The 40 Year Old Virgin Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
A Comedy about the moments that touch us in ways we've never been touched before.
Better Late Than Never.
The Longer You Wait, The Harder It Gets.
Andy at the age of 40 still hasn't had sex. He lets his secret slip at a poker game with his buds from work. After the revealing all his friends are on a mission to help get him laid. Along the way Andy meets a nice mom: Trish who fall head over heels for each other.
| Steve Carell | Andy Stitzer |
| Catherine Keener | Trish |
| Paul Rudd | David |
| Romany Malco | Jay |
| Seth Rogen | Cal |
| Elizabeth Banks | Beth |
| Leslie Mann | Nicky |
| Jane Lynch | Paula |
| Gerry Bednob | Mooj |
| Shelley Malil | Haziz |
| Kat Dennings | Marla |
| Jordy Masterson | Mark |
| Chelsea Smith | Julia |
| Jonah Hill | eBay Customer |
| Erica Vittina Phillips | Jill |
| Michael Lehmann |
7.50 out of 10 (60514 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Breakout film for Carell
posted on 26 Aug 2009Steve Carell has made a career out of portraying the slightly odd straight guy, first on 'The Daily Show', and then in various supporting roles. In Virgin, Carell has found a clever and hilarious script that perfectly capitalizes on his strengths. Carell plays Andy Stitzer, a middle aged man living a quiet, lonely life. Andy is a little odd, but in an awkward nice guy sort of way. One night, while socializing with his co-workers for the first time, Andy accidentally reveals that he is a virgin. His co-workers, David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Malco), and Cal (Seth Rogen) initially tease Andy about his situation. But it's clear that all three have a certain respect for the decent human being that Andy is, and they resolve to help him out by assisting him in ending his virginity. And so begins Andy's quest into adulthood. Andy is the quintessential innocent, and the bulk of the humor derives from his naiveté to the situations he finds himself in throughout the film. Some of the humor is crude gross out stuff, but most of it is just well done intelligent comedy. In addition, I found some parts of the film actually pretty touching as Andy finds himself developing both romantic relationships and friendships perhaps for the first time in his life. I'm not trying to portray the movie as a love story or a drama; it's a rolling in your seats comedy. Still, every good comedy I have ever seen contains enough heart for you to care about the characters. A good comparison would be 'The Wedding Crashers' from earlier this summer. Virgin has a similar humor, but is perhaps a bit more vulgar in some of its jokes. I particularly loved the ending of the film, which I thought was a perfect way to end the flick. Without giving anything away, it reminded me of 'Something About Mary'. Very light and fun; it leaves you laughing and smiling, which is exactly how you should feel when you finish a comedy. I would highly recommend.
Pleasantly surprising (not to mention fantastically vulgar)
posted on 24 Aug 2009I was really surprised with this movie. Going in to the sneak preview, knowing nothing about the movie except for the one trailer I'd seen, I thought it was going to be a Dude Where's My Car kind of crap fest. I was expecting bad sex jokes and farting and a pathetic lead character who will get laid in the end because that's just how movies work. Instead I got a smart, surprisingly original movie about a decent, average guy who just never had sex.Yes, the film is chock full o' sex jokes and vulgarity and the occasional hey-look-a-nipple!, but it's done much in the spirit of Bad Santa rather than Sorority Boys. All the characters are people you probably know in real life, redeemable friends who are just trying to hook a brother up and live their lives.I went in thinking this movie was going to be total crap, and I was very surprised. Yea, it's pretty over the top (c'mon, it's a movie about a 40 year old virgin!), but it's very smartly done.In the end, you're really pulling for this guy to get laid, which says a lot about the movie because honestly, did you really care if Ashton Kutcher found his car or not?
What really matters???
