The time has come to talk of things. Of films that are the best of Comic Kings. And yes, this movie has wings. I am now ready to beamingly review The 40 Year Old Virgin, my favorite of all comedies. A close second is Dumb & Dumber, followed by Meet The Spartans. But more about that later.
This movie is revolutionary. In a first in grossout comedy, this movie tackles sex. And other things. But mostly sex. And they do it in such a hilarious way that it feels like a high brow poop joke for men. Steve Carell breaks onto the scene in this one after Anchorman, and we have established the comedic actors who will dictate standout comedies for the next 5 or 10 years. (Seth Rogen hasn’t stopped… he maybe should have…) But in the best work that Judd Apatow has ever put out, The 40 Year Old Virgin stands at the pinnacle of best comedies of all time.
The 40 Year Old Virgin is the story of Andy (Steve Carell) a worker at a tech store (Smart Tech) with not much of a life outside his apartment. His co-workers think he’s weird and he doesn’t help refute that claim. It isn’t until one night over a game of poker (with one of the funniest scenes in comedic history) that the guys find out why he’s so strange.
He’s a virgin.
And that’s not even the whole hilarious scene! A lot of the jokes and quotes me and my friends use come from Paul Rudd and Romany Malco. So it just shows that the whole cast was integral in creating a superb comedy.
But with David (Paul Rudd), Cal (Seth Rogen), and Jay’s (Romany Malco) help, Andy sets out on the road to not becoming a virgin. Many hilarious scenes and antics later, Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener) who shows off a fantastic body for an older woman, if I may add. The go on a whole buttload of dates and Andy finds love before sex… Or does he?
A hard and true scene. This actually happened.
This movie literally is too legit to quit. Most of the lines in this film were improvised right on camera. I myself own the unrated edition with 17 extra minutes, and it is one of the funniest experiences to watch this with my friends. Me and my friends had plans to remake this for ourselves, scene by scene, and adapt it to 4 18 year old guys. Those dreams are still alive in fact. If only…
Gotta slay some hoodrats. Boom, boom, boom.
I have become a big fan these actors because of this movie. Paul Rudd is hilariously and deliriously lost in lost love over a great cameo by Mindy Kaling (Kelly of The Office) as the infamous Amy. Paul Rudd is the character I related to in the movie with the lines that made me laugh the most. Romany Malco is genius in this movie, bringing his ghetto flavor to the film. I haven’t seen him in much else, but this movie has him shining with all the rest. Seth Rogen, well, I liked him more at the time. He has turned into that character in every comedy who just smokes weed and drinks all the time. He doesn’t add much to the comedy. But he did in this one.
And then there’s the infamous Steve Carell. Right before The Office took off, this was his role. He was born to play this role (seeing as he helped write it and produce it). He was fresh and new at this point and untested in the world of comedy. He’s outrageous when he needs to be, he was awkward and lovable, and he just knows how to deliver lines that sound
But each timeeeee…
You know how I know you’re gay? You like Coldplay.
unnatural coming from a man of his age. Fun fact, my mom went to Denison University with Steve Carell in college. He was a senior (and her R.A. if I’m not mistaken). He was involved in improv and comedy and there’s a picture of Steve during the porno scene that he turns around. He has a mustache, and he had one in college. That was a college photo. That’s pretty cool if I do say so myself.
So you got a great cast and some great cameos by some up and coming comedic stars. Jonah Hill makes an appearance as the overweight and strange eBay store customer. Jane Lynch, before Glee took off, played the Smart Tech boss and
The cast of champions. Looks like Rudd is rockin the clip on phone belt…
sexually aggressive woman, Paula (she’s a lesbian, BTW). Steve Carell’s wife, Nancy Carell makes an appearance as the sex education worker. David Koechner, co-star with Steve in Anchorman pays a visit, as well as Kevin Hart, the short and black comedian in one of the funniest scenes in the film. “I’m talkin’ frosty.” Oh, and if you look to the left in the first shot of the first club scene they take Andy to, you’ll see Jenna Fischer chilling on a couch as an extra. Check it out.
