Successful comedy is much less about the script than it is the delivery. In THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen play four guys who work together at a Best Buy-type of electronics store. Like four stand-up comics who've been honing their act together for years, they show just the right sense of comedic timing. The result is a film with few really big laughs but a long stream of good ones. When the audience isn't laughing, it's just catching its breath.
If a film establishes a sufficient rapport with its viewers, they will ignore some of the obvious flaws, which, in THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, include a supporting cast with a propensity to speak too lowly and without proper enunciation so that some good lines are almost impossible to decipher. (Our audience laughed at these too, figuring, probably correctly, that they must have been funny.)
Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is a dorky guy with a secret. He's never, ever done it. Embarrassed that he has lived a life of no sex but with lots of action figures to play with, he is reluctant to admit his virginity to his three co-workers. A guy who can't drive and who rides a bicycle with no less than two wide-screen rear view mirrors, Andy is caution personified.
Thankfully the movie is rated R so that the humor can have the proper level of explicitness. A PG-13 version of the story would undoubtedly have been as bland as white bread, probably Andy's favorite sandwich bread. After all, when first asked about his weekend, Andy tells an "exciting" story of how he spent three hours making egg salad, which he ended up not eating.
Most of the movie has Andy being coaxed into dating various questionable women by his buddies. Their sexual strategy for him is to date the sluttiest women he can find. Once he has the requisite number of notches in his belt, he'll be ready for a proper date. Needless to say, he tries their approach and fails miserably but humorously. Only when he finds his soul mate in a grandmother named Trish (Catherine Keener) is Andy ever happy on a date.
Whatever you do, don't leave early. The ending is off-the-wall and hilarious. On its own, it would just be stupid but in the context of the story, it's great.
THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN runs 1:50. It is rated R for "pervasive sexual content, language and some drug use" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 16, gave it *** 1/2. He said that was really funny and fresh fun. He said that even though Andy was forty years old, his awkwardness spoke directly to teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 19, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
By : Steve Rhodes (http://www.internetreviews.com/)
Source: rec.art.movies.reviews newsgroup
Rating: 4
Andy is 40 years old. He is a virgin. His profane coworkers attempting to help him lose his virginity (while being as sexually explicit as possible) ensues.
JOHNNY'S TAKE All right, here's the deal: if you're easily offended then you might want to stay far, far away from this one. There are some painfully funny moments in the movie, but I probably blushed about as much as I laughed. Actually, I probably blushed MORE than I laughed. And if I wasn't literally blushing on the outside, then I was blushing on the inside. If there is absolutely nothing in this movie that embarrasses you then you simply have no shame. Whether that's a badge of honor or not is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.
I will not deny that I laughed quite a bit, but this is a movie that I simply cannot give a blanket recommendation due to its subject matter. If I were to say, "This movie is hilarious, go check it out!" and some sweet, little old church-going lady heads to the theater and has a heart-attack during one of the graphically explicit sex situations, well, that's just something I don't need on my conscience.
So how raunchy is it? Hmm, try about 100 times worse than The Wedding Crashers. Honestly. My mom would've walked out during the first scene. I feel it's my duty to at least warn you of what to expect.
There is some cleverly intelligent comedy here, but that's what I come to expect from the man (Judd Apatow) who had a hand in both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. I'm all for making fun of Michael McDonald; the only man whose hair and beard are white enough to give Kenny Rogers a run for his money. Paul Rudd proclaiming, "If I hear Ya Mo Be There one more time I'll Ya Mo burn this place down," is hilarious, but it's one of those things that the majority of the audience won't appreciate.
And when we see a quick 3-second flashback of Steve Carell singing along to Cameo's Word Up, I laughed for a good two minutes after the joke was over, whereas most everybody chuckled and then forgot about it.
Strangely enough, despite the raunch, there's an admirable moral to the story. The movie doesn't portray Carell as some freaky loser just because he's a virgin. He's really portrayed as a likable, admirable character. Sure, he's a little weird. After all, he has a framed Asia poster, "more videogames than a teenaged Asian kid," and a toy collection that features the Six Million Dollar Man's BOSS, but we're never led to believe that there's actually anything wrong with the fact that he's a virgin. As odd as it may seem, there's a bit of an "it's OK to wait" message.
But man, oh man, please be warned that this pushes its R rating about as far as it can go. That was certainly Apatow's intention. According to him, he just let some of the guys (particularly Rogen and Malco) improv and talk the way they normally talk, all in an effort to find lots of new ways to be dirty. If you can handle that or talk that way yourself, then you'll love the movie.
I'm not a big fan of excessive profanity and sex jokes. I find that subtle, clever humor is much more entertaining than about 200 uses of the f-word or fratboy sex discussions. But that's me. Like I said, there are some absolutely hysterical moments here, but you have to ask yourself if they're worth sitting through one of the most vulgar movies you're likely to ever see at the theater. I just don't know how interested most women will be in what's discussed by men while playing poker. Honestly ladies, you might not want to know. If you've ever been curious why some girls think guys are gross, well, this gives you a good idea.
There you go - my humble, honest take on what to expect. Be that your guide. It definitely should not be seen with your Sunday School class, mama, grandmama, any family members of the opposite sex, children of any age, or anybody who is easily offended by excessive profanity or explicit sex discussion. If you'd see it with any of the above then you apparently do not have any concept of what it means to be uncomfortable.
THE GIST Yes, it has some very funny moments, but it's probably even dirtier than you're expecting. Your tolerance level of offensive material will likely determine your enjoyment level of the movie.
By : Johnny Betts (http://www.themoviemark.com/moviereviews/40yearoldvirgin.asp)
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