Review of The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) by Derek H — 02 Feb 2012

*** This review may contain spoilers ***.

40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN "Really? All your girlfriends wanted to have sex with virgins too? That's funny... I didn't even know you g-girls talked like that. I think my first time might be your best time too. Well I knew it, you know what? I knew that you'd react that way and I knew that you would want to lead me through my first sexual encounter will all the compassion and care that someone would give to their soul-mate." There are so many films about romance. Too many. With titles floating around every year that just make the mark harder to reach for the next batch, where will we be in 15 years? Hopefully, some of the better writer's will always find the new humor, without resorting to current trendiness and eventually retread on the field of romantic film. Romeo and Juliet deserves a better remake? Bah, let the kids take it as they got it, I say. No need to follow the script to a 't', anymore. Too much is on the line with American media for it to admit it, but romantic comedies are so easy that it's actually harder to get attention at the box office.

The 90's were a prime example of the "way too much of a good thing" theory. We all need that moment in the theater with a spouse or loved one around one arm, with one in a popcorn bucket. The balance is good. But the quantity of these movies released seems a bit brash. The point is, since "There's Something About Mary", we've all been waiting for the next troupe of filmmakers to fill the Fareley Brothers shoes.

"You know what my problem is? I am not interesting. What am I supposed to say I went to magic camp? That I'm an accomplished ventriloquist? Oh, I am the 7th degree imperial yo-yo master." No wonder, then, that it took a mockumentary specialist of the likes of Steve Carell to bring the life back to the perpetual stream of love-shmuckery in modern cinema. Carell, fresh of his stint on "The Daily Show", co-wrote "40 Year Old Virgin" with "Anchorman" director, Judd Apatow (which Steve also starred in.) Carell, himself has a charisma that allows first name approach to even the most unacquainted viewer. Shortly after "40 Year Old", Carell went on to command the reigns of popular TV show "The Office", playing in a similar business-type setting as the one in "Virgin." It is also probably of no surprise that the film "Virgin" contains some of it's most brilliant mockeries of culture in segments that totally exclude opposite gender reactionary stunts. For example, the poker scene near the beginning of the film should be listed, in my personal opinion, as one of the most funny scenes in film-making history. In it, we see five well-ab-led men in their middle ages (late 20's to late 30's) make total asses of themselves for each other around a table of gambles. As the Arabic fellow leaves the scene, we get a real taste of how down-right grungy the characters will be in the movie. How fitting, once again, that a film of such improportionate standards takes on cultural symbology and does a total script-flip on the idea of stereotypes, right? It doesn't do much good to really explore the depths of the film, without viewing it for yourself. "40 Year Old Virgin", is certainly one of those few movies that you need to be there to get the humor. Yet, nonetheless, the film remains attractive and utmost hilarious during just about every segment that it rustles out of it's pockets like a forlorn drunk scrambling to pay up his tab after an unsuccessful night at the bar.

The lengths that the actors went to for the sake of comedy are, as such, mostly unscripted and spontaneously set up to explode on impact. Steve Carell even went in for a real chest hair removal job without special effects, for the film. Now where else are you going to get that realness? Objectively, the film demands attention. Subjectively? forget it. I just hope guys who go and see this flick have already gotten their share of play with the female gender. Feelings will get hurt, quite easily, otherwise.

"Do you ever notice how... like, in a relationship... one person's always like 'blah blah blah blah' and the other person's like 'What are you talking about?' and one person's like 'blah blah blalablah...'" 10/10.