So what more could I say about this movie to make you go and watch it right now? Great comedy, hilarious, outrageous jokes, and an all-star cast of soon to be big actors. Judd Apatow did something right in directing this movie along with giving Steve Carell the chance to be the “It Kid” of comedy. I love every minute of this movie and I hope you will too. Best comedy of all time. 10 out of 10.
The second I saw this movie was coming out, I got really excited. I’ve seen Simon Pegg’s show Spaced, I’ve seen both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this was just gonna be another winner to add to the list. Not quite. It was quite good, but this had a different feel to it than the other Pegg/Frost collaborations did. Paul is not quite the movie you’d expect from these two, but it had all the things that Simon Pegg loves: Star Wars and aliens.
Paul is the story of an alien (Seth Rogen) who comes crashing (or exploding rather) into Graeme Willy’s (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings’ (Nick Frost) lives. On a road trip around America after Comic Con, Graeme and Willy find that the alien trip they planned through the midwest would be more real than they could ever imagine. Getting into trouble one after another, Graeme and Clive meet an all-star cast along the way in what I could only describe as England vs. America with E.T.
First things first. ACTING. Yes, this movie has quite an extensive cast with cameos and guest stars all over the place. First we got Jeffrey Tambor (Yes, Arrested Development. Best.) as Shadowchild, a sci-fi writer with an ego and O.C.D. problem. Jane Lynch as the alien truck-stop waitress who pops in and out from time to time. David Koechner as the redneck anti-queer (really breaking away from his role as Hannah Montana’s uncle). Jason Bateman as the surly F.B.I. agent out to get Paul (quite funny), along with Bill Hader (one of my favorite SNL guys) and Joe Lo Truglio as the bumbling idiot agents who kind of mess everything up but are quite funny. Also Kristen Wiig (annoying) but actually not that bad in this film. I’ve always found she’s more bearable in films than SNL.Yes, that’s quite a laundry list of actors that have the potential to make a movie funny. Bravo.
Simon and Nick. Just some Comic Con goers.
This movie is also a break directing wise from the usual. Instead of the great Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. How amazing.) we have Greg Mottola (Superbad and Adventureland. Two terrible one word movies.) This really disappointed me. A lot. It gave a different feel to the movie that, frankly, wasn’t all that good at all. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost work well together with other English actors. A lot of the humor in this movie comes from the supporting cast. This saddens me. That’s what made Shaun and Hot Fuzz so great. Edgard Wright (He failed at Scott Pilgrim. Check my blog.), English supporting cast, with Pegg and Frost as the driving forces behind the comedy. Bad form.
But that’s not to say this movie isn’t that good. It has its own genuine feel to it that is still quite funny. All of the supporting cast is quite funny American actors. It’s written by Simon and Nick. It’s their brainchild. The thing that ruins it for me is it doesn’t have the choppy, sporadic, English humor you come to expect from them. You could say that’s probably because it’s not Edgar Wright driving the project from behind the camera. Sad, I know, but still.
I was also surprised how sub par the special effects were in this movie. Maybe it was to give it an E.T. feeling, but maybe it’s just the production value that lacked in the making of the film. Paul wasn’t as real looking as I expected for a 2011 film, the spaceship and such felt unrealistic. The stunts were fine, it was just everything else that threw off the movie for me. Maybe another thing that affected me was my movie watching experience. It wasn’t the audience, it was the theater (Thanks, Regal Cinemas 14). The projection was out of wack, all of the lettering in the film was hard to look at. The lights came on in the theater 30 minutes before the movie was over. It kind of ruined it for me. But besides that, the movie was good (Wow, I just complained a lot…)
I still think this movie is worth watching. If you’re ever in the mood for a pretty good alien comedy, please see this movie. Simon and Nick need all the support they can to become really big in America, and I know they already kinda are, but they need everybody behind them to help Americans realize that they’re just as good as actors are here. (Certainly better than Matthew McConaughey or Brad Pitt. Come on… Although Lincoln Lawyer might be good…) So please go see Paul. It’s definitely worth a watch. 7.8 out of 10.
The time has come to talk of things. Of films that are the best of Comic Kings. And yes, this movie has wings. I am now ready to beamingly review The 40 Year Old Virgin, my favorite of all comedies. A close second is Dumb & Dumber, followed by Meet The Spartans. But more about that later.
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