Comedy is so strange. You know, I watched Knocked Up opening night back in June and I thought it was fall-out-of-the-seat funny at times. I couldn't wait to see it on DVD, because I missed a lot of lines due to the crowd laughing so much. Flash-forward a few months and here I am watching the extended/unrated version at home and I'm thinking to myself, "Wait, what exactly was I laughing at?"
For starters, Ben's (Seth Rogen) character is so obnoxious that I can't suspend enough disbelief to make the relationship with Alison (Heigl) even semi-plausible. I mean, even if Alison wasn't played by the statuesque Katherine Heigl, I'd be pressed to believe he could get a girl to fall for him. He's coarse, crude and practically charmless. Yeah, he's funny at times, but those moments seemed far more rare on the second viewing.
I will say that Paul Rudd remains the most consistently funny thing in the movie. His riff on chairs in Vegas still felt like an inspired completely out-of-nowhere bit of comedy. Unfortunately, there's not enough of him and too much of his character's wife. Leslie Mann's Debbie rubbed me a little the wrong way when I first saw the film, but watching it again, her character was downright unbearable. Ben's defense of her in Vegas when he talks about her humor and kindness just doesn't ring true as far as what the audience sees. And it remains preposterous to have a character even suggest that playing fantasy league baseball is somehow worse or even on a par with infidelity. The only scene with her that I dug was the bouncer's takedown of her and Alison at the club ("It's not that you're not hot. I can't let you in because you old as f@##...for this club, not you know, for the Earth. You old, she's pregnant. Can't have a bunch of old pregnant b!#ches running around in the club. That's crazy."). Classic.
I also never realized how much Rogen's and Jonah Hill's schtick were the same. They both have this mode where they get angry and just launch into these expletive-laced tirades until they get hoarse. Granted, it can be funny (see Hill's Knocked Up deleted-scene commentary on Brokeback Mountain or his constant mantra from Superbad, "What the f@#$!"), but it gets old fast. I still like the guy, but I hope he doesn't lean on that comedic styling too much in his next flick, Pineapple Express. I'm still pulling for him to make funny movies. I actually enjoyed him in Superbad ("Did you just c@ckblock McLovin'? We're supposed to guide his c@ck.").
Speaking of Superbad, it actually does stand up to repeat viewings. Watching it a second time, I still found myself laughing jokes I'd just heard/seen a few weeks prior. Much credit to Hill and Cera. I wouldn't say it's as funny as what's for my money the funniest movie in the last few years, Talladega Nights, but it's a definite keeper. I should go rewatch 40-Year Old Virgin too. I remember thinking it was good but not great at the time, but I've never revisited it. Maybe I'll give Knocked Up another shot in a couple of months; watch it with someone who's never seen it; gauge his or her reaction. We'll see.
What a difference a few months makes. Wow.
1 comment:
You'll come back 'round to Knocked About. It's the dialectic, after all, presaged by Hegel.
You could say Hill and Rogen's fits of anger stem from Ben Stiller's patented 'rage monkey' routine, the nerd in distress, although I don't think it's as bad. True, there must be a middle ground between the laid-back stoner and the rage monkey, but that's not the audience we're looking at. It's not witty repartee, but then again, these are funny guys in a vaccuum - there doesn't seem to be a comic foil on the girls' side. No Kate Hepburn here (to a wilfully befuddled Cary Grant).
That's why 40-Yr Old Virgin is the classic, or one of the reason: the heart of it is a completely reliable romance between Carrel adn Keener. He sells it, she sells it. But then again, they're older...
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