Wow, this guy just can't buy a break

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2006)

For all the potential hi-jinks involved in a movie about a 40-year-old who's never had sex, what really made this movie to me was the subtle humor. For example, the store manager who always has to play god-awful Michael McDonald music on all the TVs in the store, and the "Age of Aquarius" spoof song at the end of the movie. Weave those nuggets into what we expect this film to be about, and you have a pretty good movie. Steve Carell is funny as usual, the supporting cast does exactly that -- supports all Carell's goofiness -- and while the main premise has the potential to devolve into locker-room humor, it never really does. If you've done at least a functional amount of dating in your life, you'll appreciate what total disasters some of these dates were. There were a few scenes I thought were a kind of lame (the chest-waxing scene comes to mind, though I realize a lot of people felt that was one of the best scenes in the movie). And I think the movie was about 20 minutes too long, but you can say that about 80% of all movies ever done. Overall, a solid 7.