Hilarious pregnancy jest

CONGRATULATIONS Judd Apatow, you have brought into the world a newborn lead comic actor who will have cinemagoers wailing with laughter for years to come.

His name is Seth Rogen. Who? If you saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, he was the stockroom guy, Cal.

He has “man boobs”, is Canadian and has a wonderful wry line in self-deprecating wit. Rogen’s side-splitting performance as a weed-smoking loser who gets a beautiful blonde pregnant after a drunken one-night stand is what makes Knocked Up a delight.

Director Apatow, who also made The 40 Year Old Virgin, clearly has an eye for talent. A lot of Knocked Up was filmed off the cuff, providing a dangerous edge missing in rom-coms.

The morning after Rogen’s character Ben Stone bedded television presenter Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl (from Grey’s Anatomy) the pair go for breakfast. Ben tries to explain that the website he is planning to launch finds nude scenes in movies and boasts: “I’ll show you Meg Ryan’s b***.”

It is risque humour for Hollywood.

Apatow cast Rogen’s real-life best friends as his cannabis-smoking mates. This creates a natural banter, which again pushes the boundaries of good taste.
So what’s not to like? Well, at two hours nine minutes Knocked Up is a bit long for a comedy. Inevitably, the cast struggle to keep up the laugh count over such a period.

The film comes to a close with probably the funniest birth scene ever.

The Sneak left the cinema looking forward to Apatow’s next creation, and hoping the wonderfully immature Rogen doesn’t grow up.

BEST LINE: There are too many to choose from, but the scene where Alison’s bosses are telling her she doesn’t need to lose weight, just to “tighten” was very funny.

The Sneak at the Movies

Pregnant pause ... Ben and Alison visit docs

Pregnant pause ... Ben and Alison visit docs

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Hilarious pregnancy jest

August 24, 2007

Knocked Up
(15) 129mins

CONGRATULATIONS Judd Apatow, you have brought into the world a newborn lead comic actor who will have cinemagoers wailing with laughter for years to come.

His name is Seth Rogen. Who? If you saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, he was the stockroom guy, Cal.

He has “man boobs”, is Canadian and has a wonderful wry line in self-deprecating wit. Rogen’s side-splitting performance as a weed-smoking loser who gets a beautiful blonde pregnant after a drunken one-night stand is what makes Knocked Up a delight.

Director Apatow, who also made The 40 Year Old Virgin, clearly has an eye for talent. A lot of Knocked Up was filmed off the cuff, providing a dangerous edge missing in rom-coms.

The morning after Rogen’s character Ben Stone bedded television presenter Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl (from Grey’s Anatomy) the pair go for breakfast. Ben tries to explain that the website he is planning to launch finds nude scenes in movies and boasts: “I’ll show you Meg Ryan’s b***.”

It is risque humour for Hollywood.

Apatow cast Rogen’s real-life best friends as his cannabis-smoking mates. This creates a natural banter, which again pushes the boundaries of good taste.


House about that then ... Ben Stone plays for laughs
House about that then ... Ben Stone plays for laughs

His friend Martin has agreed not to shave or cut his hair for a year as a bet and this results in the others referring to him as shoe bomber Richard Reid and saying he looks like a “woman’s vagina”.

The Sneak is not normally a huge fan of such puerile humour but in Knocked Up it seems to work.

Visits to various gynaecologists, clumsy sex and plenty of embarrassing fumbling make this movie a hysterical reflection of reality. And beneath all the sexual gags is a film with heart. Despite being mismatched, Alison and Ben decide to keep the baby.

Over seven months Ben slowly wakes from his stoned haze and learns enough life lessons to become a great future dad.


Stone me ... Rogen's real-life friends star alongside him as cannabis-smoking mates
Stone me ... Rogen's real-life friends star alongside him as cannabis-smoking mates

So what’s not to like? Well, at two hours nine minutes Knocked Up is a bit long for a comedy. Inevitably, the cast struggle to keep up the laugh count over such a period.

The film comes to a close with probably the funniest birth scene ever.

The Sneak left the cinema looking forward to Apatow’s next creation, and hoping the wonderfully immature Rogen doesn’t grow up.

BEST LINE: There are too many to choose from, but the scene where Alison’s bosses are telling her she doesn’t need to lose weight, just to “tighten” was very funny.

BEST CHARACTER: Ben Stone is the perfect slacker.

FAMILY RATING: Too much sex, drugs and bad language for all the family.

BUM NUMBNESS: It should have been 15 minutes shorter.


Beret good


Finish it ... you just want this movie to end
Finish it ... you just want this movie to end

Seraphim Falls
(15) 112mins

NEAR the end of this Western Liam Neeson’s character Colonel Morsman Carver lays on the floor unarmed and tells Pierce Brosnan’s pistol-pointing Gideon to “go on, finish it”.

At that moment a critic sitting behind The Sneak said under his breath: “Please . . .”.

It was something that your film reviewer had been thinking for the previous half-hour.

At first, you want Gideon to make good his escape in this chase film.

Especially, after he bravely yanks a bullet out of his arm with his knife. Seeing off an adversary by sitting in a tree and dropping his blade on to his head was a pretty impressive move as well.

But as Gideon misses chance after chance to break free from the posse on his tail, you just want Seraphim Falls to end.

www.thesun.co.uk