Blu-ray Movie Reviews

After the runaway success of his goofy and endearing The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), writer/director Judd Apatow has created the equally goofy and endearing Knocked Up. The setup: Schlemiel pothead (Seth Rogen) with posse of slackers and heart of gold meets impossibly hot, usually sensible young woman (Katherine Heigl) and gets her pregnant on a drunken one-night stand. Antics ensue.

Apatow is clearly a comedy writer, not a visual craftsman, so there's little challenge for the DVD transfer, and it looks entirely fine. Colors and shadow detail are more than reasonable, and I saw no digital artifacts, blooming, or oversaturation.

Like the visuals, the soundtrack doesn't really stretch the sonic envelope, but the snappy, often ad-libbed dialogue is always easy to hear. There's only a modicum of work for the surround channels, and while there are numerous times when the soundstage moves well beyond the borders of the screen - in the bar where the couple first meet, for example - this isn't a home theater reference disc.

If you find Apatow and his cast to be charming and funny (as I did), you'll enjoy the extras. You get outtakes, deleted scenes, and something called Line-o-Rama, wherein you hear various alternate versions of some good lines that never made it into the finished movie. There's also an entertaining commentary by Apatow and Rogen, joined by actor Bill Hader, who adds some marginally amusing impersonations of well-known celebrities. [NR] English, French, and Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1; letterboxed (1.85:1) and anamorphic widescreen; dual-layer.

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