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Firstly, he is misogynistic in his writing. The women he writes who are independent are all "mixed up". They are needy and controlling and generally poorly-portrayed. They are very weakly drawn as barely-human, except their duplicitous scowls.
Particularly in Knocked Up, there's a laundry list of things I loath about it.
The main character has a dream...it's an odd dream, but it's still a dream. He wants to make a website where they tell you when and where actors are naked in films. Even when he finds out it's been done before, he holds onto that dream. Then...suddenly, inexplicably...he gets an office job which would make anyone bang their head against the wall. All for his soon-to-be-born son. And he gets a 'real' apartment.
Their's an older couple in the film where the guy in the relationship is actually not that bad. He does say some stupid things but his wife crushes his time away to play fantasy football because "I want you with me more! Take me places! I need you!" At this point, she loses all sympathy from me. The husband truly expresses that he loves her but she still can't accept that everyone needs personal time...
Oh and did I forget? SHE TAKES TIME TO GO TO CLUBS WITH HER SINGLE SISTER TO GET HIT ON BY MEN!!!
But this I don't blame on the character so much as how she is rendered for us. Which takes me back to piss-poor writing.
The arc of the story is utterly telegraphed. Slacker hitting the bong with slacker friends amounts to nothing (and it's really really pointed out he is CANADIAN [and Jewish]) gets involved with Ms. Blond Entertainment Reporter who needs to be super-thin for her job. They kinda hook up...she does only a few scant things with him and expects him to conform to her expectations of the MANLY MAN WHO TAKES CARE OF HIS WOMAN--URG! *caveman stomp*. And he does...he conforms...to the daddy role...to the "This is My Woman! Step OFF! GRR!" to the stupid sister and the By the Book Gyno.
On the side, my mom really liked this film...because it had babies..awwwwww..and memories about babies and being cute. I liked it at points and I ended the film with a sense of "eh, not so bad" but as I actually thought about the movie...I realized what a trite film it actually was.
And this is often the case for me with anything by Apatow I've seen. The 40 Year Old Virgin was a real pain in the ass and there's not really anything from that film I can recall as fun or memorable. Freaks and Geeks had some aspects which I thought were interesting...and had much better-developed female characters...particularly the other girl in the Freaks set. The Geeks were neat as well.
TV-wise, a little better. Film-wise...tripe.
I just needed to vent that because people give Apatow so many kudos and pats and love and bleh...and I just needed to call the kettle black and the Emperor naked. They aren't well-written movies.
Edit - oh yeah and the PRODUCT PLACEMENT PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF! Apple, Red Bull, Corona beer, Pepsi, Microsoft and Google...in the plot like "I'm all happy and hyper because I had three Red Bulls!"
And the shot which lingered for what felt like half a minute on the Honda car logo instead of the people in the car and the scene it was meant to show!!!
Here's a good blog on the topic - http://elusivelucidity.blogspot.com/2007/07/knocked-up.html
Particularly in Knocked Up, there's a laundry list of things I loath about it.
The main character has a dream...it's an odd dream, but it's still a dream. He wants to make a website where they tell you when and where actors are naked in films. Even when he finds out it's been done before, he holds onto that dream. Then...suddenly, inexplicably...he gets an office job which would make anyone bang their head against the wall. All for his soon-to-be-born son. And he gets a 'real' apartment.
Their's an older couple in the film where the guy in the relationship is actually not that bad. He does say some stupid things but his wife crushes his time away to play fantasy football because "I want you with me more! Take me places! I need you!" At this point, she loses all sympathy from me. The husband truly expresses that he loves her but she still can't accept that everyone needs personal time...
Oh and did I forget? SHE TAKES TIME TO GO TO CLUBS WITH HER SINGLE SISTER TO GET HIT ON BY MEN!!!
But this I don't blame on the character so much as how she is rendered for us. Which takes me back to piss-poor writing.
The arc of the story is utterly telegraphed. Slacker hitting the bong with slacker friends amounts to nothing (and it's really really pointed out he is CANADIAN [and Jewish]) gets involved with Ms. Blond Entertainment Reporter who needs to be super-thin for her job. They kinda hook up...she does only a few scant things with him and expects him to conform to her expectations of the MANLY MAN WHO TAKES CARE OF HIS WOMAN--URG! *caveman stomp*. And he does...he conforms...to the daddy role...to the "This is My Woman! Step OFF! GRR!" to the stupid sister and the By the Book Gyno.
On the side, my mom really liked this film...because it had babies..awwwwww..and memories about babies and being cute. I liked it at points and I ended the film with a sense of "eh, not so bad" but as I actually thought about the movie...I realized what a trite film it actually was.
And this is often the case for me with anything by Apatow I've seen. The 40 Year Old Virgin was a real pain in the ass and there's not really anything from that film I can recall as fun or memorable. Freaks and Geeks had some aspects which I thought were interesting...and had much better-developed female characters...particularly the other girl in the Freaks set. The Geeks were neat as well.
TV-wise, a little better. Film-wise...tripe.
I just needed to vent that because people give Apatow so many kudos and pats and love and bleh...and I just needed to call the kettle black and the Emperor naked. They aren't well-written movies.
Edit - oh yeah and the PRODUCT PLACEMENT PISSED ME THE FUCK OFF! Apple, Red Bull, Corona beer, Pepsi, Microsoft and Google...in the plot like "I'm all happy and hyper because I had three Red Bulls!"
And the shot which lingered for what felt like half a minute on the Honda car logo instead of the people in the car and the scene it was meant to show!!!
Here's a good blog on the topic - http://elusivelucidity.blogspot.com/2007/07/knocked-up.html
