Posts Tagged ‘Knocked Up’
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I don’t know what was going on with me that I couldn’t figure out something more creative with the background. But, uh… HEY! Charlie has a new haircut! Look at that! WOW!
Knocked Up is in theaters this weekend, appearing in theaters at what I think is a very opportune time. It’s been almost a month since Spider-Man 3 landed in theaters and kicked off the blockbuster season. So far, we’ve survived it and it’s “threequel” brethren Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Knocked Up comes at a time when I think people are prepared to take a step away from fantasy for a while and get a little closer to real people and situations again.
Of course, Seth Rogen landing in bed with Katherine Heigl isn’t exactly realistic, but this is why we love Hollywood. They tweak reality just enough to keep us interested. I’m sure that the movie will play this disparity in physical attractiveness to it’s advantage. I expect nothing less from Judd Apatow and crew.
It pleases me to no end the Seth Rogen is stepping up into the unlikely leading man category. If you’ve watched Undeclared, you know that they guy has an affiable charm that’s fun to watch. Even when he’s being a jerk, it works. So it’ll be interesting to see how he manages when he has to filter sarcasm through his heart.
At this point I’m not going to go into my Apatow-love speech. Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Either you get it by now or you don’t. I really appreciate that Apatow is using the same stable of actors and creating his own little universe. The smartest thing any director can do is bring Paul Rudd into his movies. So, needless to say, I have high hopes for Knocked Up.
Interesting factoid: Did you guys know that Knocked Up was originally written to be a sequel to The 40 Year-Old Virgin that featured the Smart Tech crew? I’m glad they came to their senses and invented a new set of characters for the actors to inhabit. The Smart Tech guys were brilliantly effective within the context of T40YOV, but that kind of misogynistic buffonery probably wouldn’t work on it’s own. You need the wholesomeness of Steve Carell’s character to balance that out.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that.
I wanted to tip you guys off to a new t-shirt design I’m taking pre-orders for right now: Movie Law #948.
Fans of the comic will recognize the concept of this shirt from this comic, wherein Tom discusses actor Sean Bean’s proclivity toward expiring in what seems like the majority of his movies.
Readers with good long-term memories might recall that I submitted initial designs of the shirt for feedback, but was talked out of producing the shirt when the spector of copyright infringement was brought up.
After the controversy with Threadless over the Spoiler shirts last week, a switch flipped in my head. If these guys can get away with using Darth Vader’s head in what turned out to be the most fastest-selling shirt, then li’l old me can get away with an artistic interpretation of Sean Bean’s mug. If I get a cease and desist letter, then that will be the end of it. In the meantime, screw it. People have been asking for it, the work was half way done… let’s run ‘er up the flagpole and see if she flies.
My problem with t-shirt design is that it takes very little to derail me on an idea I have because it’s such a large investment for me. I could have 50 people respond and tell me “I want that shirt!” but if one person responds and says “copyright infringement!” or “I couldn’t tell that was Sean Bean,” I quit. That’s lame. I have a bunch of great ideas. I just need to push them through.
Well, I’ve decided instead of producing Theater Hopper: Year Three this summer, I’m taking the nest egg I’ve stored up and spending it on t-shirt production that will hopefully generate interest in the store and spur book sales when people take advantage of the bundling options.
So pre-order this shirt now through June 13. Moving forward, I’ll be producing more shirts. Hopefully you like some or all of them. We can use the support.
Oh, and for the people that are curious, Movie Law #948 has a list of all the movies in which Sean Bean dies on screen (so far). If you want to see what they are, visit the page in our store and pre-order now!
Got any comments, thoughts, ideas or feedback? Leave them below!
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Jun01
C’mon, guys. You’ve all done it. Grabbed a beach ball at the lake, a basketball from the court and stuff it under your shirt. “Oh, I’m pregnant! Ha, ha, ha!” Ladies, don’t ask us why we think this is funny. It just is.
Unfortunately, the older I get, the less I need to rely on props to complete the distended belly effect. My good friend beer has accomplished that for me. Me ‘n the gut? We go places. Thanks, beer!
