The 40 Year Old Virgin

Hilarious, Outrageous and Straight Up Cringeworthy

Director: Judd Apatow

Release Date: 2005

Rating: 15

Running Time: 126 mins

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd

'Yeah well virgin isn't a dirty word but you know what is a dirty word, asshole, and that's what you guys are!'

In the film that started the 'From the guys that brought you' series and let onto 'Suberbad' and 'Knocked Up' we see Judd Apatow team up once again with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen after 'Anchorman' a year previously, to create one of the funniest American comedies of the decade. I think this film get's heavily overlooked and may people therefore are unaware of just how funny and romantic the film actually is.

When uptight electronics store salesman Andy confesses in a drunken poker game that he is 40 years old and still a virgin his friends vow to help him get back out there and find love by teaching him how to live, what it is to be a man and naturally, how to get laid. I'm sure even if people haven't seen the film there are one or two scenes people will be very familiar with such as when Andy is made by his friends to try and become more 'sexy', and by doing so is taken to get his chest waxed. This scene is so typically American in terms of how the camera will leave nothing to the imagination and make sure the audience is a grossed out as they can be.

In 'The 40 Year Old Virgin', we pretty much see the characters playing themselves but in a way that's so fantastically funny. For me, this film would not be the same without Jane Lynch's dry yet likeable role of Paula, the owner of the electronics store, she's so wonderfully funny and stern you can't not love her for it. Basically every character in the electronic store will make you laugh in at least one part of the film and I would actually hold my hands up and say that if they made a sequel to this film, I would go and see it, purely just to see more of the characters together again. I'd especially want to see Romany Malco, who plays Jay return, as since this film, he hasn't starred in any Apatow comedies, which given his performance in 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' is a great shame as he's one of the best things about it.

This film is definitely not one to watch as a family, due to it's highly crude and altogether cringey moments, but nevertheless if you have never seen it, I think it's certainly one to watch if you're in the mood for a laugh. What's so good about these American comedies is you can watch it again and again and still find it funny given that there are so many little touches audiences will miss the first time and pick up on in the second to make it all the more entertaining.

A true comedy masterpiece that will never seize to get old.

8/10