I'm at a loss to empathize with the middle-aged plight of Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), supporting players in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, now front and center in the writer/director/producer's kinda-sorta sequel. The couple might have to sell their gigantic home because Debbie's boutique clothing store is missing $12,000 and Pete, a record-label owner (though you'd swear his business is riding his bike), has loaned his struggling father (Albert Brooks, priceless as always) $80,000. Boo. Hoo. Overlong and never more than amusing, the film finds Apatow once again employing his wife (Mann) and daughters (Maude and Iris) as his onscreen family, while the handsome, thick-haired Rudd is the average-looking filmmaker's movie surrogate. That's the level of honesty in this movie's entitled bubble of reality.
