Knocked Up
Universal Pictures | Release Date: June 1, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Ultimately, what makes Knocked Up a terrific film--one of the year's best, easily--is its relaxed, shaggy vibe; if it feels improvised in places, that's because Apatow trusts his actors enough to let them make it up as they go, like the people they're playing. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The very opposite of a storybook romance, and also the very model of a great comedy for our values-driven time. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
No one writes for ensembles better than Apatow, and his players are all skilled at giving his work a loose, improvisational feel. Read full review
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Judd Apatow is making the freshest, most honest mainstream comedies in Hollywood. Read full review
100
New York PostKyle Smith
Ridiculous comedies can be fine, but the ones that matter creep up close to the truth. This one lives in it. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
An instant classic, a comedy that captures the sexual confusion and moral ambivalence of our moment without straining, pandering or preaching. Read full review
100
VarietyJoe Leydon
Uproarious. Line for line, minute to minute, writer-director Judd Apatow's latest effort is more explosively funny, more frequently, than nearly any other major studio release in recent memory. Read full review
90
Film ThreatMark Bell
Believe the hype, Knocked Up is one of the funniest films of 2007. It's too early in the year to crown it the supreme funniest title, but save for something so funny your head explodes in the theater, I think it'll take the title by year's end. Seth Rogen, we web slackers salute you! Read full review
90
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Turns out to be not just rude, crude and outrageously funny but a deceptively sophisticated meditation on moral agency -- with pot jokes! Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeFore
Apatow's gleefully raunchy movies are, in an odd and charming way, extremely family-friendly. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Judd Apatow's high-density, high-intensity comedy of bad (and good) manners is a cause for celebration -- the laugh lines are smart, and they come faster than you can process them. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
It's hard enough to find comedies like this at any time, so it's a small and welcome miracle to come upon one in the midst of a typical movie summer. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Knocked Up could be one of the summer of 2007's sleeper hits. It certainly deserves the distinction. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Rogen and Heigl step up to the plate with a tougher task from Coach Apatow: Nail every laugh and the emotions underlying them. No worries. They knock it out of the park. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Knocked Up is more verbally adroit than it is visually. But Apatow's awfully sharp as a chronicler of contemporary romantic anxieties. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
What makes the movie so winning are its endearing and relatable characters who spout believable dialogue and amusing banter, steeped in clever pop-culture references and sharp observations of human nature. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kamal AL-Solaylee
Move over, Jim Carrey, and watch your back, Mike Myers. Your tenure as the most bankable comedians to call Canada not-quite home but still native land is about to come to an end. The new money is on one 25-year-old virgin – to top billing, that is – from Vancouver. His name is Seth Rogen and he's (literally) the poster boy for the best American comedy of the summer and, what the heck, of the decade so far. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Knocked Up is filled with comic exchanges and bits of business that, while not essential to the central plot, keep the movie's comedic energy chugging (like Debbie's throwdown with a doorman at a popular nightclub who won't let her in because she's too old). Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
What follows is an extreme case of reverse courtship, which begins at conception and works backward toward getting to know each other, and then moves forward to one of the funniest birthing scenes ever filmed. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Sweep aside the gross-outs and you've got the family values comedy of the year. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
All told, Knocked Up works more in spite of its low humor than because of it. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Alas, while the verbiage bubbles, the plot slogs. You feel that there's a big pile of deleted scenes waiting to appear on the DVD -- and that a good bit of what's here should have joined it. Funny is good, but it requires sharp if it's to rise to true greatness. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Knocked Up feels very NOW. The banter is bruisingly funny, the characters BRILLIANTLY childish, the portrait of our culture's narrowing gap between children and their elders hysterical--in all senses. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
On the surface, Apatow's films are about sex--obsessively, exclusively, and exhaustively. (This one lasts more than two hours.) But that is a clever feint, for their true subject is age. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Line for line, Knocked Up isn't quite as funny as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which got most of its laughs from the friction between prissy Carell and his sex-crazed stoner co-workers. But it is equally good as a nutty anthropology of marginal living and as an illustration of how much energy it takes to do nothing in a work-obsessed society. Read full review
80
SlateDana Stevens
It's one of those zeitgeist-tapping romantic comedies that feels like a generational marker, a "Tootsie" or "The Graduate" for the 21st century. Read full review
80
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A beautifully shaped piece of work: There are no slack patches, no gratuitous feel-good moments -- if you walk out of Knocked Up feeling good, that means you've earned it. Read full review
80
EmpireIan Nathan
Knocked Up touches places most comedies wouldn't dare, some of them scarily biological, some of them scarily accurate. It's the sleeper hit of the summer, but don't worry: it's much better than that. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Most of the movie feels like a loose, sometimes improvised lark among friends. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Apatow's clever comedy is a romance in reverse, and it works. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
The story line meanders and too many scenes drone on; Knocked Up is in serious need of a good editor. But the laughs are plentiful, and it's the rare movie these days where one doesn't feel guilty about finding the whole thing funny. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Debbie gets away with being such a cauldron of extremes because the airy-voiced Mann is extremely good at playing them. She happens to be Apatow's wife (the kids in the movie are theirs), and with the possible exception of Téa Leoni , it's hard to imagine who else could get away with this combination of needling and affection. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Heigl, a double-dip of praline with caramel, is so beautiful that initially you don't notice her comic chops. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Knocked Up has some rough edges, but it's a noteworthy film by a significant and blossoming talent. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
More often than not laugh-out-loud hilarious. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Funny, but its lacking at the core. Judd Apatow's comedy takes the guy's side of things, but how does the woman feel about all of this? Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Funny, honest, and generous, this is mainstream American comedy at its best. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh Rosenblatt
Like most of Apatow's work, Knocked Up walks a perilous line between sarcasm and sentimentality, and though it's extremely funny in bursts, the movie flirts once too often with schmaltz before toppling into melodrama in its third act. The fault lies as much with Apatow's casting as his writing. Read full review
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