This year's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", only more vulgar

Rating: 4/10 (1 October 2005)

"Wedding Crashers" was an okay movie. I never understood why it got such a high rating on IMDb. I liked it, but I saw nothing special about it. Nothing that elevated it from similar movies, such as "Dodgeball" or "Starsky & Hutch". Still, I understood why it had become such a tremendous hit. The leading roles were played by big stars, the pacing was fast and the jokes kept coming. Some worked, some didn't, but it was an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes with your brain turned off. "The 40 Year Old Virgin" had no really big names in its cast, but was a tremendous hit anyway. I figured that this must have had something to do with a charming story and funny and original jokes. Reviewers (including Roger Ebert, who once again doesn't have the same opinion about a movie as me) were raving about how lovely this little flick was. And last but not least IMDb users gave this movie an amazing 7.7, a rating comedies rarely receive. Once again IMDb has misdirected me. "The 40 Year Old Virgin" sucked big time!
First off, let me make clear that there's nothing "charming" about this movie. The characters are as unrealistic as they are unlikeable. I really have nothing against rude jokes as long as they have a punchline or a point, but "Virgin" is full of vulgar talk that's just not funny and often at the expense of ethnical minorities in a primitive way. Within the first 15 minutes the movie gets boring as there is no real development in the story whatsoever. The dialog is predictable and extremely lame. The most painful thing, however, was that it didn't take much more than the mention of the word "pussy" or one character asking another to have sex with a goat, to make people in the cinema go wild. God, I hated it when the old couple living above Andy first commented on how Andy was going to get laid that night and then talked about how they were going to have sex themselves later on. Is it that easy to get the audience to laugh? Are people that stupid or am I missing something? Hell, I can even chuckle at the worst mindless sex-comedies à la "Van Wilder" or "TomCats", but this movie just left me absolutely cold and caused no reaction other than extreme boredom. I hate it when immature comedies like this one pretend to be open minded whilst covering all stereotypes and dragging every little weakness of its characters through the dirt.
I didn't think it was romantic, either, not for a second. The scene with Trish discovering Andy's porn was the worst. It was so implausible, it insulted my intelligence. As if all that wasn't enough, the director did an absolute horrible job. The movie looks like it had been made for T.V. without one creative shot in there.
The cast wasn't half bad. Catherine Keener (who has gotten extremely old in just a few years it seems) does an okay job. Steve Carell acts as natural as he can under the circumstances and thankfully doesn't try to be a cardboard copy of Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller or Will Ferrell. I didn't like him too much in the American version of "The Office", but he convinced me here.
Unfortunately, that isn't enough to save this horrible movie. Apparently I'm in the minority with my opinion, though. Like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" some years ago the success of this boring mess is a phenomenon, which is beyond me. If that's what people want to see these days, then people have become incredibly undemanding.