posted on 22 Aug 2009In today's society being a virgin may sound uncommon, especially being a 40-year-old man. Let's face the facts sex sells in American culture, sex is in music, television and as The 40-Year-Old Virgin demonstrates sex sells in movies as well. For Steve Carell's character Andy Stitzer it is easy being a virgin until three of his sex loving co-workers found out he is a virgin and thrust sex into his life. Can Andy wait, even when he finds a woman Catherine Keener's (Trish), that he loves and cannot resist? The 40-Year-Old virgin shows us that sex is not only just for fun, but instead it is love that we should be a looking for as it is what truly matters. Throughout the movie Andy argues with his co-workers on why it is not so bad to be a virgin. Andy's co-workers led by Seth Rogan's character, Cal, want him not to be the geeky virgin that he has been for the last 40 years. They take Andy on some crazy adventures, and even want him to change his appearance and curb his enthusiasm for action figures that line Andy's apartment.Judd Apatow the director of this film had a scene that took place in Andy's apartment just before his date with Trish. Andy is shown all alone in an empty room with a medium angle shot with high key lighting to show how empty Andy's apartment is and to demonstrate how empty and alone Andy is feeling at this point in time.As Andy is trying to find out who he truly is, as well as prove to himself that sex is not just for fun but is something that has to be done with the right person reminds me of Josh Hartnett as Matt Sullivan in "40 Days and 40 Nights". Matt was also finding out who he truly was and that sex does not always have to be important, it is more about finding that person who you can love without sex. Every time Matt was faced with a sexual situation he would run from it. Andy and Matt share similar qualities in hiding from what everyone else wants them to be. But in the end they both prove that sex in a relationship does not have to come first.Sex is very important to a relationship but it should not be the only thing to build a relationship. Instead individuals must build a relationship with another person who is as involved in the relationship as they are themselves. In the end what woman wouldn't want to know that even after 40 years she was the only one to share those special times with her special man???
Funniest thing to come out of Hollywood in quite some time...
posted on 22 Aug 2009"The 40 Year Old Virgin" is an inspired comedy, one that blends blue sexual humor, the perceptions of males and females, and an uncommon tenderness to great cinematic success. But perhaps most impressive is how the title--which seems to promise a sex farce in the "Porky"'s vein--subverts our expectations; against the image of a beaming, plain-clothed Steve Carell, we receive a farce with its own juvenile tendencies, made hilarious and relatable by a character who is seemingly past his sexual prime. Andy Stitzer (Carell) is a character that Hollywood often relegates to quirky supporting roles: introverted, modest guy working in retail, surrounded by friends who are as cocky as they are confident. While I'm not quite 40, "Virgin" presents Andy as a character most men would be able to relate to at some point in their sexual lives, and is therefore instantly likable. His reluctant efforts to score with women (persuaded by his co-workers), using different methods to pick them up, all while keeping his intended mate at arm's length, is more than a bit indicative of the oft-insecure methods of men. The script, by Carell and director Judd Apatow, is crude but layered, giving us characters who are shaded with quirks that act as amplifications of typical human behavior (one coworker has an obsessive love/hate relationship with his ex)...and when Andy finally meets his mate, the domestic humor stems from a strong sense of realism. Past the wonderful performances and the 'LOL' comedy present, it is this situational realism that gives "Virgin" such an endearing charm.
Exceeded my expectations, and this is not just a comedy
posted on 18 Aug 2009This is the second movie to exceed my expectations in the last few weeks. The trailers left me wondering whether this movie would be worth watching at all. Plus, I loved Steve Carell on the Daily Show, but I found his movies lacking, but he was never the star. Here, he has a writing credit. His performances are getting better as his roles expand. Much to my surprise, they pulled it off after all, to an interesting, and unexpected closing after the closing which adds a significant element of sweetness to the story.The subject of the movie is more serious than the comedy this is billed to be. Andy Stitzer (Carell) is the virgin because he "choses to be"; actually, because he's socially inept and afraid of the opposite sex. I was wondering how he would break the news to his girlfriend in the movie, who eschews sex with him, apparently to avoid the pressure.The supporting cast is a hoot, the dialog is well written, and entirely believable, as crazy as his co-workers seemed to be. We've all had them. I also loved the interesting choice of music, which adds an interesting layer to the movie one doesn't usually notice.Not the funniest movie of the year, as some reviewers say, because it isn't intended to be, considering the subject which needed to be dealt with seriously and not frivolously. It is good story with funny parts, and I highly recommend it.
Prepare to blush as much as you laugh
posted on 18 Aug 2009All 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.
Comedic gold
posted on 10 Aug 2009"40 Year Old Virgin" is one of the best comedies of this year. It is, of course, full of sexual humor and some people wouldn't like it because of all of this raunchy type of humor. But if you can just enjoy the movie and not be offended by it, it will keep you laughing off your seat for almost all two hours of it.The star of the show is Steve Carell. After his shows as supporting actor in other films such as "Bruce Almighty" and "Anchorman", he finally gets his own movie, and he doesn't waste the opportunity. His performance is what makes this movie so funny. He pulls off the innocent guy routine so well, and you should be sympathizing with him by the end of the picture.A movie that is absolutely hilarious. It has so many lines that you will try to remember to quote at your friends. A perfect script with perfect actors which make a pretty good comedy movie.
