大象传媒

You could throw a rock at a video shop and hit a movie about the joys of parenting, but very few of those gooey family flicks deal with the actual business of making the baby. That's where Knocked Up comes in. Delving fearlessly beneath the duvet of taboo, Judd Apatow's superb comedy follows the relationship between slobby stoner Ben (Seth Rogen) and go-getting TV exec Alison (Katharine Heigl) from a drunken one-night-stand to nursery shopping and labour pains.

Apatow is best known for his rollicking sex farce The 40 Year Old Virgin, but Knocked Up is pitched at a considerably lower key. While the subject matter is bawdy and the language extremely saucy, most of the laughs (and there are lots of them) spring from conversations rather than gross-out set pieces. Rogen's likeable slacker and his no-hoper pals can discuss the finer points of celebrity nudity until your eyes are watering, while on the other side of the partnership, Alison's sister (Leslie Mann) and her husband (Paul Rudd) provide a spot-on portrait of an arid marriage.

"YOU'LL BE SNORTING POPCORN OUT OF YOUR NOSE"

Like its central character's life, Knocked Up has a messy story, but one imbued with such sweetness that it's impossible not to love. It's a romance with the cutest of twists - imagine if Romeo and Juliet had nine months to fall in love before Julie Jr arrived - told with the laconic charm of a good stand-up routine and laced with moments of genuine insight. It's an adult comedy - not smutty (well OK, it is kinda smutty) but a comedy for and about adults. Most importantly, it's so funny that you'll be snorting popcorn out of your nose before the end.

Knocked Up is out in the UK on 24th August 2007.