Knocked Up – Unrated & Unprotected (2007; HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)
Picture:
B+/B- Sound: B+/B- Extras: B- Film: B-
Comedies
are at a new low in quality in Hollywood, replaced by gross-out run-ons and
smug screenwriting where the writer thinks he or she is smarter than the
audience and turns out to be one of the biggest of dummies. Occasionally comes a cycle of comedies that
distinguish themselves and they sometimes even catch on. After the commercial success of the sometimes
problematic The 40-Year-Old Virgin,
Judd Apatow returned with Knocked Up,
another hit comedy that manages to successfully juggle several types of comedy
fore the first time and usually works.
First,
there is the crude teen comedy as represented by the guys living together
including Ben (Seth Rogen) who is as wacky as any of them. There is the female career comedy, as Alison
(Katherine Heigl) tries to find her way up the ladder at a major cable network
and that is usually a humor denoted by wit, less crudeness and a happy world of
workers educated and lucky enough to have jobs.
Apatow’s screenplay comes up with the clever idea of having the two
collide when the two characters have a one night stand and Alison gets
pregnant.
That
leaves the rest of the film vying between the two without any artificial lines
and though you get more pop culture references and jokes than you really need,
the energy and comic timing of the film works more often than not and Rogen
sets himself up as a potentially important comic actor for years to come. However, it is Heigl that really hit the nail
on the head, carrying more of this film that it would first seem and proving
(as she did with Side Effects, reviewed
elsewhere on this site) that she can carry a feature film with ease.
Apatow
gets interesting mileage out of culture clashes that you would never see in
most film of any kind of late and the cast is a plus, though they are mostly
unknowns. Harold Ramis, Paul Rudd and
musician Loudon Wainright III (who contributed music with Joe Henry for the
film) are very good. All the cast delivers
and Apatow is on his way to possibly becoming a premiere comedy director. For a film that seemed like it might be an
average throw-away waste of time, Knocked
Up delivers and in this uncut version, never goes as overboard as expected,
delivering more unexpected laughs than any commercial comedy of late.
Best of
all, Apatow mines the unintended pregnancy situation for subtle humor that
eventually becomes the core of the film’s success.
The 1080p
digital 1.85 X 1 VC- 1 High Definition image was shot by Director of
Photography Eric Edwards, who first gained notice for his raw work on Larry
Clark’s Kids. Though not always great, the HD transfer is
more on than off and very watchable, though occurrent redness can be annoying. The anamorphically enhanced standard DVD side
is just fine, though no match for the HD version and best of all, the editing
and camera shot choices benefit the humor.
The Dolby
Digital Plus 5.1 mix is better than the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix enough
to give it more than an edge, but that does not make it True HD either, but the
dialogue and music are better in the Plus mix and consistently so. The combination on either side is just fine
for what the formats can deliver. Extras
include the original trailer, a gag reel, Line-O-Rama feature, commentary with
Apatow, Rogen & actor Bill Hader, deleted/extended scenes. “topless” scene
and U-Control capacity exclusive to the HD side with all of its clip and
reference capacities.
Note that
the extra four minutes of the uncut version are on the HD side only. For more on the release of the gangs other
Summer 2007 hit Superbad, try this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6264/Superbad:+2-Disc+Unrated+Extended
- Nicholas Sheffo
