40 anni vergine

All right, here's the deal: if you're easily offended then you might want to stay far, far away from this one. There are some painfully funny moments in the movie, but I probably blushed about as much as I laughed. Actually, I probably blushed MORE than I laughed. And if I wasn't literally blushing on the outside, then I was blushing on the inside. If there is absolutely nothing in this movie that embarrasses you then you simply have no shame. Whether that's a badge of honor or not is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

I will not deny that I laughed quite a bit, but this is a movie that I simply cannot give a blanket recommendation due to its subject matter. If I were to say, "This movie is hilarious, go check it out!" and some sweet, little old church-going lady heads to the theater and has a heart-attack during one of the graphically explicit sex situations, well, that's just something I don't need on my conscience.

So how raunchy is it? Hmm, try about 100 times worse than The Wedding Crashers. Honestly. My mom would've walked out during the first scene. I feel it's my duty to at least warn you of what to expect.

There is some cleverly intelligent comedy here, but that's what I come to expect from the man (Judd Apatow) who had a hand in both Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. I'm all for making fun of Michael McDonald; the only man whose hair and beard are white enough to give Kenny Rogers a run for his money. Paul Rudd proclaiming, "If I hear Ya Mo Be There one more time I'll Ya Mo burn this place down," is hilarious, but it's one of those things that the majority of the audience won't appreciate.

And when we see a quick 3-second flashback of Steve Carrell singing along to Cameo's Word Up, I laughed for a good two minutes after the joke was over, whereas most everybody chuckled and then forgot about it.

Strangely enough, despite the raunch, there's an admirable moral to the story. The movie doesn't portray Carrell as some freaky loser just because he's a virgin. He's really portrayed as a likable, admirable character. Sure, he's a little weird. After all, he has a framed Asia poster, "more videogames than an Asian kid," and a toy collection that features the Million Dollar Man's BOSS, but we're never led to believe that there's actually anything wrong with the fact that he's a virgin. As odd as it may seem, there's a bit of an "it's OK to wait" message.

But man, oh man, please be warned that this pushes its R rating about as far as it can go. That was certainly Apatow's intention. According to him, he just let some of the guys (particularly Rogen and Malco) improv and talk the way they normally talk, all in an effort to find lots of new ways to be dirty. If you can handle that or talk that way yourself, then you'll love the movie.

I'm not a big fan of excessive profanity and sex jokes. I find that subtle, clever humor is much more entertaining than about 200 uses of the f-word or fratboy sex discussions. But that's me. Like I said, there are some absolutely hysterical moments here, but you have to ask yourself if they're worth sitting through one of the most vulgar movies you're likely to ever see at the theater. I just don't know how interested most women will be in what's discussed by men while playing poker. Honestly ladies, you might not want to know. If you've ever been curious why some girls think guys are gross, well, this gives you a good idea.

There you go - my humble, honest take on what to expect. Be that your guide. It definitely should not be seen with your Sunday School class, mama, grandmama, any family members of the opposite sex, children of any age, or anybody who is easily offended by excessive profanity or explicit sex discussion. If you'd see it with any of the above then you apparently do not have any concept of what it means to be uncomfortable.

Something about the 40 Year Old Virgin and the other comedy hit of the summer, Wedding Crashers, is similar, but they are two different films in some respects. Both are romantic comedies that have that kind of over-the-top, crazy sensibility that keeps the teens and guys in their 20's along with the usual dating crowd to go see the films. Both have some sort of formula to the stories as well. But by the end of the 40 Year Old Virgin, I think I found overall it was more satisfying than 'Crashers'. Although one can guess where the relationship story with Steve Carrell's character Andy and Catherine Keener's character Trish will go to, it isn't too basic for one to figure out like with Crashers, and the characters both leading and supporting are realistic, more rounded than most of the one-dimensional or unexplained people in the other. And, perhaps, it may also depend on how much you identify (or just find the lunacy) in both.

