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DVD Review: 'Knocked Up: Extended & Unrated Edition'
Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogan in 'Knocked Up'
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Bonus features are plentiful and thankfully hilarious
It's strings of silly (but far funnier and raunchier) synonyms like these that gave writer/director Judd Apatow the vast amounts of comic material to create the hours upon hours of extras for his DVD. And thankfully, for the most part, they're funny.
Apatow's follow-up to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" centers on the fateful meeting between up-and-coming entertainment correspondent Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) and unemployed schlub Ben Stone (Seth Rogen). After a drunken one-night stand, Alison falls pregnant, and the two decide to keep the baby and make a go of it as a couple despite having very little in common.
Although it's arguably not the funniest stuff, let's just be honest and assume that the first feature men will select is "Strippper Confidential," which shows behind-the-scenes footage of Rogen and Paul Rudd getting topless lapdances. Some may consider this section too brief, but it certainly delivers.
The best stuff on the bonus disc would be anything that allowed the actors to ad lib their own lines or try take after take of creative, colorful insults. The deleted scenes get the ball rolling with the various roommates waking up Ben with midnight confessionals about his impending fatherhood or commentary on how Alison didn't accept his proposal of marriage. Another hilarious series features the various guest stars like "The Office's" B.J. Novak playing lousy gynecologists all vying to be Alison's pregnancy doctor.
Really, anytime you get the boys together it's comedy gold, so also check out the guys at the club discussing how Jack Black paved the way for unsexy men to get women or sitting around the living room giving Ben grief about getting Alison pregnant. For similar humor, check out "Line-o-Rama version 2" and the additional gag reels.
Two whole features -- "The Kuni Files" and "Kuni Gone Wild" -- are devoted to scene stealer Ken Jeong as the bitter and angry Dr. Kuni, who really ought to get his own movie. Also fairly amusing is the "Beard-o-Rama" that centers on Martin Starr's full beard for the film's dirty man competition and "First Sex on Camera," which allows Rogen to comment on his sex scene with Heigl.
Interesting from a filmmaker's point of view would be Apatow's video diaries that covers 22 of the 55 days of shooting and "Gummy: the 6th Roommate," which recounts the true tale of how David Krumholtz was written out of the script when he left the film to star in a Woody Allen film, which unfortunately folded before beginning production. Heigl's audition, which is the car scene in which Alison blows up and kicks Ben out of the vehicle, is a nice look into her very natural ability to deliver pages of rapid-fire dialog with passion.
Fairly straightforward but entertaining in their own ways are the features on songwriter Loudon Wainwright and "Kids on the Loose," which focuses on the shenanigans of Apatow's real-life adorable daughters Iris and Maude on the set playing Rudd's daughters.
Bypass the "Topless Scene," which features Rogen without a shirt, the raw footage and "Finding Ben Stone," a mock retrospective of the different actors (all pals of Apatow's crowd) who supposedly got the part of Ben first but messed it up for various reasons. This all gets tedious very quickly.
EXTRAS: "Finding Ben Stone" casting featurette; extended "Kuni Gone Wild" scene; "Stripper Confidential" featuette; "Gummy the 6th Roommate" featurette; Judd Apatow's video diaries; two gag reels; delted scenes; "Kids on the Loose"; "Beard-o-Rama"; the Kuni Files; Loudon Wainwright III scoring session; Line-o-Rama version 2; Loudon Wainwright III live at McCabe's; First sex on camera; topless scene - restaurant, raw footage of geisha house, swingers; Katherine Heigl audition
PRICE: $30.98
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