In association with

Knocked Up/40 Year Old Virgin [2005]
from Universal Pictures UK
starring Steve Carell, Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill
directed by Judd Apatow

Features:

• Box set
• PAL

Editorial Review:

Knocked Up

In a year that otherwise struggled to deliver where comedies were concerned, Knocked Up proved to be a very welcome treasure trove of laughs. It’s from Judd Apatow, the man behind The 40 Year Old Virgin and the excellent TV show Freaks and Geeks, and sits easily as an equal to both. It’s also a long-awaited showcase for the talents of Seth Rogen, who proves with some conviction that he can headline a movie.

The premise of Knocked Up is simple. Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl share, for differing reasons, a one-night stand, and several weeks later, the latter discovers she’s pregnant. Given that Rogen’s character has been jobless for years, and that Heigl is trying to build a TV career, the two don’t prove to be a logical match, yet as the pregnancy progresses, they try valiantly to get to know one another.

The narrative itself is quite straightforward, but it’s the execution and characters that lift it significantly. Apatow knows how to direct comedy, and with a script peppered with plenty of guffaw-out-loud moments and situations, he wrings very hearty laughs from the material. Plus, while its Rogen and Heigl who power the film, the supporting cast is simply superb, particularly the collection of people that Rogen’s character surrounds himself with. It’s perhaps guilty of running ten minutes too long, and there’s little to surprise in the story itself, yet Knocked Up is nonetheless a terrific, earthy and grounded comedy, with so much to enjoy. It’s hard to single out individual moments, and instead it simply seems more appropriate to declare Knocked Up as one of the best, and most rewatchable, comedies of the last few years. Don’t miss it.--Simon Brew

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Cult comic actor Steve Carell--long adored for his supporting work on The Daily Show and in movies like Bruce Almighty and Anchorman--leaps into leading man status with The 40 Year-Old Virgin. There's no point describing the plot; it's about how a 40 year-old virgin named Andy (Carell) finally finds true love and gets laid. Along the way, there are very funny scenes involving being coached by his friends, speed dating, being propositioned by his female manager, and getting his chest waxed. Carell finds both humour and humanity in Andy, and the supporting cast includes some standout comic work from Paul Rudd (Clueless, The Shape of Things) and Jane Lynch (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), as well as an unusually straight performance from Catherine Keener (Lovely & Amazing, Being John Malkovich). And yet... something about the movie misses the mark. It skirts around the topic of male sexual anxiety, mining it for easy jokes, but never really digs into anything that would make the men in the audience actually squirm--and it's a lot less funny as a result. Nonetheless, there are many great bits, and Carell deserves the chance to shine. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0

• Good films, Cheaper elsewhere.
  Before buying this I hads already seen Knocked Up a couple of times, and thought it was quite funny.
  Never seen 40 Year old virgin before this but always wanted too.
  Decided to get this as I wanted to fill up my dvd shelves a bit, as they were looking a bit empty, only had a £13 and tjhought I'd pop into HMV before grabbing the bus home to check out there £3 DVDs, while there I found this for £8 VERY good value if you buy it from there.
  As it works out at £4 per film... more info

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