I was having trouble thinking up a sketch for Knocked Up and was even contemplating drawing something completely unrelated to the movie for more of an artistic exercise. But then it seemed as if real-life events surrounding me were steering me toward some kind of commentary about the movie and the miracle of childbirth.
I just got the e-mail today that one of my good friends since high school welcomed his second child to the world on Wednesday. A boy they named Emmett. He already has a 2 year-old daughter. I’ve known this guy since Doom II was a big deal and he spent nights locked up in his room with the lights off and the volume to eleven scaring the crap out of himself. Now he’s a father of two. Wild. Congrats to him, of course.
I don’t know if it’s my news to share, but real-life Jared has been kind of locked out of commenting on the site since we switched our archive format. Otherwise, I’m sure he’d tell you himself. But the good news is that my best friend Jared and his wife Patti are expecting their first child in late July. This has me really excited because we can kind of go through this whole fatherhood thing together. I have so few male friends who have kids and it’s nice to have someone else wrestling with the transition that you can bounce ideas off of. It would be a real trip if our kids could grow up to be friends, as well.
Another co-worker of mine is due in October. Her first child, as well. That’s the thing, people. You grow up and it seems like everyone starts to experience these watershed moments around the same time. For a while, it seems like you’re going to wedding after wedding after wedding. Then it’s a dry spell for a few years and suddenly you find yourself buying onesies and teething rings for everyone in your social circle all at the same time. We should have just gone to Costco and stocked up on baby gifts that we could pull out of a giant Tupperware considering all the baby showers we’ve been to.
Someone else I know who recently had a baby is my web comic contemporary Dave Buist. He had a baby girl earlier in the month. If you recognize Dave’s name, it’s because he does the excellent comic Taking the Bi-Pass and because he has been an invaluable asset to Theater Hopper. He is the architect of the aforementioned archiving system and is an all around great guy to boot.
I probably would have shared Dave’s news when it was more timely, but since the stars are all aligning on the child-birth front, it’s just as good that I share it now. Share it… like it’s my news. I’m misspeaking. I want to extend my congratulations to Dave his wife and daughter. I’m giving Dave a (long overdue) guest strip that he’ll be running on his site next week, so stay tuned for that. I’ll mention it again in this space soon.
Anyway, I don’t know what any of this has to do with the movie Knocked Up. I guess I went off on some kind of wild tangent. But anywho… the movie has been getting really good reviews. Even though her comments made no sense, Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the movie an “A”. The remainder of the critics reviews have been just as strong. A 91% positive ranking over at Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. I think my theory about people being thirst for a down-to-Earth comedy really hits the mark. People are ready to step outside the fantasy environments laid down by the last three summer blockbusters that have been dominating screens. They want to get a little closer to reality. At least for one weekend.
Jeffery Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere wrote a review of Knocked Up a few weeks ago and liked it. But I kind of winced in a recent post where he referenced the review and mentioned that Seth Rogen‘s star-making turn casts him as the John Belushi of this generation.
I have no idea why critics do this. I think it’s fair to contextualize things in terms of what came before them, but Wells is a critic in his late 40’s, so Belushi was someone that spoke directly to HIS generation. You would never catch a review that was say… MY AGE or younger comparing Rogen to Belushi. And maybe that’s because that due to the fact I’m younger, Belushi doesn’t speak directly to my sensibilities. I’m AWARE of Belushi. I LIKE Belushi. But I really don’t see the comparison to Rogen beyond the fact that they both have obvious charm and, yes, they are/were both a little rotund.
Wells comparing Rogen to Belushi would be like my grandfather claiming that Rogen is the Fatty Arbuckle of this generation! It’s a lazy, short-hand reference.
But I digress. His review of the movie is complimentary, if somewhat stand-offish (Wells will never admit to having a good time in a film meant to appeal to the masses) and I think the movie is going to do really well this weekend.
