I cannot stress enough that you should see this!!

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2005)

The 40 Year Old Virign is a refreshingly raunchy film. This film, and The Wedding Crashers, are a sign that the R-rated film may be making a comeback. In a tepid desert of PG-13 films, we adults need a true oasis of mature comedy every now and then.
Already a profitable venture after only a couple weeks at the box office, this film is sure to launch actor/writer Steve Carell into orbit as a major star. The film is crude, but in a Blazing Saddles kind of way. Crudeness if done with good intentions can be the most hilarious kind of comedy. The film does a wonderful job of creating multi-dimensional characters the audience can actually care about. The film never bogs down, and that is quite an achievement for a comedy that spans nearly two whole hours.
Steve Carell plays... well like the title says: a forty year old guy who has never had sex. He's had his chances, but blown all of them. After time he just seemed to give up as a younger man. He retreated into his own little world of video games, vintage action figures, and celibacy. Once his friends at work learn his secret, they set out to get him laid by any means necessary leading to one hilarious scene after another. What's odd is that Carell's character seems oddly at peace without the need for sex. He seems happy enough without it, but once he meets a woman he really has feelings for, sex becomes inevitable.
What was crude about it? Well.... there were numerous racial jokes, but you have to understand where they were coming from. There was nothing mean-spirited about any of them, but I'm sure some people would be offended. Some people are always looking to be offended. There are gay jokes, drunk driving jokes, you name it. Maybe we shouldn't be laughing at these things, but dammit I was. Again and again.
It was strange. Not too many other people at the showing I saw were laughing all that much. Maybe it was because it was an early afternoon showing and people weren't geared up to laugh yet. I hate to be the only person in a theater laughing out loud, so I had to try and stifle my laughter but it seldom worked. This film is a hoot, and I'm glad it is scoring as highly as it is so far on this site. Even stuffy critics like Roger Ebert seem to have been won over by this film and its charismatic star.
If you are looking for a truly funny film then go see this one immediately!!! Reward the makers of this classic film by taking your friends, as well. I couldn't ask more from any comedy.
10 of 10 stars. The Hound has spoken.