Just over a trimester after its theatrical release, Knocked Up is out on DVD. Considering its commercial and critical darlinghood, there isn't much to say about the film proper that hasn't been said before; it is delightful, warm and funny and human in ways that no other filmmaker outside director/writer Judd Apatow has managed to capture on screen in the past decade. Still, I find Knocked Up — as I do all of Apatow's work — discomfiting. Apatow's television and film projects hold up a mirror to my twenty-five-year-old life and cause no small amount of squirming and embarrassment. Knocked Up's story of Ben and Allison is no exception. It's a testament to Apatow's talent and capacity for empathy, though, that the story speaks both to those living it and those who've already moved on. No wonder everyone loves his work; it reminds the audience that they're not alone.
In what's become the standard for comedies on DVD, Knocked Up comes in three different packages: the rated theatrical edition, a two-disc collector's edition, and the "Unrated and Unprotected!" edition reviewed here. The bonus features unique to the "Unrated and Unprotected!" edition are particularly dispensible. The extended scenes were plainly cut down in the interests of better pacing in the first place. The majority of the deleted scenes and gag-reel extras on the disc are also available on the rated edition, so the only special feature here is a scene of Seth Rogen without his shirt on. It's strange. The additional content is the type of flotsam that only Rogen's Ben and cohorts would watch in the first place. The commentary track is also something of a disappointment, considering it's a sausage fest. Where's the insight from Katherine Heigl and Leslie Mann, Judd? But the redundant extras are beside the point. Knocked Up is a perfect movie. No matter what version you pick up, you get more than your money's worth from the feature alone. — John Constantine