Economy Size Geek

The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

I’m not sure what I thought about this film going in. I heard some good reviews - or at least that is was positivly recieved - inspite of the thin plot. I liked Steve Carrel on the Daily Show.

I was totally reminded of this episode of this American Life. There was a lot more cringe than comedy in this movie.

There were certainly some funny parts. The supporting cast of “helpful’ guy friends was especially funny to me since I feel like I got some of the same advice once I broke up with a girl friend after a very long relationship and tried to get back into the world of dating.

I didn’t realize until I took the DVD out of the player that I watched the “Unrated” version. I looked it up and they only added 15 minutes for the uncut version. This film was 133 minutes. For a comedy that is a freaking long movie. Near the end, I just wanted them to get to the happy ending. Which is a shame really, because if they had kept it to 90 minutes I think the film would have kept more momentum instead of starting and stopping so much.

And I will say that for some strange reason I really liked the very last scene in the film - even if it seems like an odd homage to both Hair and There’s Something About Mary.

Basically, I thought this was going to be a comedy. A stupid, crude, very funny comedy with a thin plot. Think American Pie or Road Trip - or even Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. Instead, they tried to have more of a message of “romance” in the film. I’m sure people liked the fact that it managed to elevate some of the dialogue above the purly purile and scatalogical - and even tried to deal with some ideas of insecurity and misconceptions about the opposite sex. That’s all well and good - but it didn’t end up being that funny. In a way, it was like there were two very different screen writers fighting over how stupid and crude or sweet and sentimental the movie was going to be. On top of that, there were scenes inserted to give you a better understanding of all the side characters in the story - which actually didn’t add very much to the story other than some cheap laughs.

Bottom Line: Unlike with sex, if you’ve waited this long - you aren’t missing anything by skipping over this film. But the This American Life episode is awesome :)