Of course, considering I’m a guy zeroing in on 30, a recent father and re-assessing the direction my life is headed, I’m, like, The Perfect Storm of demographic touch points for the movie. I don’t want to ratchet up my expectations too high, but I’m expecting this film to kind of make me feel better about the uncertainty angle of being a father. In the back of my head, I know things with Henry will be fine. But since I’m a parent now, “worry” is my default setting and it’s all the more raw since I’m so new to it. A little bit of humor, I think, will take the edge off.
That’s enough ranting. Don’t forget that there is a pre-sale of our newest shirt design Movie Law #948 until June 13.
Thanks and have a great weekend!
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Hey, guys. I just wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone about The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. Tonight Gordon, Joe and I will be discussing Knocked Up and taking your calls LIVE!
I haven’t really given T.T.F. the red carpet treatment in a while, so I really want to call your attention to it. Gordon, Joe and I have put almost two dozen shows under our belt and I think we’re really hitting our stride. We’ve been getting lots of compliments not only for our film criticism, but also for our individual sense of humor. I think tonight’s show is going to be particularly good because we have one guy who’s dating, one guy who’s recently married and one guy hitched up for the last seven years with a new baby in tow. We cover the entire demographic spread for Knocked Up and I think it’s going to be really interesting to listen to how each of us applied our personal filters when watching this movie.
Any way you slice it, you’re going to be entertained – so why not give us a try? If you miss tonight’s live broadcast, you can always download it later – which we encourage! – but golly, it sure would be nice if you could join us in real time!
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Jun04
After surviving weeks of bloated franchise sequels, movie audiences are being treated to one of the freshest, funniest movies of the summer. Picking up where its spiritual predecessor The 40 Year-Old Virgin left of, Knocked Up is another successful romp through sexual raunchiness and touching human truth.
This time instead of focusing on the novelty of a lead character living his entire adult life without sexual intercourse, writer/director Judd Apatow and his regular company of actors turn their attention on the somewhat common interpersonal mishap – the one night stand that goes horribly… right?
An unplanned pregnancy brings Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen together as one of cinema’s most unlikely “Beauty and the Beast”-type of couples. Once the pair agrees to keeping the baby and start dating to see if their compatible, the movie begins to swerve into previously mined territory. There probably isn’t a joke in the movie about pregnancy, childbirth, buying clothes or picking an obstetrician that hasn’t been covered by a hundred different sitcoms before it.
But the pregnancy isn’t the core of the movie. In fact, it feels almost incidental as the movie focuses more on Rogen’s character coming to grips with his impending responsibility and what it might mean for his freedom. The reluctance of fathers-to-be has also been mined for comedy before. But what Knocked Up smartly does is pair up Heigl and Rogen’s characters with Heigl’s sister and brother-in-law played with smartly by the indispensable Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd. Through them, Apatow delivers some of his best lines and biting commentary about gender relations.
Settled into the rut of their own hapless marriage, Mann and Rudd’s characters have two children of their own and provide a raw look into the future for Heigl and Rudd. Both of them seem unhappy and are just going through the motions. Mann suspects Rudd of cheating on her when it turns out he’s sneaking out of the house for fantasy baseball meetings. Rudd compares marriage to an unfunny episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. “Except it doesn’t last for 22 minutes,” he warns. “It’s for life.”
The aforementioned fantasy baseball scene cuts particularly close when Rudd’s wife discovers his deception. His need for independence and male comradely versus Mann’s deep hurt that her husband would rather see Spider-Man 3 without her is cringe-inducing. But this is where Knocked Up most effectively deviates from the norm.
It’s easy for a film to make fun of a guy with cold feet. But very few incisively tackle the balancing act most men feel they need to maintain between their responsibilities and their basic need for autonomy. Or how (in some cases) that tightrope walk leaves them feeling trapped. In this way, Knocked Up is unlike most romantic comedies. It’s told primarily from the perspective of men and their insecurities.
This probably seems like heady stuff for a film that most would consider piffle. Fortunately, Knocked Up doesn’t knock you over the head with its message and effectively blends the reality of the situation with crude and outrageous side conversations. Rogen’s slacker roommates, for example, are probably the filthiest characters committed to celluloid both in terms of dialogue and general hygiene.
