Because I got lazy and blew off the critics screenings for ‘Knocked Up’ I didn’t get a chance to see it until it was out for a couple of weeks, and if it wasn’t for the rave, rave, rave reviews that it was getting I probably wouldn't have gone to see it at all. But my goodness this movie was so lauded I felt simply awful passing my chance to see it free and decided to break down, shell out some hard earned loot and see it ‘regular’ and I’ll be honesty with you… it wasn’t all that. I mean it was Okay, even slightly better than okay. But that was about it. Now director Judd Apatow’s ‘40-year old Virgin’? Now THAT was awesome. Certainly in my top of five of all time funny movies, that film was. This…. was you know… okay.

Seth Rogan from ‘The Forty-Year old Virgin’ stars as chubby uber slacker Ben Stone, who along with his slacker friends all live in some house in Los Angeles with no discernible means of income, that I could tell at least. I need somebody to tell me how I can be down with some of that lifestyle. No job, play videogames all day, drink, smoke weed and still have the ability to live in southern California, go clubbing and eat enough to stay plenty fat. I don’t care if he does have four roommates. Five dudes living in a house without job the first between them still equals no cash. Ah, but it’s not like Seth and his boys are lacking enterprising spirits as they spend their days watching mainstream movies and picking out the nude scenes by reasonably famous actresses and creating, what they hope will be, a paying website out of that venture.

Across town, the pretty, tall, shapely and blonde Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) lives in the pool house of the home of her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Debbie’s husband Pete (Paul Rudd) and works as a floor director for E Entertainment Television. But looking like she does, Alison has caught the eye of her producers at the station who have decided it’s time get the girl from behind the camera and in front of it. To

celebrate, Alison and Debbie head to the club and circumstances leads to Alison and Ben meeting and eventually mating in one night stand fashion. Now this is where ‘Knocked Up’ turns into a fantasy adventure say like ‘Lord of the Rings’ or something. Not to hate on my man Ben Stone, but in the ‘real world’ he’d have about as much of a chance at landing someone like Alison as he would catching Chlamydia from a Klingon. I don’t care how much liquor she had to drink. You see Alison is not only pretty, but she’s pretty AND on a national TV show. And Ben possesses no discernible game. I hate to crash the hopes of all of us fat, jobless, homeless, unattractive, gameless schlubs out there, but it’s only a movie.

Anyway, since the movie IS called ‘Knocked Up’, Alison finds out she’s pregnant, chooses life, informs Ben of her decision and now these two crazy kids have to decide to try to find a way to not only raise a child together, but also rediscover whatever it was that sparked the one night stand in the first place (uh, it was Hennessy chased with Bud Light), and overcome their completely divergent personalities, backgrounds, career goals, socio economic relationships and fitness levels to find love in a loveless world.

Don’t get me wrong now, ‘Knocked Up’ wasn’t a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t have to stretch my imagination to tell you it was a loooong movie running over two hours, but it wasn’t a bad movie. It had its moments of hilarity with a lot of it supplied by Paul Rudd, who will die a legend when he checks out of this world. Why anybody makes a movie in Hollywood without at least asking Paul Rudd if he wants to be in it is way beyond me. ‘Spiderman 3’ would have been just that much better if they could have stuck Paul Rudd in it somewhere. Also the scene between the two sisters and the doorman (Craig Robinson) to the club who refused to let them jump the line was worth the price of admission alone. There was a lot good witty humor in ‘Knocked Up’ it just wasn’t all that is all.

Maybe it’s more a personal thing. Why I could possibly relate more to a 40-year action toy collecting virgin more than to a twenty three year old pot smoking slacker is far beyond me but Ben Stone and his boys didn’t amuse me all that much. I also suppose that the underlying social commentary in ‘Knocked Up’ deserves mention as there is a definite pro-life message as the young twenty something, upwardly mobile, strikingly pretty woman chooses to have her child, and risk her budding TV career and all against the advice of her mother no less. And of course the ‘coming of age’ of a man becoming, well, a man. Though those elements were clearly on display and crisply executed, it wasn’t very funny now was it.

‘Knocked Up’ was a fine comedic film and probably only suffers under the weight of expectations. It would have been very difficult for the movie to live up to its incredibly high build up and even though I liked the movie and thought it was funny, if not overly long, I’m still just a little bit disappointed that I didn’t like it more.