I didn’t laugh that much and neither did the theater and when they did there were more like little chuckles. The result of this test was, to my mind, nothing short of being (to pun on the movie by Apatow and Rogen) “super bad.” But it was bad on too many levels. The question underlying the plot is: How would the two worlds interact? How will a schlemiel couple, who just had a baby, relate to the younger, single fraternity brothers? But, in this film, we see Ramis and an Apatow type of film conjoined Animal House and This is Forty (and Knocked Up). ![]() The running narrative of all this, it seems, is to map out for the viewing public the life of a schlemiel from high school to having a baby, living with the baby (or babies), and attempting (as Marc Maron would say) “normal.” In Neighbors we have a young couple who take us to the next level after Knocked Up but to a level ten or so years before This is Forty. In Neighbors(2014) we see that there is a gap between the films which Rogen addresses that gap has to do with age and experience. ![]() There are still schlemiels, but, at the very least, they are successful.īut between Knocked Up and This is Forty (2012), there is a distinct difference: in Knocked Up (2007) Apatow casts Rogen as a schlemiel has decided to have a baby, while in This is Forty Apatow wanted to show us a couple in its forties which, for all intents and purposes, is also dealing with schlemiel-like issues. In Superbad, a movie written by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen but produced by Apatow, we see the life of two teens in their first sexual experience. With films like, Super Bad, Knocked up and This is Forty, Judd Apatow has made a decision to address, by way of comedy, the process of moving from being a man-child to an adult with children. But, to be sure, this role is something that was set up by a middle-man namely, Judd Apatow. We see that Rogen took this to heart in his latest role in the film Neighbors (2014). Moses will die, while Joshua will carry the tradition on. It’s as if we are witnessing Moses giving everything over to Joshua, who will cross the Jordan. What interests me most about this moment is the fact that Seth Rogen is put face-to-face with Ramis and is given the ok to “bear children.” I cannot but read this as a symbolic moment when the maker of such films as Ghostbusters (1984), Meatballs (1979), Cadyshack (1980), and Animal House (1978), gives the power over to his son. He decides, at this very point, to go from being a schlemiel (man-child) to becoming an adult. At this point, Stone is inspired to be a responsible father. Ramis tells Rogen to go for it and that he wants to have grandchildren. In one of the most urgent moments of Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (2007), we see a desperate Ben Stone, played by Seth Rogen, go to his father, played by Harold Ramis, for advice about whether to become a father and have children.
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