When filmmaker Judd Apatow's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" was released in the summer of 2005, it was as though the heavens parted and it suddenly became OK again for grown-ups to giggle at movies where other grown-ups cursed and screwed and inquired of their buddies, "Know how I know you're gay?" This may have been because within his ultra-raunchy comedy, Apatow had concealed a huge, throbbing heart. Sure, everyone's itching to get laid, but what we really, really want is to get loved.

"Knocked Up" is Apatow's second feature, an adorably filthy fairy tale about a pretty princess who kisses a frog and ends up pregnant with the scruffy, stoned frog's tadpole. Our fair maiden is Alison (Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"), an aspiring entertainment reporter out celebrating her promotion when she starts tossing back shots with slacker Ben (Apatow shadow Seth Rogen), who tickles Alison's funny bone, touches other, lower parts, and gets dismissed with her card following an awkward morning-after milkshake. Eight weeks later Alison learns that Ben gave her a vomit-inducing souvenir as well, the breathy command "Just do it already!" having been misinterpreted that fateful evening during the drunken tussle with the condom.

For reasons known only to the mercurial God of Plot, Alison chooses to have the baby ("shmushmortion," to use the film's lingo, isn't discussed), and, after she contacts Ben about their quandary, they decide to make a go of it as a couple despite being mismatched strangers. Fortunately, both parties have equally entertaining support systems: Alison lives with her lovingly quarrelsome sister Debbie and brother-in-law Pete (Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd), while Ben lunches with his dad (Harold Ramis, perfectly cast) and bunks with a quartet of weed aficionados (all recognizable alumni of Apatow's TV triumphs "Undeclared" and "Freaks and Geeks") with whom he's slowly assembling a website devoted to naked movie moments. Very, very slowly.

At first "Knocked Up" wants you to believe that a gorgeous Heigl type would never go for a rumpled Rogen type, and then it hopes to scold you for your superficiality. Trouble is, Rogen can't stifle his witty charisma, and Heigl seems genuine enough to fall for a decent guy who makes her laugh. As Alison's protective sister, the super Mann (a/k/a Mrs. Apatow) steals every scene she's in, and the increasingly indispensable Rudd is so... um... let's just say I would happily swallow his bathwater and leave it at that.

Yes, you know how "Knocked Up" will end; no knuckle-dragging test audience would tolerate anything less than a happily-ever-after. The charm of "Knocked Up" lies not in the predictable trajectory of the relationship between Alison and Ben, but in the profanely observed truths - about love, sex, marriage, friendship - that Apatow weaves throughout his whipsmart script, whether he's being immature ("You look like Babe Ruth's gay brother, Gabe Ruth"), heartfelt ("The biggest problem in our marriage is that she wants me around"), or honest ("Steely Dan gargles my balls"). Incorporate more pop-culture nods to everything from "Swingers" to Matisyahu to a foul-mouthed Ryan Seacrest, and Apatow throws down the gauntlet as perhaps the funniest and most perceptive writer around.

You may not know the name, but filmmaker Francis Veber is the premier purveyor of French farce. Oscar-nominated in the late ‘70s for "La Cage Aux Folles," nearly all of Veber's filmography has been Americanized (i.e., 1982's "The Toy" and 1994's "My Father, the Hero"), and word is the Farrelly brothers have dibs on his latest film. It's called "The Valet," yet another slightly slapsticky but ultimately sentimental exercise in double-takes and double-crossing.

The confusion ensues when a businessman (Daniel Auteuil, "Cache") tries to hide his supermodel mistress from the wife (a cool Kristin Scott-Thomas) by striking a lucrative deal with googly eyed car parker François Pignon (Gad Elmaleh), in the wrong place at the wrong time. François hopes to woo his childhood sweetheart (Virginie Ledoyen, "8 Women") with the proceeds, but first he has to make France believe that the model is, in fact, his girlfriend.

Like "Knocked Up," much of the film's appeal can be found in its peripheral characters, including Dany Boon ("Joyeux Noël") as François's envious roommate and the great character actor Michel Aumont as the least effective doctor in France. Coincidentally, "The Valet" also tries to mine laughs out of the notion that hot chicks must be shallow. Good thing they're stupid, too, or they might be offended.

"Knocked Up"(R), written and directed by Judd Apatow, is now playing | "The Valet" (PG-13), written and directed by Francis Veber, opens at Little Theatres on Friday, June 8.