The thing is some people may go into The 40 Year Old Virgin not knowing Steve Carrell as well as Owen Wilson or Vince Vaughn, as Carrell has built up his cult status on The Daily Show (one of my favorite shows on now) and in small but unforgettably riotous roles in Anchorman and Bruce Almighty. This is his first starring role, but it's not treated like some third rate vehicle. He and co-writer/director Judd Apatow treat the character of Andy with a certain level of sincerity that keeps the audience on his side all the way, even early on as he talks to his action figures while re-painting them. It's also a tricky line to walk on- in lessor hands this could be no more or less entertaining than the Lackluster 40 Days and 40 Nights with Josh Hartnett (also about sexual dysfunction). As the title suggests, Andy is the 40 year old who is like the nice guy friend with still a little Pee-Wee Herman in him (the opening over the credits of his his apartment is hilarious, a good sign).

So, his friends (among them Paul Rudd, Romany Mancoy, Seth Rogen, all very good comic foils) try and devise different strategies and tips to finally break the sort of curse over Andy's head to pop his cherry, so to speak. He almost gets with a overly drunk woman, he almost gets with a freaky kind of girl, and almost with his own boss (Jane Lynch, also very funny in the mockumentaries) as a (explitive) buddy. But this soon all starts to fade as he gets into a meaningful relationship with Trish, who works across the street from him. As they build on a relationship not based at all on sex, one might worry that the plot gear of "how is he going to tell her such and such" might get in the way of the comedy. It doesn't. In fact, if anything, Carrell and the cast build on it to a very high degree. For practically an hour and a half of the film's two hour length, there was barely a moment I wasn't laughing, whether big or small.

The big laughs though make up for not just any kind of formalities with the plot, or one or two little stray stories (the fellow co-workers have their own relationship problems as well, Rudd's being the funniest). The big laughs come through because of Carrell's reactions, and that the people around him can either back up with their own sort of humor/charm, or that its with some truth. Keener gives a very good performance and makes it so that there is a genuine spirit to their relationship (and, un-like 'Crashers', there isn't as much that doesn't make sense character wise). For someone like me who loves it when a comedian can get laughs just from the way he looks on his face, Carrell gets very high points here. And like with a Farrelly brothers movie, the more raunchy or outrageous scenes are done with total absurdity; the 'waxing' scene (which was done for real, by the way) and the sort of Aquarius musical number towards the very end of the film (the way it comes out at first is a total, uproarious surprise). But if you're willing not to get offended by it, there's more where that came from. This is one of the funniest films of the year.

Andy Stitzer(Steve Carell) is a 40 year old virgin who is pushed by his friend to lose his virginity. During this crusade, Andy meets many women, but one woman named Trish(Catherine Keener) catches his eye more than the others.

Steve Carell shows us to be an absolute genius. His role is perfect for him and just plain "makes" the movie. The movie exceeded all expectations I could have had. The acting was great, the writing was wonderful, and the comedy could not have been any funnier for what it was. If you have seen The Office or Anchorman you would know how Steve Carell steals the show and this movie proves it more than ever. Overall, the movie is just fantastic and is the second best comedy of the year, falling short only of Wedding Crashers.

I highly recommend this movie.

It may feel overlong, sketchy, and familiar; but all this actually because of one single flaw, which is that the movie completely delivered itself to its message. Don't get me wrong, the message of the movie is one of its best merits (it's well-conveyed, and it makes the movie stand out from the rest of raunchy comedies). But when the plot ends up being completely driven by the moral of the story, you know that there is something wrong here. A lot of monotonous, stretched story-lines, and repetitive jokes made the movie feels as if it has overstayed its welcome. And I kept always wondering why a movie that felt so fresh and genuine, and also has a lot to say (considering its remaining running time and the almost flawless, extremely hilarious and intriguing first act and half of the second). I think I found the answer as the third act kicked off, which is to keep stretching the movie as much as it could until it reach the denouement, and hence delivers its message at the end. It ends up being pretty much a run-of-the-mill rom-com.

