The 40 Year Old Virgin Review

        When looking at the poster to The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you would think it would be a really lousy comedy. Sort of in the vein of any sub-par Adam Sandler movie from the early 2000s. Surprisingly, this one put Steve Carrell in the map. It was both this film and The Office that really cemented him in the annals of comedy. To wrap up my look into romance films, here’s what I think about this one. 

1. Andy the Virgin

        Just the first opening sequence perfectly describes the predicament that Andy is in. Just the amount of collectibles that cover and dominate the whole apartment is impeccable. We see that he’s not a normal guy since he rides a bike to work and hardly interacts with his coworkers. The turning point is revealed when he’s invited to play poker and inadvertently reveals that he’s a virgin. 

        Steve Carrell absolutely steals the show as Andy. Just his overall mannerisms and any attempt to be cool by imitating the other guys is laughable. It’s tough to even review comedies since it’s entirely subjective to the person that’s watching it. Here, any high brow person without a funny bone can see or at least appreciates the comedy that represents the whole situation. And the fact that it’s an R-Rated movie takes its complete comedic antics to 11.

        One of the things that makes the film so well, is just how Andy goes about losing his own virginity. I’ll elaborate more on the next tab but what also sells the comedy is the chemistry among Andy’s coworkers. When you have Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Romany Malco just talking with Andy is hilarious and stupid. Just the attempts to have him go through various means to highlight himself and finding love is all for nothing.

        Even though the film can be viewed through a depressing lens since we do see why Andy is so hesitant up to the point where we see his younger self. Any movie that has the character be active with what he wants to do, instead of just be a passive character for the story sake is probably the most important aspect of this film. Just the fact that we see him go for the girl that he’s genuinely attracted to is also sweet. 

        The moments when we see Andy and Trish together is wholesome since we see just how vulnerable Andy is and eventually the situation that Trish is in as well. It shows just the disparity between being a virgin and a single mom. Both are ridiculed but the main thorn is a guy not losing his virginity. Which leads me to my next tab. 

2. Types of Love

        I think the highlight of the movie is when the guys show Andy how to meet a girl to have his virginity be removed. Hilarious in the various ways Andy is subjected to the level of firsthand embarrassment, mostly all of them represent the guys and how love is shown in the movie. With the chemistry dynamics that the three guys have, all of them have a distinct view of love. 

        One is adventurous, the other is insecure with his relationship that he cheats with other girls and Paul Rudd’s character can’t seem to move on from his ex. It shows just how different they view a relationship or love in general. When Andy is with one or all them, we see how Andy tries their methods and have it blow up in his face. Especially when he’s told to wax his body, that’s my favorite part. I think the main point of the film was revealed after Andy’s predicament was made public to the store.

        The whole film is about the connection that leads to the actual event in question. We see just how backwards the guys view love and having their own relationship problems reflect their odd view into romance. With Andy, he simply followed his gut and did it his own way to go after Trish. Just him winning Trish’s daughters with his charm and earnestness made him redeemable to them. 

3. Overall

        The 40-Year-Old Virgin is on top of the comedic films of the 2000s that defined a decade. 

Marty Review

 

        It’s February once more and time to look at some romantic films. For those that having been keeping up with how I do my look into romance films, typically I pick two to reflect a common theme. Previously I watched tragic romantic films and romance during disaster. This year I’m watching the movies that have the sad sack getting a girl. With this film, it won the coveted Best Picture Award in 1955.

1. Marty

        Before I get started, I wanted to point out that this wasn’t the first time I was exposed to actor Ernest Borgnine. It just blew my mind that when I was little watching SpongeBob that in the episodes involving the heroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy that Borgnine voiced Mermaid Man. Little did I know that I would watch this movie and hearing him speak, I could catch the instances of Mermaid Man when he was speaking. Perhaps it was providence that made the whole thing complete.

        Anyways, we follow Marty as he works as a meat butcher. It’s established that he feels that he hasn’t accomplished anything despite having a good education. Constantly, he’s been bombarded from customers, friends and even his own mom that he ought to get married. You get to feel for the guy since he’s an upstanding person, but it’s the baggage that he receives from other people and himself that puts him in a corner. 

        One scene really nailed that, and it’s when Marty calls up a girl that he and his friend met. While we don’t hear what the girl is saying over the phone, just the camera slowly zooms in on Marty to really sell that the conversation isn’t going well. Just the performance of Borgnine sell that as hard as he tries, nothing goes his way when trying to find someone. It's that level of hidden frustration and sadness that makes it work. We want him to feel happy, and most importantly to find someone. 

        While it’s not all doom and gloom as the first couple of minutes is led to be believed. The remaining minutes we see that Marty finds someone and from there is when we see the sweetest moments. It’s such a refreshing thing where we actually see some positivity with the main character by just expressing himself and having someone to really get him. 

