Movie review: "Knocked Up"

Though not formally a sequel, "Knocked Up" feels like a follow-up to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." It's got the same director, Judd Apatow, and much of the same cast: Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and (in a cameo) Steve Carell.

The real similarities, however, come in tone and technique. Apatow ably counterbalances a sweet story with raunchy humor — until the dirty jokes fade and sweetness wins out.

Rogen, in a leading role for a change, turns in a reasonable performance as a pot-smoking, porn-purveying schlub named Ben Stone. Shiftless yet harmless, he's a younger version of The Dude from "The Big Lebowski." Apatow's script calibrates the character just right; Ben is just bad enough to be embarrassing but not so horrible that the audience roots against him.

Ben meets a pretty anchor for the E! network, played by Katherine Heigl. Her character is a bit underdeveloped; it's curious that the movie is told more through Ben's view rather than hers (as hinted at in the movie poster). The mismatched couple hooks up in a drunken moment, and she gets pregnant. Will these parents-to-be fall in love before the day the baby comes?

The answer is obvious. That's why "Virgin" worked better — the concept itself was unusual and outrageous. 40 years old and still a virgin? Impossible ... and funny. "Knocked Up," on the other hand, is a story that happens all the time, and therefore, the movie doesn't feel as creative. The one-liners work well enough, and it has some refreshing honesty about pregnancy. But the movie is often predictable, and at more than two hours, it misses its due date by about 20 minutes.

DULLARD RATING: So-so.