The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

So you've seen Wedding Crashers twice and want something new to laugh at? This outrageously hilarious raunch-fest gets horsedick-sized laughs with an unexpectedly smart script that's brutally real and honest. Steve Carell (Anchorman, The Office) is flat-out brilliant as Andy Stitzer, a buttoned-down bachelor who rides his bicycle to work, watches Survivor every Thursday with his elderly neighbors, and meticulously maintains his action figure collection like a museum curator. But when Andy's co-workers discover he's never ventured into the bush, his world is turned upside down as they set out to get him laid, forcing him to try his hand at speed dating and sending him home with a drunken bar fly who spews her dinner in his face. Finally, Andy meets an eBay seller (Catherine Keener) who sees possibilities in him that others obviously have missed, and the nut-busting comedy finds a romantic center that will keep your girlfriend around during the frisky bits—including Andy wrestling with condoms like he's trying to make balloon animals, being forced to watch more porn than you'll find under Bill O'Reilly's desk, and getting his chest waxed until he spouts blood. Like the "franks and beans" scene in There's Something About Mary, Carell's waxing moment will be seared into your brain stem—just like the rest of this sleeper hit of the summer.

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