Hilarious in spots, only okay in others
posted on 08 Aug 2009I just finished watching this on DVD and found it very funny in places. It starts out kinda slow, but gathers steam and has some very funny moments. In fact, one scene stands out as the funniest scene I have seen since the finale scene in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World" back in the 60's. I absolutely laughed till I hurt!! Without giving it away, it was the waxing scene!! The language is very rough and sex is the pervasive theme of the movie so there is a lot of nudity. You definitely want to keep this one locked away from the kiddies.Steve Carrell gives a super comic performance and is very believable as the nerdy guy. His buddies are also very good as well.I would recommend this film, but not for over about 7 bucks.
Unbelievably bad
posted on 02 Aug 2009This has not been a good summer for movies, but this was THE worst - yes, even worse than "Bewitched".Three of us went: two men, one woman (that would be me). About twenty five minutes into the film both of the guys wanted to leave. I gave it five more minutes and then I, too, gave up. In seven years of movie-going together this is the first time we walked out on a film (we even stayed to the end of "The Avengers") Why? Because it wasn't even remotely funny. The first five minutes are fine. The character of Andy seems likable and the camera work is quite good. We chuckled. Then the whole thing went downhill. These guys are unbelievable. No one acts like that and even if they did no one would be laughing at them. Tell me what's funny about a bunch of guys pissing in public? What's funny about a fellow being such a bad lover he gives the girl a whack in the nose resulting in a nosebleed? Had I gone to the film alone I'd have figured it was a guy thing - you know, like the Three Stooges. But the guys I was with couldn't believe that anybody would give high marks to this one. We all voted it a ONE. Would have been ZERO but that wasn't a choice.
Apatow films
posted on 02 Aug 2009The ending of this film totally ruins the experience. These guys…They like to have fun with film-making, singing stupid songs like "Afternoon Delight" in that scene from "Anchorman"; but that strategy won't work all the time. It doesn't work at all in the ending of "The 40 Year Old Virgin", a honestly made comedic film.So about these guys…Judd Apatow has a company that produces films, films like "Anchorman". I think the man is proposing a new way of real comedy, with intelligent humor. The intelligence sometimes ironically proposes that stupidity can be the correct way of making people laugh. Apatow knows this, and he knows the people that can achieve it."Anchorman" was written by director Adam McKay and star Will Ferrell. The cast included Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Steve Carell. Apatow produced Will Ferrell's recent "Kicking & Screaming"; gave Paul Rudd a role; lend David Koechner a cameo; and co-wrote with Steve Carell his first full-length feature, about a virgin with forty years.Carell stars; he's becoming quite "the funny guy" these days. He produced this film, and it seems he wants to make a fool out of himself by playing the fool, but that's exactly the reason; because he knows he has a gift for absurd comedy and he knows he'll make us laugh out loud with character like Andy in a movie like this. It is called self-confidence, and it is a great and basic quality in a comedian.I don't know any 40 year old man who's a virgin. I know adults that have their toys, adults that have their action figures, but no virgins. It is an issue, a serious one, and one that can be ridiculed in excess. Apatow and his partners deal with it truthfully, from the point of view of love relationships, making the ride very sincere.Carell's Andy works with pals David (the always natural Paul Rudd), Jay (a funny Romany Malco), Cal (the very promising Seth Rogen) and the foreigner Mooj (Gerry Bednop), who always encourages people to have sex with a goat (situations that repeat constantly so we understand the film's language). Besides being 40, Andy's social situation is difficult.When Cal talks to him about the weekend, he says he went to Tijuana and saw a woman having sex with a horse. "What did you do?", he asks Andy. "Well, I felt I really needed an egg sandwich, so I bought the egg and spent three and a half hours making the sandwich, but then I didn't feel like eating it; and I didn't even have bread". Cal pretends to shoot himself while Andy doesn't look.These situations the virgin experiences with all his co-workers, developing a friendship that originally comes from their objective: getting this man in bed. Eventually Trish comes into his life. She's played convincingly by Catherine Keener, and has kids and Andy starts dealing with them, the relationship grows but with absolutely no sex involved. This is all very well written and is the best of the film; Andy's talks with Trish's daughter Marla (Kat Dennings) and ultimately a scene of a misunderstanding that delivers an unforgettable line, by an unimportant character: "Dude, teach me!" It's awesome.The time will come for Andy to reveal the truth and you'll laugh constantly meanwhile, and in the end you'll realize that this is a good comedy of good intentions, that Judd Apatow is more a planner than a director (he directed correctly and simply an idea he wanted to develop), and that Steve Carell is a natural comedian; and he's got it going on.
