Saturday, September 22, 2007

Knocked Up DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Unplanned Pregnancy Comedy Comes to DVD

Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) are polar opposites with nothing in common. She’s an ambitious, aspiring journalist who just landed her big break as an on-air reporter for the E! Television Network. He’s an unemployed underachiever who’s sharing a bachelor pad with four equally-immature couch potatoes.
So, she’s on the fast track to the top of the showbiz ladder, at least until the fateful moment that this flirtatious, curly-headed stranger approaches her in a pickup bar. Against her better judgment, she invites him back to her apartment, where she compounds that mistake by assuming a compromising position without first making sure he’s using protection.
The next morning, as their hangovers wear off, they instantly grate on each others nerves, making it abundantly clear that their ill-advised abandon had been the result of an alcohol-fueled, temporary insanity. So, they part company never expecting to set eyes on one another again.
Eight weeks later, however, after Alison has missed a couple of periods, she determines that she’s expecting and tracks down her sperm donor to let him know he’s going to be a daddy. Needless to say, Ben, a sleazy slacker who would rather be chasing his next conquest than changing diapers, takes the news of his impending fatherhood very badly.
This contentious premise provides plenty of opportunities not only for further acrimony but also sows the seeds for potential post-coital romance in Knocked Up, a coarse yet curiously charming battle-of-the-sexes comedy which offsets lowbrow humor with enough convincingly tenderhearted moments to make for a picture with universal appeal. A thinly-veiled family values flick which somehow which manages to convince you that it’s possible to transform a misogynist into a doting father on the guilt of an unplanned pregnancy.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 129 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios Home Video
DVD Extras: Commentaries by the director, the executive producer and by co-stars Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, deleted, extended and alternate scenes, gag reel, Loudon Wainwright music video, plus four featurettes.

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