What a lot of us are, however, are geeks, stoners and layabouts. Enter 'Knocked Up', the newest from writer/director Judd Apatow, whose debut effort 'The Forty Year Old Virgin'

is one of the funniest damn movies released this decade (in a battle, I'll side with 'Virgin' over 'Anchorman' anyday) and once again, Apatow hits it out of the park with a knockout combination of witty dialogue, real, believable characters and a premise that, well, we've probably all heard about, if not lived through.

    Ben (Seth Rogen) and Allison (Katharine Heigl) are two people from completely different sides of the tracks. He’s, for the most part, a funny waste of space, sitting around with his room-mates getting high and making a pseudo-porn site where you can find out what movies your favorite actresses are nude in. She is an up-and-coming television producer who gets promoted to on-screen talent. Her career is going up, up and up, and the last thing on her mind is a baby. What is on both of their minds, however, is having a good time, Ben just because and her to celebrate her promotion. They meet at a club very naturally and after a little awkwardness, they’re drinking heavily, one thing leads to another and bam! they sleep together. And that is where, in real life, this story ends. It’s a total coyote ugly and they clearly want different things out life and are incompatible. But, eight weeks down the line, Allison starts getting sick and after a very humorous scene involving a lot of tests, she finds out she’s pregnant, and the overweight Canadian Jew with the curly hair is the father. This is a comedy, right? Cuz it sounds like to some women, it’d be a nightmare. What follows is two hours of near non-stop laughter as the two of them try to make it work.

    In nearly all romantic comedies, there’s a moment where the characters connect and although we know they’re supposed to get together (one of the charms of the genre), they haven’t figured it out. They love each other at first sight and weather through everything that life throws at them. ‘Knocked Up’ is different in that, these characters weren’t supposed to be together, they were supposed to have a good time and then go their separate ways. The film, is in essence, trying to get them to stay together the whole, despite each of them desperately wanting to run away and not deal with it. Ben’s a guy who never had to take responsibility in anything and now, he’s thrust into a situation he didn’t ask for and he’s trying his best to make it work. Commitment’s a scary thing and when you have a third party involved, like a kid, dear god, is it a wonder men sometimes freak out, ladies?

    I could go on and on about the societal and gender ramifications and situations presented in the film. I won’t, but I will say that, Ben reacts pretty much how I would.

    Ben and Allison could not have been played by two more endearing, charming people. Seth Rogen, who played stoner Cal in ‘Virgin’, steps up to leading man this time around and does an amazing job bringing Ben from his slacker, stoner persona to a responsible, yet still clueless, father. Clueless is a compliment, because, there ain’t no way you know everything about having a baby until you have one. Katharine Heigl is beautiful, not a knockout, intelligent, vulnerable and real. Unlike most shows and movies, she does not have all the answers either and it’s at those times when fights occur, because at the heart of it, they’re still two different people just trying to give it a go and failing...sometimes spectacularly!

    While Ben and Allison have their “romantic” moments together, alot of the “comedy” elements are, as with ‘Virgin’, handed off to the supporting cast. Moving alongside Ben and Allison’s story is that of Allison’s sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband, Pete (the indomitable Paul Rudd), who are essentially Ben and Allison plus a few years and few broken dreams. Rudd has razor wit and perfect timing and he instills Pete with the weathered figure of a guy who life wasn’t always fair to. A guy who needs “male camaraderie” and a fantasy baseball league just to stay sane. Debbie, for most of the film, is played like a harpy and she has some dynamite explosions against other characters, mostly male, in which she rips into them. Her angry speech against a bouncer is priceless.

    Ben has his own posse of characters, a bunch of lovable losers who do little else besides watch movies and smoke all day. Jonah Hill, from the show ‘Freaks and Geeks’ and the film ‘Accepted’, again brings his impeccable line delivery and gives us some insults that will be quoted for years to come. Ask any guy you know, and they will know someone like Ben’s group, hell, they probably belong in that group from time to time.

    ‘Knocked Up’ brings the funny. It brings it hard and fast and constant. I am sure I missed jokes because the theater was in an uproar. Apatow, though not above the occasional crass humor (like how one acquires pink eye), relies on character and dialogue for his comedy. He knows that, yeah, guys falling down are funny, but a well timed and perfectly delivered witticism has nothing on physical comedy at all. There are a lot of minor moments and characters that have you begging for more. Allison’s exec and his assistant were a stream of constant laughs. As was a self-parody scene by Ryan Seacrest (who I now have more respect for...).

    It’s not all fun and games. Apatow can handle drama as well, if not better, than comedy. He lets his characters do the work, whether its destroying themselves or putting themselves back together. The man is an expert writer who clearly is taking from his own history. Hollywood, take note: this is how you do comedy. And gasp! Men love it, too! It’s warm, touching, hilarious and personal to a fault. In a summer of explosions and sequels, it’s refreshing to see a film wow us with what is, was and always will be the greatest special effect: the human experience.