The
40-Year-Old Virgin – Unrated Widescreen Version
Picture: B Sound: B-
Extras: B
Film: B
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is an often very funny
sex comedy that became the sleeper hit of 2005. It tells the story of
Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell), whose shyness, politeness, lack of aggression,
childlike interests and negative teen-age sexual experiences have
conspired to prevent him from ever "going all the way" with
a woman.
Andy's a nice, quiet fellow who rides a bicycle back
and forth to his job in the stock room of an electronics store. He lives
by himself in an apartment that's every 12-year-old fanboy's dream, and has
little social contact. In addition to his nifty video-game setup, Andy
most-prized possession is his massive collection of classic superhero
dolls. While Andy would be the envy of most pre-pubescent boys, it's
hardly the stuff that would impress most grown women.
One night, while playing poker with his co-workers, who
have left Andy alone until now fearing he might be a
serial killer, Andy's comparison of a woman's breast to a bag of sand causes
his sexually experienced co-workers to correctly deduce that he's a
virgin. The rest of the film follows the attempts of those three
co-workers (Paul Rudd, Romany Malco and Seth Rogen) to finally get Andy
laid.
Written by Carell and director Judd Apatow, The
40-Year-Old Virgin is one of the few raunchy grossout comedies since There's
Something About Mary to deliver big laughs. It unfolds as an
episodic series of sex-related comic bits, but a healthy
percentage of these bits are quite funny. While the
film occasionally gets too vulgar for its own good, it works because
of Carell's cheerful innocence, and his growing frustration as his
well-meaning but hilariously misguided buddies constantly give him the wrong
advice. These are such an entertaining group of cynical guys
that you wish the filmmakers had more confidence in themselves, and didn't
feel the need to be so potty-mouthed. The only other problem
is that the movie loses steam in the final reel by taking too long to wrap
up.
Universal's Uncut DVD version of The 40-Year-Old Virgin
is packed with extras, but not all of these extras seem necessary.
There are a few amusing bits in the extra 17 minutes added to the film
itself, but too often in the deleted/alternate material and
outtakes we only get more-explicit sex talk that's simply not
funny. The film's been given a solid 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen
transfer with good picture quality and good 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound.
There's also a jocular feature-length audio commentary with
Apatow, Carell, Rogen, Rudd, Malco, Leslie Mann, Gerry Bednob, Jane Lynch
and Jonah Hill.
- Chuck O'Leary
