Review of "This is 40"

A film with a star-studded cast is an exciting but skeptical thing and it seems like Judd Apatow took his pick of the Hollywood litter for his newest flick, This is 40. Before I begin my analysis of this Christmas-time rom-com, I will be straight forward and state that I wasn't a huge fan of the "sort-of prequel" Knocked Up. Nevertheless, my 90's born affinity for Paul Rudd insisted This is 40's place on my Christmas movie must-see list.

This is 40
Starring: Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Megan Fox
Directed by Judd Apatow
My Opinion: Not enough funny for two hours, 
but I laughed a lot

This is 40 is about a pinnacle time in a married couple's lives. In the same week, Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) are both faced with the big four-o. Financial difficulties arise a long with crises of the mid-life kind and romantic stresses: everything that you'd expect to come with the end of youth, and I guess for Judd Apatow, that also means a plethora of funny pudgy guys (Jason Segel, Chris O'Dowd, Robert Smigel) and one heaping spoonful of eye candy (Megan Fox). Yeah, it was a pretty typical male-oriented Apatow comedy with one very important ingredient missing. This is a romantic comedy, and that means it needs to be for the ladies too. But it's not. The male perspective dominates. Despite the fact that the film is about a couple, we're hardly exposed to Debbie's side of things, aside from her fear of her perfect body sagging or a missing twelve grand from her boutique. Newsflash Apatow: women go through intellectual mid-life crisis too. But, we are only exposed to Pete's emotional and intellectual battle with forty. I don't feel like this is forty for Debbie.

In addition to this predictable flaw, there were several unnecessary additions. I've already mentioned the over-abundance of guys that had to be funny in order to get a date because they were too pudgy to rely on their looks. There were just too many and not enough space for each to exhibit their own little quirks. It was the least funny I've probably ever seen Jason Segel, of whom I'm a huge fan. Also, I will say that Apatow needs to get over Lena Dunham a little. She added nothing except for another awkward moment where she talks about her sex life and adding a "hipster tone" to Pete's record business. Otherwise she was just kind of randomly there... And it was kind of awkward. And why was it Christmas? That added nothing but a stale, sad little Christmas tree sitting in the background. I know I'm coming down really hard, but it was also too long. The film felt like a really long argument.


OK, this was a really negative review and you're probably wondering why there are two eyeballs. Even though there were too many actors vying for the spotlight, the ones that mattered did a really good job. Melissa McCarthy is amazing. She's fucking amazing and I fucking love her. Fuck. It was still really funny at moments and adorable at others. I'll never watch this movie again though, unlike many of Apatow's former films.