Knocked Out

Saw Judd Apatow's Knocked Up last night and was not only pleasantly surprised, but downright impressed with the quality of the movie. I probably didn't like it as much as his previous film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but it was up there.

Seth Rogen is funny. Katherine Heigl is going to be my future bride. The band of miscreant friends adds the funny where it is desperately needed, and this both keeps the film well-paced and fleshes out Rogen's character. The show is really stolen by Paul Rudd, who gives an understated performance as the beaten down husband of Heigl's sister. As he comes out of his shell to Rogen's character, Rudd reaches back into his Anchorman or Wet Hot American Summer past, but not far enough to make the movie a complete goof. Apatow managed to make a comedy with heart yet again. Good stuff.

Also, I can't believe they got away with showing as much as they did (re: pregnancy). I mean, I'm sure it would pop up in most junior high health classes, but was it really necessary to show the crowning bajingo? I reckon not (although it had some comic payoff eventually), because it really threw the mood of the scene for me. Still, the film was really good.

Loudon Wainwright III provides the soundtrack and score for the movie, and produced it into a complete album (a'la Badly Drawn Boy's About A Boy). The songs that appear in the credits are amazing ("Grey in L.A." and "Daughter"), and sampling of Amazon's track listing shows the rest will be, at worst, really good as well.

For more thoughts (which mirror my own, except more eloquently), visit Kat Ex Machina.