"The Sort-of Sequel to 'Knocked Up'". This is This is 40. This comedy film written and directed by Judd Apatow. It is a spin-off of Apatow's 2007 film Knocked Up. After years of marriage, Pete and Debbie are approaching a milestone meltdown. As they try to balance romance, careers, parents and children in their own hilarious ways, they must also figure out how to enjoy the rest of their lives.
By late September 2011, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow and Jason Segel returned to reprise their roles, with Melissa McCarthy, Megan Fox, John Lithgow, Albert Brooks, Chris O'Dowd, and Lena Dunham as newcomers. At the same time, principal photography commended, and took place throughout Los Angeles, California. The film was originally scheduled for a June 1, 2012 release date, however, in May 2011, Universal pushed the release date to December 2012, allocating the film's original release date for Snow White & the Huntsman as it was in competition with the rival Snow White film Mirror Mirror.
The film stars Rudd, Mann, Apatow, Apatow, McCarthy, Segel, Fox, Lithgow, Brooks, O'Dowd, and Dunham. What really sells it is a fantastic support from the cast. With sparkling performances from Mann and Rudd, Apatow once again shows his sharp eye for talent and continuing knack for hits.
The jokes, which are in the absolute poorest taste, remain hilarious, while a newer, deeper humanism, sensed in momentary flashes in the earlier film, is now fully on display. Apatow's follow-up to Knocked Up is snort-all-over-the-person-in-front-of-you funny, hand-over-mouth filthy, and as exhilarating as inhaling from a 1-ton oxygen tank. A somewhat funny, occasionally charming, steadily foul-mouthed, frequently well-written, otherwise downright stupid comedy, enjoyable in spite of its unaccountably overblown length of over two hours. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on this movie, because there are a couple of funny scenes here and there, but they are so outweighed by the ones that bored me silly, they're not the ones that I remember. For all of its filthy tirades, the film is perhaps one of the more sentimental and honourable morality tales this year, featuring more educational value and entertainment than all of the after school specials in the world. What makes This is 40 stand out is not just the fact that the jokes are side-splittingly funny but that nearly everything that happens to the couple rings so true. The film touches places most comedies wouldn't dare, some of them scarily biological, some of them scarily accurate. It's the sleeper hit of the summer, but don't worry: it's much better than that. There's no doubt Apatow is supplying a national service by allowing the inept to feel adequate about themselves. Apatow's film may have a provocative title, but just like a TV sitcom that placates an audience's apprehension about the real world, it neither titillates nor challenges. The humour arises from Apatow's determination to cram as many jokes and putdowns into the script as possible rather than the situations and the characters.
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