Judd Apatow had already brought us well crafted comedies such as Talladega Nights, but his comedic prowess reached widespread recognition with The 40 Year Old Virgin. He capitalizing on a successful formula that he applied to two subsequent films as well, Superbad and Knocked Up. The formula is straightforward: an intelligent, well-scripted romantic comedy built on stereotyped yet real, relatable characters and the tangible relationships that the share. It’s this duality of comedy layered over a structure of believable, personable characters that we can relate to that makes Judd’s films so enjoyable, and so worth watching; you invest emotionally in the outcome; you get involved and you end up having your own emotional experience.

The premise of Virgin sounds like camp comedy at its best. Andy Stitzer (masterfully played by Steve Carrell) confronts his stigma of turning 40 years old and never having had sex, and so his work buddies connive various schemes to get him laid. Such a plot device could either be a recipe for a really good or a really bad movie. The typical Hollywood machine would be tempted to take the frat-boy approach and generate a boys-club flick clogged with dirty humor, lots of boobs, and beer, and no doubt with limited audience appeal. But Judd takes a different approach, and the result is almost two films in one; he starts out with what appears on the surface to be a story saturated with guy-humor and a series of ill-fated sex-capade attempts (all brilliantly executed, I should add). But then the story starts to take a turn towards the interpersonal when Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener), and his quest for consummation blends with his developing affection and their romance. And it’s during this second half that the film reveals its true colors, culminating in a triumphant finale that celebrates with '60s throw-back to the hippie days of free love with an Aquarius sing-along. Brilliant.

Now, despite the heartwarming message, The 40 Year Old Virgin has its share of blue humor and tasteless moments of unfiltered conversations about sex;. It’s not a movie to plop in the disc tray when your conservative parents are over to visit and I wouldn’t recommend it as a family flick to enjoy with the kids. But the film has a heart of gold, and it’s the perfect date movie if your partner isn’t too easily offended.

The Video: How Do The Discs Look?

Sadly, Universal has sourced this Blu-ray disc from what appears to the same low bit rate transfer used for the HD DVD. The picture has some noticeable edge enhancement throughout the entire film. So there are mild edge halos surrounding high contrast edges (like rooftops and balcony railings), but more bothersome is that this electronic tinkering has added a harsh, artificial glare to the entire picture. The result is something that does not look like film, but rather a cooked and over-processed picture, and it’s disappointing. Other than this criticism, the 1.85:1 picture is beautiful: reasonably sharp and detailed (though the edge-ringing obscures finely grained detail); fantastic color fidelity; and, solid black level. Let’s hope that the edge-sharpening was not applied to the digital intermediate and that a future Blu-ray edition can present a truly laudable picture. And to keep everything in perspective, the picture is more than watchable and is light-years better than the also edge halo contaminated and blurry DVD picture, so it's definite step-up from standard definition. It’s just that it could have been further improved by less heavy-handed processing.

The Audio: How Do The Discs Sound?

The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is tame, but spacious and realistically timbred, thanks to the lossless presentation. Dialogue is clear and the musical score is well balanced. By and large the presentation fits a conversation-oriented romantic comedy without raising any eyebrows. The surrounds are used appropriately for ambient fill and occasional effects. And the frequency response is full bodied with a nice bottom end when content demands it. The mix won’t give your home theater sound system a workout, but it will service this film just fine.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Just like Knocked Up, Aside from the U-Control PiP video commentary, Virgin recycles the DVD bonus material both in content and in standard defintion. Some of the content is definitely worth watching, but it’s always a bit of a let down when HD discs don’t also have HD bonus material.

The Audio Commentary with director Judd Apatow, actor Steve Carell, and a several cast members is interesting, although at times lacks on organized focus with all the participants chiming in. Actor Steve Carell has the most interesting insights to contribute. Fans should definitely check this out, along with the video commentary PiP feature if you have a Bonus View enabled player.

Next up are Judd’s Video Diaries (20 minutes), which document on-the-set daily progress. This feature is for serious fans only, although many viewers might enjoy perusing the 18 minutes worth of Deleted Scenes with optional commentary. Some of the deleted scenes are definitely worth watching, and if your guests don’t immediately get off the couch after the film credits roll, this is the feature to cue up. Similar to the deleted scenes, there are 19 minutes of Raw Footage cover material not included in the feature film; the feature shows unedited footage from three scenes.
In true promotional form, we’ve got 34 mintutes of Television Specials that include clips from Comedy Central’s Reel Comedy Roundtable and Cinemax’s Final Cut. These features will please fans who want comprehensive coverage of all material, but aren’t worth the time for casual viewers.
Worth every viewer’s attention are the 8 minutes of Audition footage for Jonah Hill, Elizabeth Banks, Romany Malco, Shelley Malil, Jane Lynch, Gerry Bednob, and Jazzmun. There’s also a five minute short Rehearsals showing alternate takes for a poker game scene. But one of my personal favorites is the extended cut of You Know How I Know You’re Gay?, which is fun, although it also demonstrates how aggressive editing actually improves the effectiveness of the joke in the final film. Two other brief shorts include the extended scene Date-A-Palooza (9 minutes) and the montage Line-O-Rama (6 minutes), which assembles some fun moments with Steve Carell.

Fans and casual viewers alike should investigate the group of three Featurettes (11 minutes total) consisting of My Dinner with Stormy, a Gag Reel, and the must-view Waxing Doc that covers the real-life event of actor Steve Carell having his chest hair waxed for the film. And of particular entertainment value is a 5 minute short titled 1970s Sex Ed Film; it should not be missed.

Final Thoughts

The 40 Year Old Virgin is a fantastic comedic entrée: entertaining, humorous, heartwarming, and ultimately tells a wholesome story that belies the unidimensional arc that the title might suggest. This 1080p picture, just like the HD DVD, is marred by edge halos that hold back this otherwise nice picture. Universal continues to impress with their commitment to providing lossless audio on all titles, and the bonus features, while not in HD, are plentiful and reproduce most, if not all, of the items available on the various DVD editions. The quality of this film alone recommends a purchase, and even given the criticism of edge sharpening, the Blu-ray Disc's picture is light years beyond the lackluster standard definition DVD picture. Enjoy.


Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide.  Our I.T. people are still hard at work on a large project and have not yet had the time to modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the new 0-to-10 rating scales.  So until they do, for HD on disc, I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.