The 40 Year Old Virgin (Unrated)
HD DVD Title: The 40 Year Old Virgin (Unrated) Rated: Unrated (Theatrically R but extra scenes inserted in) Screen format: 1080P 1.85:1 VC-1 Encoding Studio: Universal First theatrical release: 19 August 2005 Previously released on DVD/BluRay: Multiple, including a 2 disk “Double your Pleasure” version that contained most of these extras Director: Judd Apatow Starring: Steve Carrell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd Sound Formats: English & French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Length: 2 Hours, 13 minutes Subtitles: English, French |
Plot: 3.5/5
Everyone remembers their first time, but hapless stereo store worker Andy Stitzer (Carrell) has managed to live to the ripe age of 40 without ever having sex, or having any friends who know he hasn’t had it. Andy’s life takes a sharp turn when his fellow employees figure out his secret, and make it their mission in life to help him overcome this challenge. While T40YOV certainly has its share of jokes and constant laughs, it does so wrapped in a morality tale that focuses on Andy’s own fears and triumphs as he breaks out of his shell and does the unthinkable: falls in love.
In this breakout role for unlikely leading man Carrell, improvisational riffs on the material produce the biggest laughs, most contributed by the band of misfits and trouble makers who start off as his co-workers and become his friends. While Cal (Seth Rogen), Jay (Romany Malco) and David (Rudd) contribute the lion’s share of the antics (often at the expense of their own dignity), it’s the unexpected scene stealing from Mooj (Gerry Bednob) that viewers will likely most remember. While love interest Trish (Keener) gets the higher billing, she is reduced to almost a miniscule role and produces the fewest memorable scenes and contributing very little to the humor.
Sound Quality: 4/5
While this is a dialogue driven comedy, and thus not having much in the bass end or in the way of split channel surround effects, the music alone makes this a real treat of a soundtrack. From the very moment this movie starts viewers will note the amazing musical arrangement as an eclectic mix of tunes burst out of the front sound stage to fill all corners in ways that they never have before, starting with Joe Walsh’s ‘Life of Illusion’ and somehow ending with the original cast recording of ‘The Age of Aquarius’… Even the repeated use of Michael McDonald as demo material in the Smart Tech store can’t bring down the energy that flows in James Brown’s ‘I got ants in my Pants’, ‘Joy’ by Apollo 100 or even the sentimental soul of Lionel Ritchie’s ‘Hello’. While composer Lyle Workman has valiantly added an inventive score, it is mostly overwhelmed by the songs we already know, as they are presented in a new light and also have the most impact.
Visual Quality: 4/5
In detail and color respects this film often floored me. It has a naturally light and vibrant look that matches the vibe of the film and this transfer nails what I expect was the look of the original print. While most scenes are pin sharp, there are some situations where several of the characters appear to be out of focus or are blurry either deliberately or due to bad cinematography, but it does not appear that this transfer is the cause of either.
I have heard others complaining about excessive edge enhancement and an aliasing effect, but on my own display these were not evident so I can only go by what I saw. I never noted any instances of grain, artifacts, dust or other elements that would be at all distracting. Even the night scenes did not exhibit excessive grain, they looked sharp and detailed as the rest of the film.
For me this is a very crisp transfer and anything that would have been annoying has been removed. I wouldn’t put it up there with the best transfers HD has to offer, but it is well balanced and a very good representation of the theatrical look.
Extra Features: 5/5
Now THIS is how HD should do extra features! First off, I know it’s silly to talk about the SLIP CASE that a disk comes in, but the one that this film is wrapped in is simply the best that I have ever seen used regardless of DVD or HD. It features a sliding window that does a quick change of Carrell that is very funny. Next up is the use of U-Control, which I absolutely hate but hey, at least it’s something new and exclusive to the HD and cannot be found on any other release of this film. About every 30 seconds a U-Control pop up allows you to watch a behind the scenes clip, and those that I watched were VERY good, but it is so completely mind numbing to have to watch a film a second time and be watching the lower right corner and HOPING to be fast enough to catch the start of the clip before you have to rewind it. This is a technology that either needs to figure out how to allow viewers to jump from one to the next clip or DIE. There’s a full length director’s commentary as well, which I did not delve into.
The film itself is the Unrated version which includes more raunchy scenes. All are integrated back in almost imperceptibly (tho some jumps are possible to catch if you are watching closely!) in full HD. There is also 15+ minutes of deleted scenes, all of which have optional director’s commentary.
Then there is the actual extras clips themselves, which are almost too numerous to list. Director Apatow includes his full daily video diary logs. There’s a selection of cast auditions. There’s the complete theatrical trailer for Apatow’s next film, Knocked Up, which stars Seth Rogen. There’s a profile of Carrell improvising his solo scenes in Andy’s apartment. Comedy Central provided a ‘Roundtable’ where cast and crew got together to discuss the film. Cinemax provided a behind the scenes profile from their Final Cut series. There is an extended look at the Poker scene which is pivotal to Andy revealing his secret.
My favorite extra has to be the improv setups tho. Apatow has the actors nail the scene the way the script calls for it to be done and then just burns film like crazy letting them riff on the material off the cuff. Some of the ones that they come up with are even better than what was used in the film and including them here is a real treat. After that there’s a ton more I haven’t had a chance to dig into yet. All are presented in standard definition but look great.
Overall: 4/5 (not an average)
In a nutshell this disk redefines how studios can and should treat their films as they are released on HD. While The 40 Year Old Virgin has a lot of fun moments and good laughs, it isn’t one of Universal’s most treasured classics. Among the genre of raunchy comedies it’s got a lot of appeal and because of its wide target audience it can probably be marketed to make a big splash, but this kind of treatment needs to expand to the films that deserve it more. On my system it looked absolutely great and I was very impressed with the musical arrangement, add in to that the ton of extras and you have a winner of a disk. If only the U-Control wasn’t such a nightmare to actually use, it could be even better. Recommended!
