I don't know if this is any indicatioon of my prediction of Knocked Up being the number one movie this week, but the 10:00 showing the wife and I saw tonight had a line extending about 20 feet into the hallway at about a half hour before the movie started. The theater was packed.
So how was it? Great. I liked it a lot.
I'm not going to compare it to 40 Year Old Virgin, because it really not all that similar to it, plot wise. Sure, Apatow portrays some of the same comedy conventions in both. But they are two different movies.
There is a mix of drug humor, gross out humor, sarcastic humor but the main thing I got from it was a sweet honest quality. The characters seemed real and acted in a believable fashion. Most of the complications that drove the plot came from the characters own foibles. People act stupid and drive people away. And it is all done in a realistic fashion.
Superstar cameos abound and the movie mentions Spider-Man 3 not once, not twice, but three times. Sony should pay the makers of Knocked Up an advertising fee.
The acting is top notch from top to bottom. The cast is composed of the Apatow Repartory Players, actors who have starred in Apatow's Freak and Geeks, Undeclared, 40 Year Old Virgin, or in more than one or all of the above. Even James Franco, who made one of his first acting appearances in F&G, makes a cameo. I love it when certain directors use the same actors over and over again. I feel usually if there is a loyalty between the cast and the creator, the performances will be better.
The one thing that I thought was odd was that Katherine Heigl, and I know I am going to sound like a pervert by saying this, went through two sex scenes and one bathtub scene without showing her breasts. Not that I was looking for her to flash me, per se. But in each circumstance--twice her na-nas were covered by a bra, once by strategically placed bubbles--it kind of took me out of the movie. The only thing I thought was "Hmm, Katherine Heigl must have a no nudity clause in her contract."
All in all, a great story with great acting and believable characters. And laugh out loud funny to boot.
Now, the trailers:
- Evan Almighty: I like this movie. It went from being the Jim Carrey-less sequel to a Jim Carrey movie to being Steve Carrell's follow up to 40 Year Old Virgin and Little Miss Sunshine.That is a nice bit of good fortune right there. I still can't figure out how he does that shaving the inside of his nostrils thing without cutting his nose wide open. Oh, and it has Lauren Graham in it, which is something all movies should shoot for.
- Superbad: Of course they would run the trailer for the movie written and starring Seth Rogen before the film he co-headlines. It's the same trailer I saw before, but it is still funny.
- License to Wed: Any movie that features Robin Williams as a priest has to be good for a laugh or two. Although, this seems to be the type of movie where if any normal person found themselves in the situations the characters are in, they run screaming in the opposite direction.
- Hairspray: A movie adaptation of the Broadway musical which was an adaptation of a movie. The should keep this going, ping ponging adaptations in each medium until the world explodes.
- Evan Almighty: No, this is not a misprint. They showed this trailer two times. I guess they thought it was so nice that they's show it twice. Or, it was a mistake in the projectionist room. Either one. But the "weirdo with a beard-o" line holds up under repeat viewings.
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