Reviewing This is 40 Without Having Seen It

Judd Apatow seems like a nice, talented guy. Some of his first credits in entertainment were as a writer and producer for The Larry Sanders Show, a series I hold in such high regard that the link included earlier in this sentence goes to the show’s Wiki page so you can learn more about it (instead of an Amazon affiliate link in a halfhearted attempt to make some revenue for this website). He also helped produce Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, two of the funniest, most accurate depictions of being a kid in high school and college, respectively, that you’ll ever see. And no one is going to debate that The 40-Year-Old Virgin is one of the best comedies released in the past decade.

It’s the two movies Apatow directed since The 40-Year-Old Virgin—Knocked Up and Funny People–that have me questioning if This is 40 is going to be worth a damn. I recall enjoying Knocked Up until its last 20 minutes, during which Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd inexplicably get high on hallucinogens and run around Las Vegas, a finale more befitting of a Cheech and Chong flick. Tons of great comedies struggle to get across the finish line, so it wasn’t a great shock, but the decision was mildly disappointing given the quality of the majority of the film.

Funny People…Funny People is where it all really came off the tracks for me. The first half of Funny People is one of the most poignant, brilliant comedies ever created. The second half of Funny People is harder to get through than all six hours of The Stand. I haven’t seen a movie bomb in its second act like that since Full Metal Jacket.

So if we’re playing the percentages, with The 40-Year-Old Virgin being all good, Knocked Up being 15% crap and Funny People weighing in at a hefty 50% le garbage as the French say, odds aren’t good for This is 40. I might not be a Chinaman at his abacus, but if the trajectory established by Apatow’s previous directorial efforts continues, you could easily be talking a movie that’s 90% unfunny.

I’m rooting for This is 40. The one thing my family is able to do on Christmas without fighting like the Mediterranean savages we are is watch a movie in the theater together. When it’s a good one, the peace lasts for the entire walk from the theater to the adjacent Chinese restaurant. It’s holiday memories like that which you cherish for a lifetime.

Are you an Apatow fan? Or are you just looking forward to This is 40? Leave a comment and tell me. Really, do it. You text all damn day and you can’t leave a few words at the end of an article you read? Go eat a hot one.

Tagged as: Movie Review.