Knocked Up – Blu-ray Disc Review

September 17, 2008 – 5:18 pm - Posted by: Brendan Surpless

Tags: Bonus View, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Judd Apatow, Katherine Heigl, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, U-Control, Universal

has an average rating of 7.6 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include U-Control and more!
&
– 2007
– 129 minutes (RATED) 133 minutes (UNRATED)
– Universal
Street Date : September 30th 2008
–

Overall Verdict – Highly Recommended

Buy it for $20.95 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —

Trailer:



The Movie Itself was directed by the infamous Judd Apatow. Ben Stone (Seth Rogen and his buddies have two goals in their daily routine. Work on their website (which spots celebrities nudity in films) and get high (often). This is basically the life of a slacker one could imagine. On the polar opposite is Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl), an extremely successful employee of E! Entertainment. She’s young, beautiful and has just been promoted to on-air interviewer of all celebrities. Obviously at a high point in her life she’s convinced by her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) to go out and celebrate. Moving to the other side of the line Ben and his buddies also go out only they’re not celebrating anything. They just want to have a blast. The two meet at the club and seemingly “hit it off” ending the night with a “one-night stand”. Low and behold, as suggested by the film’s title, Alison soon finds she’s pregnant. Now both Ben and Alison, complete opposites in the highest sense, must now work out their differences in hopes of working through this pregnancy. What results is a charming film that has real emotion and heart.

The real charm and heart of the movie comes from the interactions of Ben and Alison. Both Rogen and Heigl play off each other’s emotions in perfect unison. Ben, obviously not knowing anything about life or honesty a job, is given a good old kick in the head type wake up call when he finds out that Alison is indeed pregnant. Just to show you how lackadaisical he is about his life (pardon the language as this is a direct quote) his first reaction is “Fuck Off”. Alison, certainly at the best point in her life before this situation, cries upon hearing the “good news”. Not tears of happiness but more tears of sadness. Both the point here is that both work with each other seeing past their massive differences in a manner that truly makes a great connection not only with each other on screen but also with the audience. I’m sure most can think of a time when two complete opposites can be together. The best statement to sum this up would be that polar opposites do truly react.

I’ve always viewed “Knocked Up” as more of an ‘adult’ comedy that some of Apatow’s other productions. Perhaps it’s the subject matter or the relationship that I felt the characters created. A truly great example is how the film is able to go from something downright hilarious (the scene where Ben and his buddies are smoking pot and thrusting when he’s on the phone with her) to a scene more on the serious side (the scene where Ben and Alison are discussing the pregnancy). The ability to mix both humor and important tones make this one of Apatow’s best films (not as good as “Superbad” in my book but damn close).

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec, in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio on a BD-50 Disc (50 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc). The best aspect of this transfer is the film’s source, which is generally pristine with no real instances of blemishes or any scratches to the print. The color palette tended to consist of mostly brighter colors (blues, pinks, reds) so that the image could have a pleasant look to it. Fleshtones were okay, sometimes a bit too hot in that some of the characters looked almost like ghosts. Grain wasn’t really noticeable except during a few of the darker bedroom sequences. No instance of any DNR or EE filters used either. There are a few scenes that do “pop” off screen but not as many as I figured a newer title would have. All in all this is a solid “4 Star Rating” title.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The surround mix on this is pretty well mixed to be something that isn’t too demanding like a romantic comedy. The film is pretty much driven by the dialogue which remains clear and perfectly loud at all times. This will mean you won’t be needing to adjust the volume as a result. Also the rear channel seems to have a decent amount of presence. In doing an A/B comparison with the HD DVD release (which had a Dolby Digital Plus track), this DTS HD-MA track does produce more overall atmosphere (in particular the club sequences where Ben ‘rolls the dice one too many times’). Dialogue is still clear and clean while dynamics have been tightened a bit (I noticed a few more effects in the rears than the HD DVD release). All in all this is a serviceable upgrade from Universal earning a solid “4 Star Rating“.

Bonus Materials are all presented in Standard Definition (480i/p) using the AVC codec and Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

• “U-Control” is included which features Picture-In-Picture via “Bonus View” — requiring a “Profile 1.1” Blu-ray Disc Player. Similar to the Picture-In-Picture found on “The 40-Year Old Virgin“, this is another solid effort by the Apatow folks. A majority of the comments are amusing and the interactions make this one easily worth a watch.
• Audio Commentary by Writer/Director Judd Apatow, Actors Seth Rogen and Bill Hader.
• Deleted Scenes has a total of 13 scenes with a runtime of 19 minutes. These all prove to be very funny and definitely worth watching
• Extended / Alternate Scenes has a total of 4 scenes with a runtime of 8 minutes. We get to see how big of a whiner Ryan Seacrest can be and again this is funny and worth watching.
• Line-o-rama (8 minutes) features the actors doing multiple variations in different takes on lines from the film. These are honestly what most people would classify as “outtakes.” Just like the rest of the Deleted/Extended/Alternate scenes this really funny and sure to give to you some laughs.
• Gag Reel (3 minutes) is pretty self-explanatory and is downright hilarious. Definitely should check this out!
• Roller Coaster Documentary (3 minutes) let’s you see how certain members of the cast handled their fears filming the scene on the roller coaster. This actually proves to be pretty funny and I won’t get into detail as to which cast member has the biggest fear but this is definitely worth watching.
• Directing the Director (3 minutes) has Bennett Miller (Director of “Capote“) joining Judd on the set to “help co-direct.” It’s pretty obvious after about a minute in that is a joke and is kind of worth a laugh. Some people might not realize this is a joke and think it’s pretty messed up. Those people I guess just don’t understand Judd Apatow‘s sense of humor.
• Loudon Wainwright III – Live at McCabe’s – “You Can’t Fail Me Now“ (3 minutes) is a live performance of a song from Loudon Wainwright III who worked on the film’s Soundtrack. Really good performance and the lyrics are really fitting to the feel of the film.
• Topless Scene – Web Design Company (30 seconds) is way too freakin’ short! Sure it’s funny about the third time you’ve watch it but I mean c’mon! 30 seconds?
• Finding Ben Stone: Now this was a damn riot. This 30 minutes feature showcases the various actors that were supposedly cast before Seth Rogen was chosen for the role.
• Kuni Files: Running about 6 minutes, this feature has the real-life Ken Jeong speak on a scene in the movie.
• Kuni Gone Wild: This is basically 6 minutes of improv with Jeong.
• Katherine Heigl Audition: At 3 minutes in length, we get a few screen readings by actor Katherine Heigl.
• First Sex on Camera: At 1 and a half minutes in length, this shows the first ‘sex’ scene shot by Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill.
• Stripper Confidential: This showcases a sequence in Las Vegas in 2 minutes.
• Video Diaries: At about 30 minutes in length, we get comments from Apatow after a few scenes were shot. He basically tells us how the shoot is progressing.
• Kids on the Loose: This is 5 and a half minutes of antics from the two child actors from the film.
• Gummy: The 6th Roomate: At nearly 7 minutes in length, this shows actor David Krumholtz speaking on a role he apparently dropped out of.
• Raw Footage: 2 scene in particular (about 17 minutes in total footage) are shown. Both serve as more improv from the two lead actors.

• BD-Live is included which (when enabled likely on street date) will allow you to connect to the internet via “Profile 2.0” Blu-ray Disc Player and download new content. Stay tuned for more information on this soon.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

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