For the first time in roughly four weeks a movie has come out from a major studio that was not just another weak sequel to tired franchises, but an interesting original movie that deserves to be watched more than the $ 100 million dollar monstrosities that currently dominate the box office. “Knocked Up” is probably not going to get as much of the audience it deserves due to bigger movies which is a shame for this comedy that is equal parts crude humor and emotional richness that director Judd Apatow .

The movie is centered on the two main characters of Ben (Seth Rogen) and Allison (Katherine Heigl). Ben is a slacker lives off his meager bank account and spends his days with his friends trying to get their nude celebrity website off the ground or just smoking a lot pot. Allison exists on the other end of the spectrum, she is a woman who thinks only of her career as an entertainment reporter and does most of whatever her controlling sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) thinks she should do. In the real world, these two would never hook up for a one night stand and regret it in the morning, but hey it’s a movie. While they both thought they were done after one night, Allison discovers she is pregnant and Ben jumps on board to try and raise their future child.

The comedy while trying to bring more of strong message about the ups and downs of growing up and family stumbles in very few places and brings laughs that will have the viewer’s gut hurting in the end (and if that doesn’t work, the birth scene at the end will). Rogen, who stared in Apatow’s last film “The 40-Year Old Virgin”, brings a sense of realism to his character. He doesn’t look like the standard Hollywood leading man, he looks more like your friend you just got drunk with at a party and this helps sell the realism of the humor of a man boy who is trying to gain the trust of Allison, learn how to raise a kid, and grow up without losing his buddies. The whole growth from slacker to father and Allison’s struggle to still be a career woman and a mother carries most of the jokes and they are handled very realistically and makes every joke a gem.

While the film serves some of the best comedy in years, it’s handling of adult issues could have been better. One of the substantial subplots of the film is Debbie dealing with her collapsing marriage to husband Pete (Paul Rudd). Throughout two-thirds of the movie, their marriage is a significant subplot that is talked about in every other scene but at the end it just seems to be wrapped up nice and tidy with no real resolution. Ben’s friends in the film are too one dimensional and their involvement in the film dies out more towards the end even though they provide some of the best jokes in the film. Despite this, the joke are on fire and the emotional heart still resonates strongly throughout making for a wonderful film that we desperately need in this time in the summer.