Go Get Knocked Up
Knocked Up
Dir: Judd Apatow
No plot, very little ‘story,’ absolute hilarity. This seems to be writer/director Judd Apatow’s modus operandi. Well, it’s worked once so far — 40 Year-Old Virgin was a great success — and why mess with a winning formula?
Bascially, this dorky guy (Seth Rogen) has a one night stand with an attractive woman (Katherine Heigl) after a night of too much drinking, she gets pregnant, they deal with it. The End.
A movie like this could be a complete bomb if it wasn’t for Apatow’s excellent script, which is not only hilarious but avoids any hint of cliche or sentimentalism while still being moving and heartfelt.
Another similarity with 40 Year-Old Virgin is the group of comic-relief sidekicks who tag along with the protaganist and get a lot of screen-time in their own right; again, all filler, but they’re so funny you don’t even notice that they’re filler.
There’s really not too much more to say or dissect about the movie — it’s smart, unique and funny without resorting to facile gags or ‘guy gets kicked in the crotch’ comedy.
The Culturatti 
As an aside, just read this on the Maclean’s
site
^ Wow. That’s highly, highly suspicious.
Everyone I’ve talked to loves this movie, I have to see it. Hopefully, I’m going to it tonight. Got briefed on the DVD yesterday, Universal is expecting it to keep picking up steam as it gets lots of radio and tv chatter giving it raving reviews.
The Maclean’s thing is fishy, I’m not convinced either way though.
It really isn’t like the setup is all that unique or clever, so the movie being a ripoff seems unlikely. Though perhaps I say this for selfish reasons — as I’ve actually written a screenplay with the same premise, though in a very different context. I can’t see Knocked Up yet (no Korean release date), so I don’t know just how similar they are, but I’m concerned enough. I’d suck to have worked on something so long only to find out it completely plagiarizes something I’ve never even seen.
^ Yeah, I wonder about that too i.e. writing something similar to something else that you’ve never read, then it gets published. What happens to yours? Is it simple a case of bad timing?
As regards the Knocked Up case though, the orig. screenplay had a picture of the cover of the book on it, so it’s obvious Apatow did read the book. That makes it a bit dicey . . .
Just because the covers are the same doesn’t make it proof that Apatow read the book. I’ve seen my own random ideas done by other people. It could very easily be coincidence. But it is definitely circumstantial evidence and very fishy.