Knocked Up

Universal Studios Home Entertainment / 2007 / 133 Minutes / Unrated
Street Date: September 25, 2007

I’m on the fence concerning this summer’s comedy hit, written and directed by Judd Apatow. It’s well-written, has some snappy dialog, and is supported by an emotional foundation. But so many of the principal characters are such immature fools, that I was left without anyone to identify with. And the main character’s infantile behavior got in the way of the general premise. But I get ahead of myself.

For those of you who have been out of the country during 2007’s summer, the beautiful, blond, and busty Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) has just been given her shot at on-camera work at E! She’s ecstatic, and with sister Debbie (Leslie Mann, Apatow's wife) in tow, they hit a club for drinks and dancing to celebrate. They meet Ben Stone (Seth Rogen) and his friend Jason (Jason Segel). Ben is fun and his jokes find a receptive audience in Alison; it’s either the liquor or her buoyant mood or both, but she does not yet realize that his boyish charms are boyish for all the wrong reasons. One drink leads to another, and that leads to a semiconscious one night stand in her sister’s pool house where she resides. But in the sober light of morning, as Alison looks down at the two hundred pound unshaven bloat, she mentally questions her own sanity.

She polite, but essentially dismisses Ben, clearly determined to put the experience out of her mind forever more. Alas, a slight misunderstanding about a condom has left Alison very pregnant. So let’s summarize. She’s now on-camera, interviewing stars and personalities for E! She’s enjoying a bump in salary. And her first priority is career. Now she discovers that she’s pregnant by someone she finds repugnant. What’s the girl to do? Keep the baby and develop a relationship with the father, of course.

Admittedly, we wouldn’t have much of a movie had she chosen not to keep it, so I’m forced to concede this questionable choice a necessary plot point. And clearly, many women have so much respect for life that no other decision is possible. But moving forward, the movie lost me.

As Apatow develops his characters for the viewer, he invests much time with Ben and his housemates, getting high, talking trash, and fantasizing about an ambitious website project to reveal nudity in mainstream films. They are slobs, immature, borderline irresponsible, sexually frustrated . . . archetypical losers. Apatow also spends time developing Alison’s character. She’s extremely smart, very responsible, highly organized, and very desirable. So her decision to try to bring Ben into her life and attempt to have a relationship with the child-like father of her future child seems a bit of a stretch. Perhaps what I found most disconcerting is Alison’s growing affection for Ben as they spent time together during her pregnancy, affection that he does not earn. It takes him entirely too much time to step up to the plate and develop a little maturity, and she’s entirely too accepting.

But Apatow knows that the odd couple and Ben as fish out of water (he’s not really accustomed to normal civilized values and behaviors) are ripe for comedy. So is the film funny? Many thought so; the film earned nearly $149 million at the domestic box office. It even did okay in Russia. But for this writer, it’s only mildly so. The cast does a fine job of portraying their various archetypes. But I found the best onscreen chemistry was not between Rogen and Heigl, it was between Rogen and Harold Ramis, who played Ben’s father. Those scenes were witty, heartfelt, and without exaggeration.

This film plays like a male fantasy. An undesirable guy not only boinks the hot chick, but he gets a chance at a long term relationship with her. And yet, there were a few laughs, and ultimately Ben does take a good look at himself and comes away as surprisingly perceptive. So I can almost comfortably accept the outcome; I’m simply having a lot of trouble with the journey.

This combo disc features an extra four minutes of raunch on both the HD DVD side and the DVD side (the keepcase seems to be mislabeled).

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in a pretty good high definition transfer compressed with the VC-1 video CODEC. I was pleased to find that, unlike far too many of Universal’s recent HD DVDs, this transfer is not contaminated with edge halos. The video dynamic range is quite fine, with dark blacks, good shadow detail, and a minor exaggeration of the brighter end of the video scale. Chroma is also pretty good, but leans ever so slightly away from red, imparting a touch of Simpsons syndrome to flesh tones. Finely grained detail and small object detail are also far better than some recent Universal HD DVD releases. Perhaps it was the pristine print. We’re left with a film-like presentation that will never distract.

