The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

The 40 year old virgin directed by Judd Apatow was a very funny movie in my option, the use of very crude humor throughout the movie made it a very enjoyable movie. Steve Carell played the part of Andy perfectly, he is a very lovable main character with a good heart. The character of Andy likes his life a certain way and is organized down the the way he gets ready every morning. Andy is content with his life of collecting action figures, riding his bike to his job at a tech store, he even signals his turns on that bike. The film starts out with a morning in the life of Andy Stitzer ready for his job and then biking there. Later in the day a few of his coworkers invite him for a poker game at the store after hours, it's there where they discover he hasn't even had sex in his 40 years of life. The next day his coworker and soon to be friend David promises to help him get laid soon, so he invited Andy for a night out on the town. After a couple unsuccessful nights out with the guys Andy meets a woman named Trish who works across the street who gives him her number. After a couple more nights out Andy realizes that the woman he wants to be with is Trish. But the fact that he is a Virgin is a huge problem in his mind, thinking that Trish won't accept him because of that fact so he hides it. Until after a problematic fight where Andy storms off and picks up a girl at the club but before he is about to seal the deal he realizes that he loves Trish. In the end they have a beautiful marriage and Andy finally has sex. The acting of the movie made it great, it has a relaxed feeling of hanging with the boys. Steve Carell along with his supporting actors Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Romany Malco have great chemistry together creating a sense of togetherness in a group of long time friends. The director Judd Apatow did great things by introducing Andy by the way he gets ready in the morning and then bikes to his job. The character of Andy is like a lost puppy when it comes to women, especially when his coworkers are talking about them he nods along as if they are speaking in a different language. This helps the audience empathize with Andy and turn him into an almost underdog in the movie, everybody is rooting for him. The director also allowed the actors to improvise, this again allows for the movie to have a relaxed and friendly feel to it, like the person watching the movie is part of the action with the guys. The writers Steve Carell and Judd Apatow made the plot in a way that also allowed the movie to be great, it starts by showing how much Andy is missing out on without knowing it. Then it morphs into a part where Andy knows what he is missing and he wants to do something about it but doesn't know how exactly. Then finally he figures it out and ends up happy, this allows the watcher to experience a wide array of emotions from frustration to sympathy to anger to joy and happiness. All in all the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin was a wonderful movie that made me happy to watch it. Steve Carell played the part of Andy marvelously he always seems to fit the character who's a little bit off like in The Office when he plays Michael Scott. The supporting actors who made up his friend group made the movie relaxed and easy to watch, especially since they made the watcher feel like one of the guys. The plot allowed for Andy to become an underdog who the audience could root for. All this made The 40 Year Old Virgin a very good and funny movie in my opinion.

You don't need to be a scientist to know what you will find in a movie such as "40 year old virgin". A miserable man who goes through with nothing more than his job to keep him busy. During a poker game, his friends find out that he is virgin and they all go on a quest to help him overcome this situation. He goes through training, expert tips, he waxes his chest, and in everything he does the outcome is always mostly on the funny side. A movie like this is nothing more than a quick fix if you have nothing to do, or if you are in a super good mood and you feel that anything will make you laugh. Everything away from these two states of mind will make you feel as if you are being tortured by the worst possible crew of movie makers put together. Will they make you laugh? Not really? will you smile? maybe? Does it deserve your time? probably not.

One of Apatow's signatures is to really dig deep into his characters; which, for a comedy, sometimes ends up turning things unexpectedly serious and/or surprisingly heartwarming. For FUNNY PEOPLE and KNOCKED UP, toying with drastic genre shifts was tolerable because there was at least payoff with good jokes and interesting characters. However, in his 2005 outing about sweet but overly awkward Carell, there is a major lack of satisfaction when attempting to explore the root-causes of why our main character just can't (or won't) "get any". The jokes are few-and-far-between, but when they are finally delivered, it is so juvenile that actual 40-year-old virgin aren't even this desperate for a laugh. Its attempts at being funny are the painful reactions of getting waxed (hairy people don't get laid?) or that our maiden-man thinks breasts are hard (you have to feel them to know they're soft?).* (out of four)

The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005): Dir: Judd Apatow / Cast: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Romany Malco: Hilarious yet stern comedy about identity. Steve Carell plays a virgin at forty. He is an electronics salesman whose friends try to advance him in his sexuality when they learn of his inexperience. Inventive screenplay plays out with a celebration of marriage. Director Judd Apatow does a superb job at creating a worldview through the eyes of the sexually depressed. Carell is hilarious as a virgin who collects action figures and rides a bicycle to work. The film is at its hilarious best when he is presented with various methods of communicating with women, which mostly leave him frustrated. Catherine Keener plays an Ebay worker who strikes up a friendship with Carell. She is a mother of three and questions his unwillingness to progress sexually. Carell's co-workers include Paul Rudd who is depressed after his last breakup, Seth Rogan, a writer and pot smoker who directs Carell to greater sexual conquests, and Romany Malco as a player whose girlfriend suspects his cheating ways. They all have different approaches and advice to Carell that all leads to frustration and somewhat personal detachment. Strong theme regards the pressure of sexuality and the embarrassment of lacking sexual knowledge or experience. It is one of the funniest and best comedies of the year. Score: 10 / 10