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After
enduring Blockbuster's cross marketing, we started the 40 Year Old Virgin and
learned right off that the movie would follow the pattern started a
while back, probably during Adam Sandler's run of movies such as Billy
Madison, Happy Gilmore, etc. A
general plot is laced with silly, raunchy, anti-PC dialogue that really
will make or break the movie for you. While Steve Carell plays a
great virgin nerd, the real power of the film is driven
by the secondary characters in the flick. There are rare
instances when the lead character in this genre of film provides most of
the laughs (see Will Ferrell in The Anchorman), but in Virgin,
the frat-boy antics of the Virgin's fellow employees at a Circuit
Cityesque appliance store steal the show.
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This is
evident in the first minutes of the movie when Carell's colleague tells him about his weekend trip to the Tijuana shows,
as the uncomfortable Virgin listens in:
"We get there, and we think it is going to be awesome. It's not
a cool as it sounds like it would be, man. It's kind of gross."
The movie really worked because of these type of laughs. Note this isn't a
criticism of Carell, who is outstanding in NBC's version of The Office, and wrote the
script for this film.
While the plot is obviously the quest of Carell to lose his virginity, the
storyline simply allows some fresh takes on the life inside the Best
Buy/Circuit City world, dating, and a variety of off-color topics. The Virgin's quest focuses on a 40-something divorcee who happens to be a grandmother. Again,
a co-worker chimes in with some classic
lines when learning of this ditty, "You should do it with her on her plastic-covered couch...you should do it while she watches
Murder, She
Wrote...do it, then have her send you $15 on your birthday." |
The
woman also runs an store where people bring their
goods to be sold on eBay. Carell asks, "Why do
you have a store [if all the sales are on eBay]?". Granny
responds "I think it's because I wanna maybe look professional, and not
like a crazy person who's going to steal all your sh*t."
Bottom
line, the scenes are clever enough to carry the film until the end,
and of course they add a little bit a sensitivity to make the film
legit. Overall, if you are a 40 Year Old Virgin virgin, get to
it.
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