Better than usual for the genre I guess... but still not worth the hype

Rating: 4/10 (1 January 2006)

As this type of film goes (for lack of a better term, I'll say the "lowbrow teen humor comedy"), "The 40 Year Old Virgin" really isn't bad. It does it's best for what it is. To it's credit it is much less lowbrow than other films of it's ilk, such as the Farrelly Brothers' stuff (even the essentially sweet-natured "Something About Mary" had it's fair share of gross-out sight gags, nearly absent in "The 40 Year Old Virgin"), or the putrid recent Ryan Reynolds vehicles, for example. I suppose it is much closer in spirit to the recent Will Farrell/Vince Vaugh/Owen Wilson/Ben Stiler films, although admittedly of those I've only seen "Old School", so it really isn't much to go on. Like I said, the usual gross-out gags are surprisingly scarce, thankfully. If anything, the film plays more like a romantic comedy, although a particularly goofy, unsentimental one. All that said, nothing can help the film overcome it's greatest obstacles. More than anything the film just can't escape it's own average, mainstream-ness. As much promise as the film shows, it never amounts to anything above conveyor-belt standards. Quite frankly, it just isn't artistic or well-crafted enough. It never manages to seem as much like a labor of love as it does a piece of product. It certainly isn't shot at all remarkably, although I saw opportunity. Likewise, I couldn't help but re-imagine the film with a superior cast of actors like John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle and Philip Seymour Hoffman. On one hand, this indicates that the film definitely has potential. But it also makes clear that the film never rises above convention. From it's well-conceived but ultimately place-holder characters to it's formulamatic montage-and-music matches, the film never manages to become anything truly distinctive. Really, I think the film would have been much better off if it had been directed by someone with true talent like , say, Paul Thomas Anderson. Oh wait, wasn't that called "Punch-Drunk Love"?