good effect.