Kudos to Apatow who has a keen ear for this kind of conversation. 10 years ago, it was Kevin Smith who was earning accolades for bringing characters to screen who seemed to talk like everyday people talked – warts and all. Apatow does the same thing, but narrows his focus to the ball-busting, pop culture reference laden smack talk of the twenty-something set. To his credit, all the while you are being repulsed by these burnouts, you kind of want to spend a Saturday afternoon with them. They seem like a lot of fun.
The ultimate success of Knocked Up is the way it elevates universal topics up a level by ditching the notion that the audience doesn’t need the complexities of Rogen’s confusion or Heigl’s uncertainty spoon-fed to them. While the elements of the story are commonplace, their delivery is not. What’s left is a refreshingly honest portrayal of impending adulthood cushioned with a great deal of heart.
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I caught this story about Katherine Heigl complaining about her role in Knocked Up in the latest issue of Vanity Fair earlier in the week and it’s really been bugging me.
Entertainment Weekly would have you believe that Heigl should be commended for speaking her mind and ignoring “publicist-scripted hooey” in her interview with the magazine. But there is a difference between being honest and being disrespectful.
Not being a woman, I can’t speak with any authority as to Heigl’s claim that Knocked Up is sexist. But as a man, I think there is enough to take umbrage in the depiction of my gender as slothful, stoned, ambitionless tubs of lard. In fact, I would be willing to wager that Knocked Up is more sexist in it’s stereotypes against men than it is against women. It would be one thing if the movie had Heigl’s character walking around barefoot and cooking Seth Rogen’s character dinner in every third scene. But that’s not the case. I think they treat her character with great respect. She’s a responsible professional. She has strong family bonds. And she has dimension of character! She’s responsible, but has a one night stand. She drives her niece’s to school but she gets hormonal like a normal pregnant woman would. If you want sexist, look at the punchline of today’s comic. Now THAT’S sexist!
Things get more disgusting when you start to follow the money. Apparently after the success of Knocked Up and her Emmy win for Grey’s Anatomy, her asking price for the upcoming 27 Dresses with James Marsden went up from $300,000 to $6 million.
The simple fact of the matter is if you didn’t watch Grey’s Anatomy, you didn’t know who Katherine Heigl was. Knocked Up put her on the map. Maybe she didn’t like her character or the movie. Fine. But be a little bit magnanimous about where it got you. Because now you look ungrateful.
I think Heigl’s comments against Knocked Up are going to go down in history as one of the most sublime Hollywood foot-in-mouth moments. Considering how well writer/director Judd Apatow treats his stable of actors, there’s no telling where that relationship could have taken her. What’s the incentive to work with her ever again after this?
Apparently Apatow took the high road when questioned about Heigl’s comments at the recent GQ Men of the Year party in Hollywood this week:
“I don’t think the movie’s sexist, I think there are characters in the movie who are sexist,” clarified writer/director Judd Apatow, who hasn’t spoken with Heigl about her comments. “Apparently Vanity Fair needs to sell some magazines. They’ve got to turn up the controversy. I’m sure when they get you talking for hours and hours, a couple lines taken out of context seem more interesting than they really are.”
That’s a fairly diplomatic response. But Rogen’s response to the same line of questioning is a little more revealing:
“We won A Women’s Image Network Award; I picked it up myself,” he reminded, adding, “I don’t really talk to Katie.”
Does that mean she’s off his Christmas list? “Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah, like she was on it before.”
Rogen has a pretty sarcastic sense of humor, but that still comes off kind of harsh. You get the sense from his comments that they’ve already left her behind.
I look at this mess and the whole time I’m reminded of the reportedly contentious relationship between Kevin Smith and Linda Fiorentino on the set of Dogma. Listen to the Dogma DVD commentary track to get the scoop straight from Smith. Or read this news item from 2000 at TVGuide.com. My point is, has anyone heard from Linda Fiorentino since Dogma?