I’m less enthusiastic about the 480p side, which is contaminated with edge halos and is simply soft. Perhaps I should have checked it out first, before my eyes were spoiled by the HD presentation on the flip side.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

This is overwhelmingly a dialog-driven film backed with sound effects that simply serve the onscreen action and too many loud source tracks. Consequently, I cannot complain that the only English track is a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix. Crowded clubs and music are heard in the surrounds, the rest of the audio elements are relegated to the front channels. As you might expect, deep bass is a product of the music, and there is some serious thumpin’ goin’ on. The critical dialog is distortion-free throughout and although the voice timbre is persuasive, it’s not quite up to the level of in-the-room.

Two alternate language Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks are in French and Spanish. Optional subtitles are in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

With few exceptions, the extras are common between the HD DVD side and the DVD side. All but the PIP commentary are in standard definition. (Hmmm, isn’t high definition considered standard these days? I think we’ll have to start calling it just 480p.)

We begin with the picture-in-picture audio-video commentary by Judd Apatow and his cast and crew. Expect interviews, behind-the-scenes sequences, and entirely too much horsing around. Ben Rogen and his friends are given too much screen time; perhaps it was used as fill to compensate for the lack of substantive material. Expect some duplication of information and similar behavior in the next supplement.

It’s a screen-specific audio commentary by director Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and minor player Bill Hader. The commentators had a much better time than I did. There is much fooling around as they compete at making one another laugh. I did enjoy several celebrity impersonations, like Peter Falk and Al Pacino, but the raucous and raw track was almost like listening to Beavis and Butthead laugh at each other’s jokes for two hours. Admittedly, there are a few gems. And I even learned a few factoids about the film, like how the Apatow gynecologist went AWOL to attend a San Francisco Bar Mitzvah instead of delivering their baby, inspiring one of the film’s gags. I’ll simply suggest that any fan of the film will find the two tracks hilarious.

Next is a collection of fourteen Deleted Scenes. This is simply more of the same, developing character traits that are obvious enough in the 133-minute cut of the film. For example, in one Jason (Jason Segel) goes on and on complaining to Alison about how he really wanted to see explicit sex between Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. The disposable Alternate Ending is also no better or worse than the theatrical ending; the only notable difference is the baby’s gender.

Similarly, the four Extended Scenes also may be considered more of the same. The extended scene of Martin (Martin Starr) being teased by Jason about his beard is overly long, repetitive, and simply annoying. I was left with the distinct impression that some of these sequences were full versions of prolonged adlibs that gave Apatow the opportunity to whittle down in the editing bay.

There are other features that could have been just as easily been included on one or the other of the preceding extras. For example, Line-O-Rama is simply a collection of various readings of some of the film’s lines. And Topless Scene: Web Design Company seems like an alternate take of a scene found in the film. I did, however, enjoy the The Gag Reel. It was sometimes funnier than the film.

The two featurettes are bizarrely interesting, but reveal essentially nothing about the making of the film. The first is Rollercoaster Doc. It seems that Jay Baruchel is deathly afraid of, you guessed it, rollercoasters. This behind-the-scenes short reveals how he was cajoled and coerced into riding in the front row with his fellow players to be filmed for the show. If you watch his face in the feature film as the ride ends, you can catch a glimpse of genuine panic. Baruchel got off after one ride, but his fellow players went up several times until the camera captured one barfing into a clear plastic bag.

Next is a clever satire of a making-of featurette called Directing the Director. The premise is that Universal sent Capote director Bennett Miller to oversee the untrustworthy Apatow. Miller’s interference escalates and gets more intrusive until things explode. It’s an interesting concept that intentionally makes the audience a little uneasy. But not quite as uneasy as watching someone upchuck into a clear plastic bag.

You’ll find a disposable music video of “You Can’t Fail Me Now” by Loudon Wainwright.

I’ll mention that the disc offers Web content for those, unlike this writer, that have high-speed Internet connections in their home theaters. Expect to find access to the usual My Scenes playlists and other materials related to the film.

Final Thoughts

Knocked Up was extremely popular and has garnered a vast legion of loyal fans. They should be absolutely delighted with the HD presentation, the solid but uninspired audio track, and a generous selection of extras that are sure to appeal to those who enjoyed the film.