2008 Woodie Awards
Movie Review: 40 Year Old Virgin
Mark Foscolo
Issue date: 9/15/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
After the recent success of movies such as Anchorman and The Wedding Crashers, dirty jokes, nudity, and unusual circumstance have been taken to hilarious extremes. In The 40 Year Old Virgin Steve Carell (Bruce Almighty, The Office) plays Andy Stitzer, a middle aged man who collects action figures, enjoys a good egg salad, and rides a bicycle to work at a Smart Tech store. The bottom line, Andy is forty years old and thinks that a girl's breast feels like a bag of sand. He's a virgin.
Carell's debut as a leading man is probably funnier than anything Will Ferrel has done since Anchorman. Not only does Carell deliver his funniest performance to date, he also wrote the script. After ten minutes into the picture you'll realize that Carell was born to play this role. Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco are also nothing short of genius. Rudd and Rogen deliver a great scene with a series of, "You know how I know your gay" jokes that are sure to make even the toughest critic chuckle.
What most people probably don't realize is that behind all the cheap jokes about porn, drunk girls, and chest hair waxing, there are some true romantic undertones. While Andy's crazy co-workers take him on speed dating adventures and other random encounters in order to get him laid, Andy searches for something more. Her name is Trish (Catherine Keener), a divorced mother of three and the grandmother of one, which leads the guys to refer to her as "the hot grandma." Andy meets her at work, gets her number, and takes her out on dates without the "help" of his crazy buddies. This basically follows the cliché "fate" angle that we find in most romantic comedies. It's a compliment to Carell's writing skills more than anything else that he is able to incorporate so many different comic styles and ideas into a story that is fairly one-dimensional.
If there was ever a doubt in your mind that this concept of Carell playing a 40-year-old virgin for two hours would be worth the nine fifty, I strongly suggest you reconsider. This is a movie that should be seen and talked about by every college kid in the country both male and female. If you enjoyed Carell's work in Bruce Almighty, Anchorman, and The Office you will love this film. Hopefully Carell's days of writing movies like this are just beginning because The 40 Year Old Virgin is sure to find a place on the growing list of comedy classics. The only time the movie falls short is during the resolution, which seems to be the problem with a lot of comedies today.
The end seems to be a bit rushed and out of place and could have benefited from some editing. There is however a very interesting musical piece put together at the end to send you away with one good final laugh. It does for this movie what "Afternoon Delight" did for Anchorman. Even if you are not the biggest Steve Carell fan, the characters and events in this film should be enough to feel like you've got your moneys worth. If you are looking for a movie to take your date to this Friday this is it.
Carell's debut as a leading man is probably funnier than anything Will Ferrel has done since Anchorman. Not only does Carell deliver his funniest performance to date, he also wrote the script. After ten minutes into the picture you'll realize that Carell was born to play this role. Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco are also nothing short of genius. Rudd and Rogen deliver a great scene with a series of, "You know how I know your gay" jokes that are sure to make even the toughest critic chuckle.
What most people probably don't realize is that behind all the cheap jokes about porn, drunk girls, and chest hair waxing, there are some true romantic undertones. While Andy's crazy co-workers take him on speed dating adventures and other random encounters in order to get him laid, Andy searches for something more. Her name is Trish (Catherine Keener), a divorced mother of three and the grandmother of one, which leads the guys to refer to her as "the hot grandma." Andy meets her at work, gets her number, and takes her out on dates without the "help" of his crazy buddies. This basically follows the cliché "fate" angle that we find in most romantic comedies. It's a compliment to Carell's writing skills more than anything else that he is able to incorporate so many different comic styles and ideas into a story that is fairly one-dimensional.
If there was ever a doubt in your mind that this concept of Carell playing a 40-year-old virgin for two hours would be worth the nine fifty, I strongly suggest you reconsider. This is a movie that should be seen and talked about by every college kid in the country both male and female. If you enjoyed Carell's work in Bruce Almighty, Anchorman, and The Office you will love this film. Hopefully Carell's days of writing movies like this are just beginning because The 40 Year Old Virgin is sure to find a place on the growing list of comedy classics. The only time the movie falls short is during the resolution, which seems to be the problem with a lot of comedies today.
The end seems to be a bit rushed and out of place and could have benefited from some editing. There is however a very interesting musical piece put together at the end to send you away with one good final laugh. It does for this movie what "Afternoon Delight" did for Anchorman. Even if you are not the biggest Steve Carell fan, the characters and events in this film should be enough to feel like you've got your moneys worth. If you are looking for a movie to take your date to this Friday this is it.