One long tasteless joke and not a very funny one

Rating: 4/10 (9 September 2005)

STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits
The gross-out comedy looks like it will strike another hit with The 40 Year Old Virgin, as well as make a big star out of Steve Carrell, waiting for his big break after supporting roles in films such as Anchorman and Bruce Almighty.
He plays Andy Stitzer. Andy works in an electronics store. He fits in with his work colleagues, does his job well and doesn't stand out that much other than his funny dress sense, the fact he rides a bike to work and his virginal qualities that his mates have started to notice. When his 'shameful' secret is revealed, the mates go to extreme lengths to get him to pop his cherry, but as events roll on, Andy discovers it's best to just let life roll on as it will and let things happen in the natural scheme of things, as he develops a relationship with a woman who is set to become a grand-mother at roughly the same age as him.
The film is too long. This might not have been such a problem had the film had more of a sentimental edge to it, a la Mrs Doubtfire, but it entertains it's near-the-knuckle laughs side a bit too much to really make it this way. That's not to mention the NTK laughs that actually cross the boundary into tastelessness, i.e. the drink driving scene with the woman with her own breathalyser and Andy in the car, which the many families of DD victims might want to complain about. You could argue the whole film is like this, but, that's your opinion. Successfully, I found the film to be rarely funny, extremely funny when it is but not that often.
It may have just caught me on a bad day and Carrell does have what seems to be a promising future as a leading man in comedies, but the impression I've initially come away with isn't much of a good one. **