Battle of the Netflix Stars #2

Bout #2: Battle of the Seth Rogen Flicks

Movie:	Knocked Up	Superbad
Year:	2007	2007
Director:	Judd Apatow	Greg Mottola
Star Power:	Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl and the glorious Paul Rudd.	Seth Rogen and the new crop of "funny, smart-ass teen actors."
Plot:	Oafish slacker Ben and pretty career-woman Alison meet at a bar and have a drunken one-night stand. When Alison ends up pregnant, she decides to keep the baby and make a go of things with the baby's daddy. Things in their budding relationship do not go smoothly and hilarity ensues.	During their last weeks of high school, best buds Seth and Evan worry about what will happen when they head off to separate colleges. Wanting to end their high school careers with a bang, the boys, along with nerdy friend Fogell, attempt to buy alcohol for a party so that they can get some girls liquored up enough to have sex with them. The evening does not go smoothly, and hilarity ensues.
Pros:	One of the more believable relationship stories I've seen depicted, where everything is not all sweetness and light and sex isn't always sexy. As with all of Apatow's work, there is a nice mix of smart and silly humor. The supporting cast does a great job of bringing the laughs, especially Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd as Alison's paranoid sister and jaded brother-in-law. Also, if you're not a Ryan Seacrest fan, you will be after seeing his cameo. He is totally hilarious.	Seriously funny dialogue, and a dead-on depiction of what little horny assholes high school boys are. Even though it's mostly raunchy humor, there's an undercurrent of sweetness because of the genuine hetero love and affection that Seth and Evan have for each other. Then, of course, there's the presence of the immediately iconic character: McLovin.
Cons:	It felt like it dragged on a bit too long, and Alison and Ben both started to get on my nerves after a while. Both characters could've used a good, swift kick in the ass.	There were probably too many scenes with the two idiot cops played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. They were funny, but it got a bit old after a while. Oh, and Paul Rudd isn't in this one. Booo.
My Thoughts:	It's a pretty funny movie, but I could've done without seeing Seth Rogen flopping around on top of Katherine Heigl for what felt like an eternity. Sometimes it seemed like it was just being raunchy for raunchiness's sake. The jokes weren't nearly as funny and the "heartwarming" moments weren't nearly as interesting as in The 40 Year Old Virgin.	This is a case where raunchy humor works and is absolutely necessary, because this is how teenage boys are. Except I don't remember knowing any that were this damn funny.
Final Grade:	C	A-