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Steve Carell stole the show playing supporting roles in movies like .com/articles/04/NW0400199.php>Anchorman and Bruce Almighty—and it earned him both his own TV series (The Office) and a starring role in this outrageous comedy.
Carell plays Andy Stitzer, a mild-mannered inventory manager in an electronics store. He lives alone with his collection of action figures, he watches Survivor with his elderly neighbors, and he spends his weekends making egg salad. One night, Andy’s invited to poker night with some of the guys from work—and, during the typical guy talk, Andy makes a few comments that make it obvious to the other guys that Andy’s still a virgin.
Immediately, the guys—David (Paul Rudd), who’s still pining over a four-month relationship that ended two years ago, Jay (Romany Malco), the player, and Cal (Seth Rogen), the young party animal—take on Andy as their own personal project. They give him all kinds of tips on picking up women—and then they drag him out to the bars, in search of the drunkest girls they can find. But the only woman Andy’s really interested in is Trish (Catherine Keener), the woman who runs the We Sell Your Stuff on eBay store across the street, who gave him her phone number when she stopped by the store to buy a VCR.
Andy finally finds the courage to ask Trish out—but he’s afraid that he’s not going to be able to continue his relationship with her for long without letting her in on his little secret.
If you’re looking for a good movie to see on a first date—or perhaps something to watch with your great aunt Hilda—this is definitely not it. If you didn’t get the hint from the title, it’s a crude movie. It’s basically a two-hour attempt to get a guy laid. And your date—and your great aunt Hilda—may find that a bit offensive. But, crudeness aside, it still manages to be just plain hilarious at times. In one scene, the guys bring Andy to have his chest hair waxed, and I laughed until I almost stopped breathing, the tears streaming down my cheeks. Carell carries the movie effortlessly—and Rudd, Malco, and Rogen just add to the laughs.
For me, however, there was a threshold of how much I could handle. After a while, it reached the point when I started thinking, I wonder if it’s going to be over soon—but it just kept going. It could have been 20 minutes shorter, and I would have enjoyed it more.
If you enjoy crude humor, you’ll score with The 40-Year-Old-Virgin. But chose your movie-watching companions wisely. If you want a second date—or if you want to remain in Great Aunt Hilda’s will—you might want to stick to watching this one with the guys.
