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It's rude, crude, and irreverent, and it's one of the best films of the year! It's the Forty Year Old Virgin, a film that is so full of gross-out gags and cheeky humour that most viewers will be aching with laughter. Together with a hilarious, acerbic script, sharp performances, great characters, and a willingness to tackle taboos, it's also a charmingly engaging love story.

Like one of the plastic-encased action figures that line his Studio City apartment, Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) is all wrapped up. A stockroom manager at consumer electronics store, in The Valley, Andy's never learned how to drive, never had a steady girlfriend, and, at the ripe old age of 40, has never had sex. His sexual history is a chronology of embarrassing near misses. He certainly likes women; he's just a victim of circumstance.

When his brash, beer swilling colleagues David, Jay, and Cal ((lovelorn Paul Rudd, quirky Romany Malco, and rakish Seth Rogen) invite him for an after hours card game, they find out that he's never been with a woman. So they set out to rid him of his wretched virginity by helping him find a girl – any girl. They are full of stupid schemes, the point being, of course, that they are even more childishly screwed up in their relations with women than he is, and delusional as well.

Amongst the drunken girls, the partying, the dope smoking, and all the embarrassing humiliating moments, Andy meets a Trish (Katherine Keener – just wonderful!). Trish is a real woman, a laid back, middle-aged divorcée, who has been around the block a few times. She's nearly Andy's opposite, Even her job - running one of those we-sell-it-for-you-on-eBay stores - is symbolic: She spends her days trafficking in other people's unwanted goods.

So it comes as no surprise that Trish is attracted by Andy's innocence, even turned on by it - before she knows why he's so innocent. While Andy is inspired by her to finally let go of his childhood childish things, Trish, along with Andy's timid blessing, is more than happy to develop a relationship without sex for a change.

Carell so fully inhabits this role, making Andy a handsome but dorky kind of guy with a too bright smile that flashes nervously. He's is a man who has more testosterone than he knows what to do with; his over exercised chest bristles with thick, dark hair, and one can just see the sexual frustration dripping off him. But Andy's inhibitions go so deep, that he's almost sad to watch: he clings to his childhood toys for safety and closes up with a tense angst at the slightest suggestion of sex.

The romance comes alive every time Catherine Keener is on the screen. Keener has a big smile and a husky laugh, and she's such a warm charmer that it's impossible not to fall in love with her. The supporting players are spot-on and lend their own liveliness to the proceedings: both Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann shine as predatory women who terrify the hero, and Jane Lynch, as the tough boss at the electronics store who suddenly softens and takes a shine to Andy, is hysterical, especially when she breaks into a tender Guatemalan love song in an effort to seduce him.

Yes, it's all pretty ridiculous, and some of the scenes verge on the offensive, but the characters are played with such understated charm and extremely quick wit, and there's real chemistry between all of them.

The film has a raw, natural tone that infuses even the film's most outrageous sequences: there's the chest-waxing scene, which mixes authenticity with toilet humour, and the sex clinic workshop which touches on people's real insecurities, even as it maintains a wildly comical tone. Along the way the clever script genuinely taps into issues of masculine insecurities, male obsession, and even female attraction.

Ultimately, The 40Year Old Virgin is the story of a rather lonely, insecure, and reserved man who becomes a better lover for having been abstinent. Yet throughout Andy's journey there are arguments to be had, temperamental adolescents to be contended with, and unavoidable truths that must be revealed.

Along the way, The 40-Year-Old Virgin is mercilessly honest about all this, even as it is being ruthlessly funny. Perhaps then, the movie is ultimately an ode to the benefits of virginity, an irreverent and bawdy advertisement for the saying that "only good can come to he who waits." Mike Leonard September 05.

Having grown up with the radio show, read the book at an early age, and then seen the BBC television series, I was interested to see what they would do with the feature film. Well, this movie version of Hitchkikers Guide to the Galaxy is sort of a mixed bag.

The film certainly romps along quite merrily, and there are plenty of strange characters, improbable, silly situations, and some spectacularly expensive special effects sequences. The producers have also largely kept Douglas Adam's legacy pretty much intact. But its greatest fault is that it simply doesn't live up to the reputation that preceded it.

The film also suffers the problem of familiarity. Those viewers who have not read the book, or are not in some way familiar with the story, will probably be scratching their heads in bewonderment at the torrent of talk, much of it of an oblique and scientific nature, and all of it delivered with a parched, dry, and insouciant British wit.

The film is narrated by the guide book of the title (the voice of Stephen Fry), so director Garth Jennings can interject passages of Adams' text, accompanied by amusing animation, into the plot's intergalactic shenanigans. This actually works pretty well, and it doesn't swamp and slow-down the pacing of the main story.

One morning, Englishman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up to find that his farmhouse in rural England is about to be bulldozed for a freeway. Up pops his pal Ford Prefect (Mos Def) to tell him to forget about it. Ford confesses that he is actually an alien, and he tells Arthur that his house doesn't matter anymore because Earth itself is about to be demolished by the Vogons of the planet Vogsphere to make way for an inter-space expressway.

