I bought Knocked Up on Tuesday. It was one of my favorite movies of the year in the theater, and I so bought the 2-disc special edition. Lacey and I watched it again last night, and I found myself laughing less, but liking it more. It is definitely not one of those comedies where the jokes get funnier, or you notice other hilarious stuff on every subsequent viewing. Most of the laughs are one-time things that rely almost on shock value. Normally, that is terrible for a comedy: you laugh once, and then never want to see it again. But this movie seems to be an exception. The characters are endearing and lovable, with all their obvious and enormous flaws. They make mistakes, and then pick themselves up, learn from them, and move ahead. They are genuinely sorry when they've acted poorly, and they do their best to rectify the situation. In essence, they sin, and are forgiven, and try not to do the same thing over again, which is a good lesson for all of us.
I also really like how at first, the two leads are trying to make it work, just because she's pregnant. But then the Seth Rogen character actually matures, and realizes that it's the right thing to do, not just the acceptable thing to do. Another analogy I thought of, was when I was growing up, my faith was very childlike, and Dad always taught me that eventually I would have to "own" my faith, and make it mine. Not because that is what I was told to do by my parents, but because it was the right thing to do. And that's kind of the transformation that they go through: from what society says they should probably do, to what they actually think it right. And that is nice and refreshing. Of course, the movie is not free from crass by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it perfect. But I really, really liked this movie, not just because I laughed a lot (which I still did, even the 2nd time) but because this is a quality film. Judd Apatow is certainly good at what he does.