Print this article E-mail this article More articles by this author

Rating: Country: USA Release Date: August 19, 2005 Distributor: Universal Director: · Judd Apatow Cast: · Steve Carell · Catherine Keener · Paul Rudd Related Sites: · Cinema Spider: The 40 Year Old Virgin Grade: C

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is less of a movie and more of an overlong sitcom. It's pretty easy to associate shows like My Name Is Earl (a show about a guy looking to right bad karma) and parallel it with a movie about a guy trying to lose his virginity. While "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is more complex than one simple idea, the premise does not go beyond its juvenile simplicity.

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin" stars Steve Carell as a kid that has forgotten to grown up. He's the guy in the comic book shop wearing an unfashionable sweater. No, not the guy who sells pot out of his van, the other guy. Carell plays his virgin as a sweetheart of a man. He has respect for women, is friendly to his neighbors, and without corruption. The idea of this character is funny and charming. But the placement of this character in this movie is not a perfect fit.

The story takes off when Carell's coworkers, played by Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, and Romany Malco, find out about their coworker's failure to have sex. They guide Carell's character on a journey of sophomoric sexual adventures. Imagine a mix of Sandler, "American Pie", and "Weird Science" and that's what drives this story. The jokes are hit or miss, with the best jokes reserved for the trailer. The comedy starts quite strong, but fails to maintain consistency.

But, of course love intervenes and makes this comedy a little more dramatic. It is this flip that complicates the movie and steers a simple concept on far longer than needed. For the first half of this movie, the comedy is enough to make this story a goofy one and not that needs over analysis. However, once the comedy gives way to drama, the awkwardness of the plot is apparent. While much of what is going on is realistic, that doesn't make the progress of events plausible in this fantasy world.

The failure of this movie is complicating a very simple story. The DVD version advertises an additional 17 minutes of footage. I can't imagine what they've added, but it hurts the movie more than it helps. There are at least two different important plot points left completely unresolved. A story like this would have been stronger as a sitcom on HBO or Showtime, or with a length closer to 90 minutes.

The DVD extras are perfect for fans of the film, but leave very little for everyone else. The commentary is not technical in the least bit and involves far too many members of the cast. With at least ten people lending their opinions to this film, there is very little direction or cohesion. The commentary has its funny moments, but ranks nowhere near the top of the comedy commentary record books.

The deleted scenes on this disc were not added back into the film because most of them aren't that funny. There are also extended versions of improvisational bits that shed light on the origin of scenes, but again support their absence from the feature. I did enjoy two small bits called Line-O-Rama and My Dinner with Stormy.

Overall, this movie failed to meet my high expectations established by the overwhelmingly positive reviews, strong box office, and great marketing. Perhaps, the R-Rated version is a tighter edit.