Knocked Up (2007)

Starring: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Charlyne Yi, Jason Segel, Martin Starr

Director: Judd Apatow

Genre: Comedy

Rating: B-

After getting a promotion at work, career-minded Alison Scott (Heigl) has a one-night stand with stoner Ben Scott (Rogen). Alison very quickly begins to regret it, but when she finds out she's pregnant all hilarity ensues.  Alison and Ben must figure out if they want to make it work, and if they can make it work, and really how to do so.  Along for the ride are Ben's stoner friends and Alison's sister and brother-in-law.  By far the best part of the film is actually Alison's sister and brother-in-law, Debbie (Mann) and Pete (Rudd), and their children, played by Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann's real life children, Maud and Iris Apatow.  There's a reason that the sequel, This is 40, focused on Debbie and Pete and not on Ben and Alison.

Um, okay.  So, I liked the basic idea, but I disliked how it ended up basically being a stoner take on the romantic comedy.  I would have rather it gone a less typical route - yes the pregnancy bit is less typical, but the whole guy meets girl, things are awkward, guy and girl hook up, and they all live happily ever after (after that one massive fight where they almost break up) is a bit cliched at this point.

I did really like the dynamic of Debbie and Pete and what they offered to the table.  I believe I said it in my review of This is 40, but I really like how the kids feel like real people here, like real kids.  I attribute this to the fact that they're actually Apatow's kids, but hey it works.  I think if you're going to write children in your movie (or book or TV show or whatever) then you need to have children in your life - a lot - otherwise it just seems fake.

Katherine Heigl criticized this film saying that it's sexist, saying that it "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys."  I both agree and disagree with her here. While the women are shrewish at times and the men are goofy fun-loving guys, I kind of think that Knocked Up tries to show that both are essentially good.  Yes, Alison is a bit uptight, but she's the responsible one, the one who you should admire.  Ben is a freeloading stoner - as are all of his friends.  Debbie and Pete are both a lot more likeable, and both a lot more relatable.  The guys say at one point how great the women are and how they aren't deserving of them because they don't put enough into the relationship - and this is something that we see throughout the film.  I do kind of think Heigl's character is a bit humourless, but I also think that's a lot to do with the fact that she doesn't relate to Rogen's style of humour - which I can totally get.  Debbie, however, has a much better dynamic with Pete - something played out further in This is 40.  Oh, also, as far as Heigl is concerned, it's kind of bad form to badmouth a movie you're in.   Just going to toss that out there.  Also, one final note: I'm not really sure how to tag Knocked Up and This is 40 to show that they're related.  It's part of a series, but not part of a series? If anyone has any ideas, let me know!

The Five-Year Engagement (2012)

Stars: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie
Director: Nicholas Stoller

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Rating: B

The Five-Year Engagement is about a twenty-something couple, Tom (Segel) and Violet (Blunt) who have their lives completely turned upside down after getting engaged; Violet is accepted into post-grad program, causing the couple to move from sunny California to snowy Michigan.  Hilarity and problems ensue as Michigan proves to be the place where relationships go to die.  The wedding is postponed several times, and the couple begin to question their love and commitment to each other.  In short, it is everything that you would expect from a romantic comedy, a movie that girls drag their boyfriends to, and the boyfriends go to in the hopes of being laid.  Except, the difference between The Five-Year Engagement and other rom-coms is that The Five-Year Engagement is actually a funny movie.

The humour in this movie is very much what you would expect from a movie penned by Jason Segel and directed by Judd Apatow.  It isn’t as much of a stoner flick as other Apatow films; there are no drugs nor intoxicated ramblings.  It is a bit sexist, particularly at the beginning, but as everyone except for Katherine Heigl appears to have figured out, Apatow does this intentionally, to allow his characters to grow.  Blunt’s character is very much an intelligent woman on her way to success, and at the start of the film so is Segel’s character.  Then they make the move and Segel becomes very much a man child; unable to find a satisfying job (because there are no restaurants in Michigan) he settles for a job at a sandwich shop and slowly loses his manhood.  Somehow, this is entertaining and the laughs continue as Tom becomes more and more pathetic.  There reaches a point in the film when the viewer is questioning just what Violet still sees in her fiancé; fortunately, she reaches the same conclusion as well.

There are problems with The Five-Year Engagement, particularly with Segel’s mid-movie man child state.  The beginning of the film tries to paint him as this great guy making a huge sacrifice for the woman he loves, while Blunt is cruel for putting him in such a position.  As the movie progresses, however, the two begin to grow as characters and eventually they come to realize that there is more to life than what you gain and give up, it’s about the compromises along the way.  It’s about how you look at life; if you look at it with a negative attitude, then of course it’s all going to be shit and snow.  That’s another trick that the film utilizes; when they’re miserable in Michigan everything is covered in snow, but when they finally start to figure life out the sun comes out again.  It’s a nice little symbolic way to approach the feelings of the characters.  And in the end, it being a romantic comedy, the sun does come out again.