Prepare to be touched... (40 Year Old Virgin (XXL Version) (DVD))

Member Name: l-m-n-o-p

Product:	40 Year Old Virgin (XXL Version) (DVD)
Date:	29/12/06 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extremely funny and quite romantic - and Steve Carell is a legend!

Disadvantages: Might be a bit risqué for some

THIS REVIEW IS FILM ONLY

This film was very rare in that it made me laugh even in the trailer, which hardly ever happens. As soon as I saw the adverts, I immediately thought it looked like my sort of film and headed out to watch it. I am of course talking about The 40-year old Virgin, the first leading movie role for the amazingly funny Steve Carrell.

After appearing in the not-very-good Office: an American Workplace and the frankly terrible Bewitched, and featuring in Anchorman and Bruce Almighty a few years ago, this brilliant comic talent finally gets his own film. He also helped produce it and co-wrote the screenplay, which shows he has more talents than just in front of the camera. He's recently been in Little Miss Sunshine (I need to see that - looks hilarious) and apparently he's going to have his own sequel to Bruce Almighty, called, wait for it... Evan Almighty! Yeah, sounds awful doesn't it?

The story tells of Andy, who is a forty year old virgin, as the title suggests. How funny! He lives at home by himself with a collection of comic book models, rides to work on a bicycle, and is stuck in a dead-end job with no aspirations. When his friends discover that he has never had sex, they try to solve his problem by taking him out and showing him a good time.

Needless to say, Andy is not too happy at first, leading to all manner of hysterical situations, before he obviously but heart-warmingly falls in love with the single mother from the store next door. Will he ever fit in and be popular, will he ever grow up and get rid of his toys, and most importantly, will he ever have sex? That's what the audience wants to know.

To be honest, this is pretty basic stuff. Don't be surprised to find lots of gags about sex, some rather rude set pieces and moments that are not for the squeamish! However, it's more than your average gross-out bonanza, and it's all handled with a lot of warmth and sensitivity.

The central story of romance is fairly predictable but it definitely makes you feel all warm inside when you've left. There are loads of excellent set pieces, the funniest of which is when Andy has his chest waxed. Although being painful to watch, you absolutely can't stop laughing! There are also funny moments when he and his friends go speed dating, when he gets given a box of porn videos, and when he can't work out how to use a condom. It's not by any means subtle humour, but there are plenty of one-liners and visual gags to keep you entertained at all times.

The acting isn't really important in a comedy such as this, but Steve Carrell does make a completely likeable, dorky hero, and plays him quite realistically. He wasn't funny at all in Bewitched, which showed that not even great comedians can do anything with an awful script, but in this he is just right and delivers lots of laughs. Carell is easily one of the funniest actors around today. His co-stars are also fine, despite there being nobody else I knew. Catherine Keener plays the object of his affections, Trish, and Paul Rudd appears as his friend David.

There isn't really much else you can say about a film like this. It's very funny. That's all it needs to be, and that's basically all it is. It was the funniest film I saw last year in fact, but then again it was only really up against Wedding Crashers and Bewitched, so it's not hard. Not that Wedding Crasher was bad, just not as good as this. And Bewitched was never in the running…

Oh and one final thing: the ending, without giving too much away, is really funny. They all start singing and dancing around like hippies, which is quite unusual and imaginative. It's that song from the car advert; "this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius" or something like that. Extremely funny!

So, to sum up, this is a really funny film that I would definitely recommend. It's not as trashy or crude as it sounds, but perhaps it's not one for the more squeamish of viewers!

Oh by the way, did I mention that Steve Carell is really funny?
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Starring: Steve Carrell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogan

Directed by: Judd Apatow

Running time: 116 minutes

Classification: 15 for strong sexual references (hardly a surprise, really)

Summary: The funniest film of 2005