The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

Starring Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, et al
Rated R, 116 minutes

Steve Carell plays Andy Stitzer, who, as you might guess, is a 40 year old virgin. When the guys at Smart Tech (a Best Buy type store he works at) invite him to their poker game, they gleam that he's a virgin. And from there it's a set of misadventures to get him laid. Along the way he meets Trish, who works at the "We Sell Your Stuff on eBay" store. He also meets a bookstore clerk, transvestite hooker, you get the drift. After one bad experience too many, he calls Trish and they end up going out. His quest looks brighter. You can probably all guess it from here.

Wow. Just wow. Saw the preview before "Dukes of Hazzard" and said, "hmm, that looks funny. I should see it." I was expecting it to be a decent comedy with Steve Carell, who I liked on the "Daily Show." What I got was pure awesome. Just wall-to-wall funny. If you're up on your pop culture, this movie is just for you. I mean, the whole joke about Michael McDonald playing constantly on the monitors...was just my speed. I would guess that's why I liked it so much, it was just my speed. Hilarious stuff. Liked everybody in it, thought little time was wasted not being funny. All the roles and stuff were very believable, from the performances to the writing. Carell acts just like somebody who's clueless about sex, but not to the point they don't know about women. He wasn't made a total nerd or bumbling jackass, just a believable one.

I had a difficult time giving this a score. The highest score I've given to a movie thus far was a 4.75/5 for "The Fugitive" which is one of my favorite movies. Every time this movie would come up with a scene that was just too pat or sappy, they'd follow up with something drop dead hilarious that made me forget it. So on that note...

*****

Five stars. And the movie runs almost two hours - something you won't notice at all. I can't say it's for everybody. I find myself lucky in that the humor was my speed. The previews don't do it justice. It's fairly witty comedy with lots of bawdy language and talk...and now when I pick up "Fugitive" and this from my DVD shelf, I will say - "put in '40 Year Old Virgin' again. I love that movie."