'Knocked Up' - a review…well, sort of

It does not seem so long ago that I was watching and reading reviews about a hilarious romantic comedy that one reviewer said nine out of ten adults would love. That film is 'Knocked Up' with stunning Katherine Heigl and funny man slob Seth Rogen. With the glowing recommendations in mind I grabbed it when it appeared on the weekly rents shelf in the local video library. You see, I have a weakness for romantic comedies.

Katherine Heigl plays the role of Alison Scott who with the film's opening has just scored an on-air role in a television entertainment program. She goes out with her sister to celebrate. Incredibly she meets and teams up with slob and slacker Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) in a bar. They go back to Alison's apartment where in their drunken state they have sex. This is just one of the points where the suspension of disbelief would seem impossible. You would think that a girl who looked like Alison Scott would have to be paralytic drunk in order to go through with it, in which case she would be physical unable to do so. Anyhow, they go through with it, the scene making it clear they have unprotected sex. It's not difficult to guess what will follow.

We then get a glimpse of Ben's character and his circumstances. Ben does not look and behave like a slob and slacker for nothing. He is one, with capital 'S'. He is out of work, illegally in the US and lives with a group of similar misfits in a house that looks like a male pigsty. The level of his mind is more than adequately reflected in the project he and his feral mates are engaged in: building a website that will enable males in the same moronic state to go directly to the point in any film where nudity or sex appears.

The conceit of the film at this point is so silly and pathetic that the mind of a normal mature person would surely be tested. But the conceit is not the worst quality. The unfolding of the character and circumstances of Ben and his mates comes in the crudest grubbiest language and imagery one could conjure up for a film without R rating. And it is clear from the atmosphere of the film that the behaviour of Ben and his mates is supposed to be cute and funny.

Next to make one cringe we have a scene of Alison and her sister sitting on a lavatory with their knickers around their ankles carrying out pregnancy tests on themselves. It was not too long after this scene that I had to acknowledge that things were not going to improve and I belonged to the ten percent who are not entertained by such grossness. I turned it off and disgruntled at having wasted my money returned the film to the video library.

There is an instructive feature to this film, one that will fly over the heads of the majority of males entertained by it. It gives a good picture of the moronic degrading level many men have reached in an educational process that has developed over the last fifty years.

Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com