Steve Carell Rocks My World
posted on 29 Jul 2009An electronics store employee is forty years old and has never made love to a woman. After his co-workers find out, they vow to find him a woman. This film follows the adventures of Andy, his exploits with loose women, and his quest to end his virginity. But will he make it? Like "Beerfest", this film suffers from a plot that is very one-sided. The jokes are fairly repetitive since they all revolve around whether or not Andy has been with a woman yet (which is consistently not so). Some of the jokes stand out (Andy making up a time he was with a woman, the running "I know you're gay because..." joke) but many aren't so hot. I think some of the humor relies on being at least vaguely familiar with geeky stuff.What the film has going for it is its heart. I didn't expect heart, but like "Click" there is a positive message under the superficial exterior. My friend says to me, the film has not enough smut. She really likes smut. Well, it's true, the smut was lacking for a film about getting it on. But this might be considered a strong point since the film stressed quality of relationships, something probably important (especially for a man who is 40).Steve Carell is a funny guy, and I admire his dedication to realism. Allegedly, the chest-waxing scene is all real because Carell didn't want to cheat his audience. Thank you! This scene was one of the better ones. Paul Rudd was also funny, and the other co-stars did a fine job.A shout-out to the daughter in the film, whom I have also seen in "London". I feel she has a bright career ahead of her and will be a household name in five years. (Sadly, her name escapes me now... Kit something.) A decent comedy, and with no Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn or Will Ferrell, which I think is nice. No disrespect to these gentlemen, but it's time to share the stage with another man... Steve Carell (who really didn't get his full due in "Anchorman").
Gut Busting, Side Splitting, raunchy as hell of a comedy; Flat out the funniest film of the year, Carell is hilarious
posted on 27 Jul 2009**** Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann and Jane Lynch. Directed by Judd Apatow. Carell stars in and co-writes with the director (Judd Apatow) in the years flat out funniest film of the year. The story surrounding a normal guy Andy Stitzer (Carell) with a forty-year-old secret. He's a virgin. His friends Jay (Malco), Cal (Rogen) and David (Rudd; who stared in Anchorman with Carell) try to help him lose his virginity to some drunk chicks. Instead Andy hooks up with a regular girl Trish (Keener) who wants an honest relationship. Judd Apatow and Carell make hands down the funniest film of the year! The movie has everything a comedy could want and more. Bursting with raunchy humor and explicate sex dialogue makes every line funnier than the last. Bravo on Carell, Apatow, Rudd and Rogen's part on making this comedy. My final rating 10/10.
Gays Came out of the Closet and The Virgins Went In!
posted on 27 Jul 2009Compared to the fact that anybody who is still a virgin is often ostracized by non-virgins for not getting. YOu wonder if it's all worth it whether it be the wrong or right person. This movie will please a lot of religious conservatives who make the presumption that you are any less because you are still a virgin. This movie allows a great comedian like Steve Carrell to play the oldest virgin known to mankind because he is so good at acting in general. We grow to admire and like this character unlike his television show. The fact that he has to come forward and admit his virginity is kind of like coming out of the closet. I love Jane Lynch. She is such a great actress and comedienne and deserves to be recognized. She is wonderful in Christopher GUest films and I saw her last night on Charlie Sheen's show and as always, she is wonderful. This movie is good to show for its lightheartedness and its attempt to be different. It's successful at that. It shows virginity in a positive light rather than as a freak show. There a lot more virgins out there but I'm not one of them sadly. I grew up where getting rid of your virginity was a top priority and how sad is that to give it to somebody who never calls you back.
comes up short (hehe)....
posted on 27 Jul 2009Funny what packs the crowds in today, with this box-office hit another head-scratcher. Put four guys in a roundtable, have them talk like one-gear hormonal high schoolers, and ka-ching! Endless references to vaginas, breasts, conquests, along with F-words tossed in every other line of dialogue, and you have this dead excuse for a comedy. I'm not a prude by any means, but when jokes aren't mixed into the language, it looks more desperate than anything else. A bit of steam is picked up around the speed-dating montage, but not nearly enough to give this any life. Heavily populated by unrealistic characters and ridiculous outcomes, it was trial to sit through the whole thing. Sure, credibility is stretched in movies, but when every girl's a slut, employees are allowed to smash flouressent lights, videotape their butts, and get into car accidents with no repercussions, you only yell at the screen instead of laugh at it. Close it out with a stupid and forced musical number, and you can dive for the remote and end your misery.
