If "This is 40" do you make it to 41?

*I'll start off this with the disclaimer that I am not 40, nor do I pretend to be


"This is 40" the newest film from director Judd Apatow is an improvement on his last movie "Funny People" but has the common flaw of the later as it doesn't quite know if it wants to be an all out comedy or a dramedy. The movie follows the story of Debbie and Pete from Apatow's second film "Knocked Up". Debbie and Pete are played masterfully by the always dependable Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (no relation sadly). The title of the movie says it all as the movie is basically about how the couple deals with becoming 40, Pete is more or less ok with this fact but Debbie struggles with this idea of getting old and even goes so far as to convince herself and everyone around her that she is actually 38, or maybe 37...

There are some truly funny scenes here, one in particular involves an intimate act between Debbie and Pete behind a locked door while their two kids yell and scream for their attention from the other side. The cast is almost an Apatow dream team, Chris O'Dowd and Melissa McCarthy from "Bridesmaids" pop up for extended cameos as well as Jason Segal reprises his role from "Knocked Up" in a part that could have been much funnier than it is. Lena Dunham from Apatow's crushingly funny HBO show "Girls" is also here in a limited role, I feel that the movie would have benefited from O'Dowd and Dunham having larger roles as Petes co-workers at his record label, again missed opportunities.

A big problem in the last two Apatow films has been the running time. Both "40" and "Funny People" clock in at well over two hours when they could have easily been edited down to a more standard run time. Blame this on either the fact that most of the dialogue is improvised or that there are too many ideas going around and the director feels it necessary to include all his ideas, and friends in the movie. "40" is probably most relatable to those who are over or closing in on that magical(?) age of 40. Mann is in fact Apatow's real life wife and his two kids are again playing their same roles from "Knocked Up" both kids can act but there are long scenes where it just looks like home movies, I'd like to see Apatow's next project be something not semi autobiographical. Megan Fox also appears as one of Debbie's employees at her clothing store but Fox has the same problem as Jessica Biel, she looks great but brings nothing to the table acting wise, I felt she would have been better suited as one of the mannequins in Debbie's store.

"This is 40" will ring true to a lot of people of that age and even those of us still in our 20's. There is no question that you will laugh a lot during this movie. Apatow started off his directing career with such a bang with "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up", with "Funny People" and "40" he seems to be almost teetering into Schmaltzy territory lately and while "40" is not a bad movie it isn't great either, maybe he should give Steve Carell a call...