However, The 40-Year-Old Virgin completely deserves the cult status it has achieved. First and foremost, Judd Apatow pulled off a something seemingly impossible: a combination of a crude, gross-out comedy and a heartfelt, tender romantic comedy. While these two sub-genres didn't mix very well with each other, glimpses of each of both have managed to be consistent throughout the entire movie. That's largely due to the likable and unbelievably relatable protagonist, Andy, brought to life by an outstanding, star-making performance by Steve Carell, who revealed his massive talent, showing an impressive range he would latter become famous for.

All the secondary characters here have a reasonable depth that prove how this movie is really different from your typical gross-out comedy. They may be stereotypical after all, but the witty rude humor that came from them added an extra, and maybe interestingly contradictory, layer to all of them. I think all the performances are great, but Paul Rudd really stole the show.

Also the movie features a young Jonah Hill in a very funny cameo. I mean, what more could you ask for?

(7.5/10)

...But FIRST: Let us FOCUS on the Title's Content and Context.... As SO often occurs in Hollywood, Movies are made where the main idea seems to be so good, so foolproof, that you react by saying, "Damn, what a hell of a great premise for a movie...No WAY they can screw THAT up!"

Unfortunately, with Movies...As is the case with almost EVERYTHING in LIFE...where there's a will, there's a Way,! And, consequently, sometimes even the best of concepts results in a five-alarm disaster of a film... Thank God that, The 40 Year Old Virgin, is a case of "The Exception Proves the Rule!" And this, despite the fact that Universal seemed to do just about everything possible to spoil VIRGIN, it is STILL definitely worth watching, at least once!

In the title role we have the comedy sensation of recent years, Steve Carell, who entered the Comedy Stratosphere with Bruce Almighty. (Where Mr. Carell was Jim Carey's TV weatherman competition...Remember that now famous scene where Carell's character is trying to break some important news, but all he can manage to get out is a series of weird grunts, groans and assorted sounds!) It seems that, Carrell, who really WAS around 40 at the time ALMIGHTY was made, attained great comic success relatively late in life...But, of course, much better late.....!

One of Virgin's excesses is that every time the film reaches a rather difficult stretch, it appears that Director, Tom Shadyac (Liar, Liar) places too much responsibility on the shoulders of his leading man, who, despite his great and varied talents, sometimes can't help showing just how much of a struggle it is to carry the film forward.

Another example where VIRGIN is a bit over-the-top, regards the unrelenting profanity in the dialog! If any of you non-native speakers out there were not familiar with some of these words in English, during each viewing, you'll get to practice them at least a hundred times! At some point, it just stops being funny for everyone in the audience.

Also, there is simply too much information about too many sexual acts and other kinky incidentals that might have provoked laughter the first, second, or even a bit the third time, but with the umpteenth reference ends up being downright nauseating.

With a runtime of nearly two hours, I think that Virgin would have been even more enjoyable with at least 5 to 10 minutes of strategic editing. But, despite the flaws mentioned here, there are a number of scenes that produce industrial-size laughter, which readily justify the time you invest watching! Also, Virgin demonstrates more than enough originality, both in general concept and in how it has been brought to the screen.

.It is well worth mentioning co-star, Catherine Keener (The Interpreter, Being John Malkovich), certainly, a very underrated actress in Hollywood. She plays the competition for love interest to perfection, giving the film a much needed touch of realism and credibility.

So here is an interesting and fun film that will probably feel good to both men and women alike! There is almost nothing visually graphic in Virgin, but because of its non-stop hardcore locker room language, I would recommend it for those at least14 or15, in your family.

No matter if you lost yours at 12 or at 40... or even if you still are...VIRGIN makes us ALL laugh about an integral component of the human condition, one with which practically each and every one of us can relate to!

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are welcome!