There was a point in my life where I was a fan of Judd Apatow. I thought his TV series “Freaks and Geeks” was genius, and “Undeclared” nearly so. But once he left the relative safety of television and started to make a name for himself on the big screen, I was less enamored with his work, both directorially and as a producer. Yet, somehow his film have taken off and made unlikely (and undeserved) stars of a great many actors and actresses. On the other side of the Hollywood coin, it has become commonplace for ‘spoofs’ to be made taking pot shots at date movies, scary movies, and epic movies. Whatever is most popular at the time is likely to get the farce treatment. Unfortunately a great many of these films are thrown together and while they are chock full of quick nods to popular movies, the filmmakers forget to throw in one important detail. Humor that is actually funny.

Apatow recently received this treatment with “The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.” (Going forward I will refer to it as “41YOVWKSMFSAI”, which admittedly is just as difficult to type, but takes up a little less room.

Bryan Callan (and otherwise able comedian) stars as Andy, the Steve Carrel-like nebbish who cannot get anywhere with the ladies. His life is filled with roommates, all of whom are caricatures of various characters we’ve seen in actual Apatow films, only far worse, dumber, and more sex crazed. When Andy meets Sarah (Mircea Monroe), his life takes a crazed turn as she ends up pregnant by another man and they all end up in Hawaii. At this point, the viewer must make the decision to turn off the movie and move on, or continue watching this train wreck. As I had to finish it due to it being my job, I can tell you I recommend taking choice A. The film simply never gets any better.

Like the majority of films in this genre, the idea is to throw out as many references to other movies as possible and this is exactly what it does. But again, devoid of any real humor. Everything is lowbrow, the timing is off, and the actors try a little too hard to get their characters right… if there is a ‘right’ to be had. I’ve enjoyed some of Callan’s other work, mostly on television, but even his normally bright eyed approach to comedy fails to elicit any laughs here.

As for the DVD, I cannot speak to the overall quality of the video or audio as I received a screener copy which usually does not match the quality of the finished product. There are a handful of special features, but most are of the “wow it was so great working with such a talented cast variety.” Nothing really of depth to speak of here.

“41YOVWKSMFSAI”,I have to say, does not come very highly recommended.

Directed by: Craig Moss
Starring: Bryan Callan, Mircea Monroe, Noureen DeWulf, Stephen Kremer Glickman
Specification: Widescreen
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 6/8/2010
MPAA Rating: Unrated

We'll give The 41 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It an F.