Plastic action figures having "sex"
posted on 23 Jul 2009A subplot of this movie is that the 40 year old virgin hoards plastic action figures at his home, which he never unpacks. Just like his action figures, he needs someone to "unpack": have sex and grow up. But that never really happens, because the other characters are just as much stuck in their plastic packaging. The advice of the virgin's "buddies" -- who are not friends but work colleagues from an electronics store -- makes you wonder who really needs to grow up, the virgin or them. So the morale of this movie seems to be that, even if you remove the packaging, the figure is still as dead as plastic. All of this could have been funny if it wasn't so desperate and depressing.
A funny and original movie
posted on 23 Jul 2009When The 40 Year Old Virgin came out in 2005, it was a big deal. No one expected people for it to be as funny as it was, and it introduced the world to Judd Apatow and his gang. Apatow would go on to direct better movies, but this was a solid film directorial debut for him.The reason this movie works so well is because it is so raunchy and crude, but at the same time sweet and heartfelt, and it takes a strong talent to make those two aspects come together in a believable way. Apatow is the one to pull this off, and he does it quite well.The characters are strong and believable, and this is what makes the film work. Andy, played by Steve Carell, is a 40 year old man who lives by himself and has never had sex. He is quite nerdy and lives in his own world, spending his nights singing karaoke to Word Up. He meets Trish, played by Catherine Keener. She works at the store across from Andy's, and the two fall in love. At first all Andy wants to do is get in her pants, but once she puts on a no sex rule, the relationship aspect comes out, and he starts caring more about her than the sex. It plays out well, and becomes quite cute and heartfelt as the movie goes on.The supporting cast is good, consisting of the now famous Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd. They play Andy's immature buddies who gode him on to have sex. They add something nice to the story, but it is Andy (and Steve Carell) that outshines his supporting group.The writing is sharp and witty, the only downbeat part of it being that it could be quite long. At 133 minutes, the film drags in a few areas, and some of the scenes could be considered too long and painful to watch, such as the scene where Jay and Mooj battle over commission. It is long and unneeded, and some scenes in the film scream editing.The only part of the movie that needs working on is the length, but apart from that, the characters are full and rich and the story progresses into a more heartfelt vehicle than it started out as. It is fun and enjoyable to watch as the characters go on, but Apatow would outdo himself in his next project.
Sex Comedy That Keeps Its Trousers On
posted on 21 Jul 2009I would cautiously venture that not many men who have made it into their fifth decade without doing the deed get the opportunity to break their duck with nymphomaniac, hard-bodied, blonde book-shop assistants, busty, wardrobe-malfunctioning speed-daters or, for that matter, Catherine Keener. But the fact that these are the potential partners put in front of our hero here, reminds us that 40-Year-Old Virgin is, first and foremost, a bawdy sex comedy, despite the critical acclaim and hints of depth.And our hero's name is Andy. He's polite, clean-cut and conscientious, rides around on a bike and collects action figures, but his workmates at the computer store think he could well be a serial killer. One night, during an illicit game of poker on the shop floor, the testosterone is flowing and Andy's swiftly concocted sex tales are less than convincing. His new buddies twig that he's a virgin and decide to help him rectify the situation.Quickly, the crux is established: For all their bravado posturing, Andy's colleagues are considerably less fulfilled than he is. Wise-cracking Jay (Romany Malco) may act the player, but he is hen-pecked and insecure; David (Paul Rudd) is still pining over a lost love from the distant past; and wild man Cal (Seth Rogen) lurches from day to day in booze-fuelled, over-sexed stupor (OK, so his life may be more fulfilling…) Despite some false starts with an array of unsuitable though aesthetically pleasing women (this IS a sex comedy, if you remember), Andy eventually finds the perfect partner in "hot grandmother" Trish (Keener). Now if only he can get his rocks off… And here's the clever bit. Andy is a grown man. A little repressed, certainly, but he still has the world-weariness of someone who has experienced many of life's petty annoyances. It would have been easier comedically to make him some kind of desperate oaf – a constantly horny dog who humps legs and chases schoolgirls down the street. But if you get to 40 and have never done it, it is likely that you simply aren't that fussed. Steve Carrell