Knocked Up (2007)

Starring: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Siegel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill

First, The Lowdown: If the movie’s title doesn’t give you a clue, you need to read something else.

I’m going to do something here that you probably won’t see too often in a movie review and that is: divulge a rather intimate moment of my personal life. (Don’t break out the hand lotion just yet, boyo, it ain’t that kind of intimate.) My youngest daughter was not a planned birth. Hell, I hadn’t even been married to her mother at the time she was conceived. But one magic evening when we were camping on Memorial Day weekend (and after plenty of intoxicants), my then-fiancée and I went back to our tent for some canoodling and completely ignored the fact that we hadn’t renewed her birth control for about a month. Believe it or not, I was actually pretty cognizant of what I was doing at the time, however, and while I probably was more than a little artificially emboldened (thank you Bushmill’s), the main thought I had when I was in congress was “Hey, I’m gonna marry her anyway and I think I’d make a pretty good dad.” Nine months later I bore witness to the happiest thing in my life (far surpassing the orgy I had a month after my birthday.)

Ben Stone is a simple guy with simple goals. His main passions in life are drinking, smoking pot, re-enacting Jackass stunts with his roomies, and cataloguing all actress’ nude appearances in film to put up on a pay website. Alison, by contrast is locked into a steady career as a floor director for the E! Network. She still lives with her sister Debbie and brother in law Pete and their two children. While Alison adores her nieces, she views her sister’s marriage as something to avoid.

After a busy day of wrangling Hollywood talent and corralling Ryan Seacrest, Alison is promoted to an on-camera position as interviewer. Hearing the good news, Alison and Debbie go out clubbing to celebrate. Ben and crew are at the same club, however – probably just to drink. Ben comes to Alison’s rescue at the bar when the bartender refuses to take their order and pretty soon they start talking. And drinking. And talking. And more drinking. And – well you know the rest if you understand the meaning of the movie’s title. The morning after they part company thinking nothing more of it and not really expecting to see each other at all in the near future.

Fast forward two months. Alison is now throwing up everywhere (but not on James Franco during a interview, dammit) and suddenly realizes that she can’t remember the last period she had. (“How does she look right now? She looks like she just realized that she’s pregnant.”) A fevered trip to the grocery store (and trying EVERY over-the-counter test known to man) only confirms her suspicions and now she has to call Ben and give him the news. A visit to the Ob-Gyn only seals the deal. Now Alison has to figure out whether she can have a baby and a career and Ben has to figure out if he can deal with Alison having his baby.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this movie as much as I did, honestly. Most of the times I avoid over-hyped comedies (I’m looking at you “American Pie”), but I was pleasantly surprised to watch something that was not only consumer-friendly but was pretty well written. If anything I appreciated that the characters aren’t one note, nor did their development seem contrived. I also appreciated that as a lead Ben was goofy, but not entirely stoopid either. It’s nice to know that unplanned pregnancy can be treated with levity in film without it digressing into parody or saccharine drivel.

Line of the movie: “Why did we go to Costco and buy a year's supply of condoms if you weren't gonna use 'em, man?”

Four stars. Don’t let your meat loaf.