Knocked Up on the Pineapple Express

Pineapple Express hits theaters today, and I can express a certain amount of hope for it: hope that it won't be too much like other Judd Apatow films.

Knocked Up has received some of the highest credit for an Apatow film yet. I can't help but wonder why.

Humor is incredibly subjective. I can't claim to know "funny" better than Mr. Judd, so I won't bother. But there remains plenty of reasons as to why Knocked Up is a bad film.

There's not really a character in the film that is "relatable." Every single character in the movie - with no exception - is a total asshole. I guess if you're a total asshole, than this is the comedy for you. If you're not, well, then there's nothing.

The biggest problem with this is that Knocked Up, amidst all the pathetic attempts at humor usually contrived through another incredibly forced geek reference (oh God, another bad Star War reference? Why Gog, WHY?) the film actually tries to take itself seriously. So all these characters introduced to you as the butt end of a bad joke you're suddenly supposed to care about. Only how are you supposed to care about a one word personality? It's pretty hard.

There's a whole portion of the film dealing with a married couple, where the wife is a total bitch and the husband is spending all his time away from the family in some vain attempt to not be completely forced to leave due to how much of a bitch his wife is. He's supposedly cheating on her, but then it turns out he's just playing fantasy football. But apparently, that's even worse! Not only is he faithful to a wife we have no reason to like, but he's honestly trying to not break everything apart. But that doesn't matter. Instead, we're apparently supposed to take the side of the total bitch wife, who so far has done nothing but nag and accuse him of cheating on her (which, as we've learned, he isn't), and cheer her on. So much so that when our "hero" Seth Rogan calls the husband out for being an asshole, we're apparently supposed to take Rogan's side.

But here's a guy who is the ONLY person in the ENTIRE FUCKING FILM who hasn't been an ass to Seth Rogan so much as once, and all of the sudden he's chewing the guy out? What the fuck is that?

The humor in this film is lousy, but even if you enjoy its desperate attempts of begging for your laughter, the problem with this film is its drama. It spends the entire film trying to build the drama, but all the characters you're supposed to cheer for just come off looking like asshole and idiots. And, I don't know, maybe that's a good thing in Apatow's book. But if that's the kind of character that's considered positive these days then man, the world truly is fucked.

So I won't hold my breath on the Pineapple Express. When this train comes to a stop, I don't doubt it'll be just as disappointing an exit as everything before.