Quick Thoughts - The 40-Year Old Virgin (2005)

11/23/13: Judd Apatow has never been one for brevity, and I stand by Shakespeare's adage that brevity is the soul of wit. Nobody ever asked for a longer comedy, or to expand on a punchline, but unfortunately that's exactly what Apatow loves to do. However, the premise of The 40 Year-Old Virgin is sound, and Apatow also excels at deeply character-based comedy, so even when he hammers the nail a little too hard, it's always in service of building something bigger than the obvious, gimme jokes that the concept would be chock-full of had somebody else been in charge. It's not perfect, and its long run-time invites Apatow's signature get-on-with-it-already third-act issues, but its plenty funny on the way there, and surprisingly original, too. ***

Secretly Awesome - The Cable Guy

Release Date: June 14, 1996

Director: Ben Stiller

Writer: Lou Holtz Jr.

Cast: Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, Leslie Mann, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Andy Dick, Janeane Garofalo, George Segal, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross

Box Office: $60,240,295

Rotten Tomatoes: 54%

The Cable Guy is the black sheep of the early Jim Carrey filmography, failing to meet expectations set by his earlier work, like The Mask and the Ace Ventura films. I don't know how recently you've seen any of those films, but some of them really don't hold up very well, while The Cable Guy just gets better with age. Between Carrey's over-the-top neediness, the film's darkly bizarre silliness, or simply images like Carrey rubbing the spot on Matthew Broderick's wall where he'll install the cable like it's a nipple, I honestly don't know what's not to love about it.

Continue Reading on Cinemit.com...