Tuesday, January 1, 2013

This is 40

I am puzzled by This is 40. I am not sure what my true feelings on the film are. But I am going to try to break it down for you. I would first say that if you don't see this movie in theaters, you are wise. You won't miss anything seeing it on a smaller screen, and you won't have to deal with the possibility of annoying people in the theater. Which leads me to my first big point after viewing this quirky Judd Apatow movie.

1. Audiences can ruin a whole movie for you
This is a point that I have made before. Certain people in an audience can really ruin a film, whether the movie is worth anything or not. This movie was worth something, but was in no way laugh out loud funny all the way through. However, one girl behind me thought every comment was absolutely hilarious and laughed through the entire 2 hours and 13 minutes. Needless to say, I think I missed half a dozen jokes because of her hilarity.

2. It's not Judd's best film
We all know Judd Apatow, and most of us LOVE Judd Apatow; but this film was nowhere near his usual par of fantastic films. His name is linked to the funniest movies in the past decade including Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. These are films that are associated with the words: hilarious, hysterical, and best comedies around. But this was slightly off the mark. The casting was of course perfect, if you have seen Knocked Up you know the characters Pete and Debbie. This film is all about their lives when they reach the golden age of 40. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann are not the issues in this film neither are Apatow and Mann's daughters Maude and Iris. The problem with this film is that it's too realistic without being realistic at all.

3. Too Realistic Without Being Realistic At All
Let me break that down for you, because I am sure you know that makes no sense. The movies spans about a week in the lives of a couple who can't seem to get through twenty minutes without fighting. For a lot of couples, that is realistic. The situations that they face are realistic with the typical Hollywood extreme twists added to them. What's not realistic is all the events happening in a time span of seven days. The reactions of the people are also not realistic. The script has Hollywood written all over it.

I'm not saying don't see this film. I am saying: prepare yourself for a typical Apatow film loaded with language and be ready to think that an hour of the movie could have been left on the cutting room floor.   Because that's completely true. Most of all be prepared to laugh, because you will whether you like it or not. 

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