Her page over at IMDB.com lists four credits since Dogma, all in 2000 and then nothing. Maybe it’s a coincidence. But for someone who starred in Men In Black and Dogma at the end of the 90’s, she seemed poised to make it big in the next few years. Then… nothing.
Apatow probably pulls more clout than Smith did during his Dogma days. But all Smith had to do was be vocal about how difficult Fiorentino was on-set before she stopped turning up in movies. Apatow doesn’t have to say word-one. Heigl is doing it for him. Still, if she’s burning bridges with someone comparable to Smith, could Katherine Heigl be the next Linda Fiorentino? Time will tell, I suppose.
I guess, for me, what’s most disappointing about Heigl’s comments is that it subtracts from a movie I really enjoyed this year. I liked Knocked Up… a lot. I bought the Special Unrated Edition on DVD so I could get MORE Knocked Up content. Now if I watch that movie, I’m going to be looking at Heigl, thinking about her comments and stewing about how ungrateful she is.
Think of it another way. Have you ever been to a concert where maybe the band is just starting to break through? They’ve got some big hit single and they’re tired of playing it? They kind of mope through the song because they feel obligated to, but you can tell their heart’s not into it? They make you feel like an idiot for liking their song! That’s what I feel like after reading Heigl’s comments.
Granted, there is a lot of stuff going on in Knocked Up that I like that has nothing to do with Heigl’s character. I’m sure I can enjoy those parts. But her involvement is pretty much central to the motivations of the character. So I’ll always be aware of her on the periphery, sulking, bitching about sexism (yet comfortable selling out her principles for a hit movie) and it’s just going to taint the entire experience.
Incidentally, if you wanted to look at her Maxim photo shoot where you can see more of her “principles” on display, you can find it here.
That concludes my rant. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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This joke for The Ugly Truth is one I had in mind a couple weeks ago, BEFORE I turned my hand into hamburger with a router. So dusting it off this week makes it stale in my mind.
I know that’s not the case, though. Movies do exist in theaters for longer than one week. It’s hard to snap out of that mentality when I go to the work of making the comic timely.
Before we go any further, it would probably be advantageous if everyone were on the same page. So, embedded here is the clip in question. It is OBVIOUSLY not safe for work and probably not something you want to play around young children, either. You’ve been warned:
Now I had seen this clip maybe a month before The Ugly Truth was in theaters and I remember thinking at the time how hypocritical it was when considering Heigl’s comments back in 2007 to Vanity Fair that Knocked Up – the movie that pretty much opened the door to a successful career in film – was sexist.
Since the movie has come out, Heigl has been taking a lot of hits for those statements in contrast to the above scene. Sarah Ball from Newsweek published a particularly harsh article. Ken Levine, an Emmy-winning writer for Fraiser and Cheers also published a fairly articulate hate-piece on her.
Now Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen have gotten in on the act during an interview with Howard Stern last week.
Fans of Heigl cite a double-standard. That’s it’s okay for someone like Seth Rogen to run off at the mouth, but if someone like Heigl speaks her mind, she’s put back “in her place.”
I see both sides of the argument. But fundamentally I think Heigl’s problem is that she gives off an air of superiority that she hasn’t earned and it makes her unlikable. The sad thing is, I WANT to like Heigl. She’s funny, attractive and I appreciate anyone willing to speak their mind.
But career-wise, winning and Emmy and starring in a couple of romantic comedies aren’t much to hang your hat from. Her reputation and her performances don’t match up. She’s trying to be Sandra Bullock but comes off like Sandra Bernhard.
I don’t know how much of it is bad casting and how much of it is her choice. But I think before I would find Heigl more appealing if she were able to find (or develop) a character that plays toward her outspoken nature.
What do you think? Is there a sexist double-standard being applied to the outspoken Heigl? How aware are you of the statements she’s made to the press? Should it affect how we interpret her performances? Why do you think Heigl attracts these kind of strong feelings toward her? Leave your comments below!
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