The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Unrated) (DVD)

I missed it in the theaters and for that I apologize off the bat. As I sit down to watch the Unrated edition of The 40 Year-Old Virgin I have no idea what scenes are new and which are old, all I have is the fact that this movie grossed over $109 million at the box-office and the only complaint I ever heard was that it was a smidge too long. Well, that length issue has been addressed with this version - it is now 17 minutes longer, and funny as hell to boot. So take that complainers!

Meet Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell). Andy is 40 years-old and works in the stock room of Smart Tech, a home electronics store. Andy has a passion for comic book collectibles and vdieogames. He does not have a car or a license, he rides his bike whenever he needs to get somewhere, and that works for him. Andy's life is never interrupted by the intricacies of life, or the drama of relationships. That is until the one night he accepts an invitation to play poker with his co-workers. Once the hands are dealt and the male conversation gets going Andy's true secret comes out, he is a 40 year-old virgin, and while his co-workers never really paid him much mind before, they have now made it their primary objective to get Andy laid ASAP.

A funny premise and a lot of laughs makes 40 Year-Old Virgin the second funniest film of 2005. Sorry, Wedding Crashers takes the cake and that one has an unrated DVD too.

Now, I said I couldn't tell what was not in the theatrical cut, but that isn't altogether true. The audio commentary with virtually the entire cast does give me a little heads-up on what footage is new along with giving a moderately entertaining commentary. You would think these guys would be more funny when the movie is 90 percent improv and 10 percent script, but they really seem sort of dull.

As for the rest of the special features there are a couple ways you can look at it, and I am going to look at it one way and not any other. The unrated version of the film comes with five features you will not find on the rated edition. First for the shared goodies.

Both the rated and unrated DVD features include a gag reel, an audio commentary, a "waxing" documentary, a feature called Line-O-Rama, a "You know how I know you’re gay" extended sequence, a "Date-a-palooza" extended sequence and some deleted scenes. Out of that group those that are worth the watch are the "waxing" documentary as you get a look behind the scenes as portions of Steve Carell's actual furry chest is waxed clean off. The gag reel is okay, but the extended sequences are just too long, they were edited down for a reason and the funniest stuff is in the movie, these deserved to be dropped, as did the deleted scenes. The Line-O-Rama feature is okay, but nothing too great, all it is, is a look at how many different ways certain scenes were done before deciding on the line that made the film. Some of these are funny, others are not.

Now, for the unrated features things are a bit different. First of course you have the additional 17 minutes added back into the film, you have a few more deleted scenes, these of course a bit raunchier, there is an "Andy's Fantasies" feature and finally a "My Dinner with Stormy" feature as Seth Rogen sits down for "dinner" with the blonde porn star Andy saw in his fantasies.

Out of this bunch the best has to be the "Andy’s Fantasies" feature, and this could have been tossed back in the film as both of the fantasies are R, almost NC-17, rated, and damned funny, which includes some full frontal nudity from Miss Stormy. Oo la la.

Overall this is an obvious buy, it isn't often movies can make me laugh anymore and this one did that and then some. Even though it ends on a cheesy note, just as did Wedding Crashers, everything that builds up to the finale is hilarious. Unrated DVDs rarely give you anything worth the term "Unrated", but this one throws caution to the wind and tackles the word head on, taking full advantage of its definition.