The Netflix R-Rated Modern Comedy Classic That Hasn’t Lost Its Punch

Knocked Up was released in 2007 to tremendous box office numbers and great critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes has both critics and audiences, giving the film positive reviews up in the 80th percentile. It’s an amazing movie, and it is reflective of how fun and free comedy was at the time. It’s silly, gross, and over the top, and it’s worth sitting down to watch with popcorn and candy this weekend, regardless of whether you’ve already seen it. 

Knocked Up opens with Alison Scott, played by Katherine Heigl, meeting Ben Stone, played by Seth Rogen, in a nightclub. Alison has just been promoted to an on-air role at E!, where she works, and Ben is an immature man-child who shares a house with several other potheads. He lives off settlement money he got from a personal injury case, and he’s lightly planning to build a porn website that notifies users to which exact moments in movies they can go to find nudity or sex.

When the two hook up, they start drinking heavily with their friends, and they end up falling into bed together. Through some drunken confusion, they don’t use a condom, and Alison gets knocked up. The rest of the film is about two people from starkly different worlds headed in dramatically different directions trying to bumble through a pregnancy. 

Ben’s house is filled with a bunch of stoners almost all the time, including Apatow favorites Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, and Jason Segel. We cut throughout the movie to Ben having hilarious conversations with his buddies while they smoke pot. Meanwhile, newly knocked-up Alison lives in her sister’s guest house.

The sister, Debbie, is played by Apatow’s real-life, truly hilarious wife, Leslie Mann. Debbie’s husband, Pete, is played by none other than Paul Rudd. And the couple’s kids are played by Mann’s and Apatow’s real-life children. They were such a hit that a spin-off, This Is 40, came out in 2012, featuring even more celebrity cameos.

Knocked Up is a raucous roller coaster ride of fun that feels like a family is letting us in on their ridiculous drama. Debbie and Pete are about as squarely normal as you can get, and poor Pete just wants to sneak away for his fantasy football nights or to see Spider-Man by himself. Debbie is struggling with becoming older and less interesting to men. And Alison is just trying to navigate her life as a soon-to-be single mom with a loser stoner for a… boyfriend? 

Ben is trying to do the right thing by Alison, but he also wants to stay true to himself, which is hard with an uptight, neurotic… girlfriend? They’re continually figuring it out through this movie, and the many pitfalls along the way are genuinely funny in that Judd Apatow way. 

REVIEW SCORE

Knocked Up is only the second film directed by Apatow. He made a name for himself as a writer and producer early in his career, having an ear for great comedy. Some people may know him from his early days as producer, writer, and director of Freaks and Geeks, but he really broke through in Hollywood with 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he co-wrote with the lead, Steve Carell. Apatow has been instrumental in helping to guide the careers of many of our greatest Hollywood comedians, including Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. 

Knocked Up is now 17 years old, but it feels current, modern, and consistently hilarious. It just doesn’t get old. I give it 5 stars out of 5 and urge you to stream it next time you need a big laugh.

Knocked Up is available to stream on Netflix.