[Marxism] "Knocked Up" and "Idiocracy"

[Louis Proyect]

At the risk of being hunted down by fans of “Knocked Up” like 
Frankenstein fleeing angry villagers armed with pitchforks, I have to 
state that this is the worst “comedy” I have seen since “Little Miss 
Sunshine,” another over-hyped piece of garbage. As was the case with 
“Little Miss Sunshine,” I could not bear watching more than 15 or 20 
minutes. If there is ever an armed uprising in the US against the 
capitalist system and I am drafted into leading a guerrilla detachment, 
my only fear of being captured is not being waterboarded but having to 
watch these two movies over and over again.

Some of the main characters in “Knocked Up” are a group of male 
“slackers” roommates, who spend all their time watching stupid 
television shows and smoking pot. Now it is possible to make a good 
comedy about such people, as Richard Linklater’s 1991 gem “Slacker” 
would indicate. But director Judd Apatow, also responsible for the 
execrable “Forty Year Old Virgin” with the terminally ungifted Steve 
Carrell in the title role, has about as much flair in making his 
characters interesting as early 1960s Hollywood had with “beatniks.” 
Apatow’s characters are entirely one-dimensional. They are defined by 
their bad habits, their utter lack of self-awareness and their 
puerility. That this film has become a big hit with America’s young, the 
demographic group that Hollywood dotes on, it is a sad commentary on the 
tastes and intelligence of a nation in decline.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/knocked-up-and-idiocracy/