plays Andy perfectly with a child-like quality but no sinister perversions.This can be seen in the very first scene, where he goes about his morning business with a persistent erection. It's a nice parody of Porky's – only here there is no furtive self-gratification, it is just part of the routine. For a puerile concept, this is a film that actually explores sexuality. A bit. Obviously, it loses its nerve on occasion as Carrell lapses into Saturday Night Live mode, but the intentions are good.Take the time-honoured masturbation scene. Instead of the standard montage of sensitive guy exposed to a barrel-load of smut, mistakes lube for super glue hilarity, Andy can't get into it and ends up chortling contentedly to an innocent episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.Indeed, these offbeat endings to such telegraphed set-ups are what give the film an edge over traditional preppy skin flicks. The beauty (if that is the right word) of the American Pie franchise, Wedding Crashers et al is that we can see the pay-off (apple pie defilement etc) coming a mile away. Here Carrell's Andy is ambiguous enough to surprise us with the way he handles certain lewdly choreographed scenarios.It's not all high praise. For starters it is absurdly long for a film of this nature. Some of the scenes in the middle don't go anywhere, and while this adds to the quirky, unpredictable feel, the actual ending (when it finally arrives) is oddly uninspiring. Perhaps this is supposed to represent the inevitable anticlimax of your first sexual experience, which would be an extremely bold cinematic statement, but probably not that bright. Anyway, there follows a bizarre musical post-script that has been cunningly cribbed from every Farrelly brothers movie ever made, and by that stage I was fuming as I had missed most of Match of the Day – so anyone expecting a higher rating can blame it on that.7/10
Best comedy I've seen in a long time!
posted on 21 Jul 2009Without a doubt the funniest film of the year, and the best of it's kind since American Pie. Steve Carrell exquisitely plays the titular prude Andy Stitser, a lovable guy who works at a Best-Buy-like electronics store and spends his free time playing video games and adding to a $500,000 collection of action figures. One day Andy is "befriended" by a group of thirty-something's who out of sympathy make it their strange mission to deflower him. What results is pure comic gold, but underneath all the chest-waxing hilarity, is a much deeper interior. In society Andy's band of instigators are regarded as acceptable, even admirable. But beneath all their womanizing, heartless misconduct is an extreme case of arrested development. These guys have never grown past the typical high-school sophomoric rhetoric. On the other hand, you have Andy, a man that in today's over-exposed world is regarded as an outcast simply because he chooses not to have sex. But once Andy meets Trish (Kathrine Keener) we realize that he is capable of a much deeper more intimate relationship than his comrades. Ironically this "outcast" is far more emotionally developed than his peers. Steve Carrel plays Andy with a gentle boyish warmth than when combined with his impeccable comedic timing produces the best comedic performance in recent memory.
Offensive.
posted on 21 Jul 2009After receiving this film on DVD for my 24th and not seeing it in theaters, I didn't know what to expect. after seeing I found it dreadfully offensive because the character Andy Stitzer had been single and never been laid once his whole life and he was being dictated by everybody to loose his virginity and that made me furious. because Im exactly like him, I've simply chosen to stay single for the sake of my ambitions and priorities and I feel like everybody is dictating me to find a girlfriend and get married and I keep saying it's not going to happen and it's true. I have no problem with Steve Carrell, I mean I loved in Over the hedge but this film is total rubbish. I almost wished I've never laid eyes on it.
This film is racist and a detriment to America
posted on 28 Aug 2009Frankly, this is the first film that I have seen in a while that makes fun of minorities at their expense. It worries me that so many people find this movie to be funny because it promotes an intolerant sense of humor. Several jokes about Arabs and al quaeda, gays, African Americans on parole, and the like are unfunny and based upon prejudice. I would never recommend this film to anyone and I hope Americans wake up to problems in this film.When it comes to analyzing the plot, this film falls short. Imagine an American Pie style movie with poorer dialog, less interest, and a trite thematic device. Don't get me wrong, when they are not poking fun at minority groups, there are several funny and entertaining scenes. As a viewer, however, the story is predictable, unoriginal, repetitive. Save the ten dollars it costs to purchase a ticket and go see something innovative and less offensive.