Just as the planet is about to explode, Arthur and Ford transport themselves onto a Vogon spacecraft. The two escape only to have to plead for their lives with the commander of the Vogon Constructor Fleet (voice of Richard Griffiths), a gigantic rhinoceros-like creature in whom Arthur discerns a poetic soul and a longing for love. This is the first of many tests and narrow escapes.

Arthur and Ford are rescued from the Vogons by president of the galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), Earth's only other survivor, Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), and their maniacally depressed android, Marvin (voiced by Alan Rickman). Madcap adventures ensure as this mis-matched group of outlaws wonder the galaxy, trying to escape from the Vogon army.

But the group is also given a mission; they have to find "the meaning of life, the universe and everything," a search that takes them to a variety of different exotic planets. Some of the best of the British A-list actors fill the minor roles and voice-overs, particularly Bill Nighy as a planetary architect, Helen Mirren as the voice of Deep Thought, a supercomputer whose task is to compute the meaning of life, Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin, the terminally depressed robot, and John Malkovich as a shrewd, half-bodied religious leader.

Rockwell is extravagantly narcissistic as two-headed Zaphod. Only Def is poorly cast; he just seems too small and inexperienced to play the dashing Ford. The brightest presence is the always-fresh Zooey Deschanel, who has a light touch otherwise absent.

The film is goofy and silly, and for the novice viewer probably totally mystifying. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is sometimes audacious in its metaphysics, along with its attitudes towards religion, politics, and life.

The consummate geeks will probably love it, and the loyal fans of the books in the series, will be left feeling mostly pleased with the outcome, even though it doesn't quite measure up to the original sacred text. The makers of "Hitchhiker's Guide" don't quite get it right, but they don't exactly miss either. Mike Leonard September 05.

Admittedly, I know nothing about baseball, I'm not even a fan of the sport, but that didn't stop me enjoying the Farrelly brothers' latest film, Fever Pitch, a charmingly irreverent romantic comedy. The film is not really about baseball; rather, it's really about relationships, and the emotional disconnectedness that can often take place.

Jimmy Fallen – giving his best performance to date – stars as Ben, a dorky, lightly nerdy schoolteacher. Ben is a kind of man-boy, who unfortunately has never really grown up, and he fosters an almost fanatical addiction to the Red Sox baseball team. Ben has devoted his life to the Sox, and does everything from making the pilgrimage to Florida for spring training to decorating every square inch of his apartment in team paraphernalia.

One day, while taking his honors geometry class to on a field trip to her office, Ben meets the go-getting Lindsey (a wonderful Drew Barrymore). Lindsey is a corporate, career orientated kind of girl, but she has a kind of cuteness that Ben finds totally endearing. He's initially hesitant to ask her out, thinking that she's way out of his "class," and, Lindsey doesn't immediately see a potential partner in Ben.

Their first date gets off to a disastrous start when Lindsey is stricken with a severe case of food poisoning — and her resonant retching provides the first clue that we are, in fact, watching a Farrelly brothers movie. Rather than accept Lindsey's - rather urgent - request to reschedule, Ben sticks around to play nurse, orderly, and janitor. So Ben scrubs the toilet and the dog's teeth, while his love interest is passed out with a bucket next to her bed.

When Lindsey wakes up in the morning and finds him asleep on her couch, she begins the long, fitful process of dismantling the web of status anxiety and ambition she has come to think of as her standards. Soon they are falling in love, with Lindsey blithely accepting Ben's fanatical devotion to his sport.

Having inherited choice season tickets from his beloved uncle, Ben has organized his life around the season — he's never missed a game. But their relationship, which has progressed without a hitch throughout the winter, hits a snag at the start of the season.

Lindsey wants Ben to do other things, like holiday with her parents and party with her friends, but Ben begins to have trouble modulating his interest to meet Lindsey halfway. Can Lindsey consent to his irrational devotion to the boys of summer in order to make their relationship work? Can she really accommodate Ben's infatuation with sports? Can a die-hard and nerdy Red Sox fan find true love after all? Of course, Lindsey and Ben come with a colorful assortment of opinion-wielding friends. Lindsey's strictest buddy, the skinny, rich and blond Robin (KaDee Strickland), insists that there must be something wrong with the guy if he's still single at 30. However, plump, curly-haired Sarah (Marissa Jaret Winokur) and Molly (Ione Skye) supply a more optimistic and positive view of Ben.

Ben's eccentricity could be applied to virtually any obsessive sports fan, while Lindsay's frustrations could be representative of any upwardly mobile career driven woman. Fallon is terrific as Ben, exhibiting real big screen potential, overcoming the not-insignificant challenge of keeping Ben from being unsympathetic. Barrymore, meanwhile, is equally charming as the workaholic Lindsey, particularly as she struggles to accept Ben for who he is without losing sight of her own needs.

Fever Pitch really works, and even though there are lots of inspired comedic moments, the movie is also addressing the serious problem of sports addiction and how difficult it can be for couples to negotiate this fragile territory.

Much of the movie was filmed at Boston's Fenway Park, which adds a fine sense of authenticity to the proceedings, as well as the ambiance of the games, though fully appreciating what transpired with the team will probably be limited to baseball aficionados. Even so, Fever Pitch is blessed with such a finely wrought and intelligently funny script that even novice baseball fans will find much with which to connect. Mike Leonard September 05.