        That’s where we see Carla near the halfway point in the film. Both her and Marty are the same people where they haven’t had any shot of finding love. As I mentioned before, the scenes involving them are the sweetest aspect since we see just how they haven’t gotten a chance and that they are great for each other. It’s one thing where Carla supports Marty’s endeavors and Marty being reciprocal for her own struggles. 

        The movie as a whole works when there’s no big-name actor in the film. While yes, everyone here is talented but just having someone who’s naturally beautiful doesn’t exactly work in a movie like this. Marty in context works due to having the guy be a little scrappy that struggles and ultimately comes and fights his insecurities. It’s the believability in the performance that sells the picture. 

2. Relationships

        If there’s one aspect of the film that I notice is the overall use of relationships. While the film’s main theme is Marty finding someone, everyone around him are either bachelors, widows or married relatives. Like it’s one thing where we see a contrast between Marty finally being a relationship and his own cousin just not handling being in a marriage. The big picture I believe that the movie is going for is finding happiness.

        With Marty’s friends in the local bar, they keep hooking up with girls to the point where they’re not looking for anything serious beyond gratification. I find it nuance in a sense where it’s established that Marty isn’t in a good place mentally and just finding someone helps him be at ease with his life. In the context of the story, any sense of happiness is sort of run afoul when his own mom wants him to stop seeing his own lover for fear of being alone by herself.  It’s the sort of thing where people in the movie want to be continuously young without being committed to an actual relationship. Which is where they sort of take out on Marty throughout the film. 

3. Overall

        Marty is a classic romantic film of the 50s. A classic feel good story with a strong underdog element. 

Remember The Titans Review

        It’s super Sunday, as always, I talk about a football movie to celebrate the annual Super Bowl. This one is personal to me since it’s the first football movie that I’ve been exposed to. Of course, the commentary angle in the movie flew over my head because I couldn’t grasp it at a young age. Thinking about it more, I think this film was responsible for the multiple sports films that came out from Disney in the early 2000s. 

1. Race and Football

        Based on the 1971 season of the T.C. Williams Titans, the film’s told non-chronologically as we see the football team gather at a cemetery. In the ensuing scene, we see that Alexandria, Virgina is bereft with racial tensions. Making matters worse is that the football team has been forced to integrate with black and white players. Played by Denzel Washington, Coach Boone leads the team alongside Will Patton’s Coach Yoast. 

        Like with any other football movie that came before this one, they all have the basic film tropes such as having an underdog angle involve either a player or a team. The film fits the latter What separated this one among the others was that it leaned heavily at the racial angle. Now, we don’t see the N word be thrown around since it’s a Disney movie. More so that we see just how hot the level of contention between the players and the coaches have to put up with each other. 

        In some way, I feel this is mostly a movie about Coach Boone. He’s forced to coach a team that are at odds with each other. And he has to prove that he’s the one to lead them. And I’m glad that the contested areas aren’t exclusively to the players. Moments when Coaches Boone and Yoast are trying to remain calm in a game just represents how far they are trying to not kill each other metaphorically speaking. 

        The best moment in the film is when the team goes to training camp. We really see the method to the madness of how Coach Boone operates. More so that away from the gridiron, we see the camaraderie that the players develop. As always, there forced to room with each other which leads to fights. It was weird seeing Ryan Gosling be in this one, just before he made it big with The Notebook. I think the follow up scene is when the team hikes to where the site of the Battle of Gettysburg happened punctuates that the hatred everyone has is nothing compared to what happened. 

        I think what makes the film better aside from the players learning to tolerate each other is that they still live in an area where it’s still divided. It shows us that the players have learned to accept each other but the past doesn’t necessarily fixes it either. Like, it’s not hamfisted in an obscene way but just how this one team somehow made it work beyond everything that was happening. 

        If I have any faults with the movie is that it pulled a Gipper move. So what’s a Gipper, well it was a nickname for a player at Notre Dame that got famous when the coach gave a motivating speech to his team win the game for him. Halfway through the movie, one of the key players gets injured on the eve of the championship game. In some respects, I give the movie this where the coach doesn’t give a rousing speech to the team to win the game for the injured player. It’s a trope, but it’s one thing when reading about the actual events that the player in question got injured after the team won.

2. Legacy

        It felt like with the success of Remember the Titans, Disney planned more movies from every individual sport. You had others like The Rookie, Miracle about the 1980 US Hockey Team that beat the Soviets and Invincible to name a few that the studio had cornered the market with telling those stories. To me, I can’t confirm if that was the case or if everything was already greenlit but with Titans’ box office gross gave Disney more of a clear shot to move forward. What I do know is that among the live action films that the studio puts out, these are safer with getting critical and audience praise. 

3. Overall 

        Remember the Titans is one of the best football movies of the decade and the one to kick off the new century.