Friday, August 19, 2005

Movie Reviews of 2005 #16 - The 40 Year Old Virgin

I went into work last night {8/19} wondering which of the three films we had received would be one that I get trained on how to "quality check" for dry-runs. It was a choice of Red Eye, Valiant, or 2 prints of 'The 40 Year-Old Virgin.

For those that do not know what a dry run is. What normally happens when a movie opens on a Friday, for instance, the theatre will get the print the previous day, {Thursday}, and do what is called a "build" of the movie. This consists of taking the four to eight reels of film out of the cans & splice them into one big ass reel with all of the trailers & things attached as well. While doing this the person building the print also attaches cue marks for the slides to turn off, the lights to dim, and them dim again when the feature starts. And then the reverse at the end of the show.

The dry run is when somebody has to fill out documentation of all the cues, trailers, splices, correct sound & visual format, time out all of the reels, and overall make sure that the presentation is ok for public viewing. So if something is bad with the print, it gets fixed, or will be fixed by the first show Friday morning. It may just be fixing a splice, or correcting a mechanical problem with things. Or having to overnight. {keep in mind if reel #5 in a 8 reel show is scratched, the order is made normally around 3-3:30 AM, delivered & put back into the show for an 11am showing - not easy!} So we get to see movies literally first run, & sometimes a whole day before it opens.

Anyway! As by the title of my post you probably figured out which show I got to see.

AND IT WAS A BLAST! When I 1st saw the teasers for 40 YOV I thought "this could be good, but given the crap that has been coming out of late, it has a 90% chance of severe suckassedness. BOY, was I pleasantly surprised!

It is a story of a 40 year-old stockroom clerk that gets busted by his friends, by telling a "nasti sex experience" story during a poker game when his turn came up. They discovered his deep dark secret . . . . That he is still a virgin.

From there the buddies try to get him laid. And a lot of best laid plans, went totally bad. This is where most of the humour comes from in the movie, but it isn't the Porkey's & American Pie kind of stuff. This is actually funny because it is funny on it's own.

Much of the laughs are from the fact that most everyone can associate with the awkwardness of 'the first time', and uncomfortable fear of things not going as planned. And with that we can sit watching & knowing how this guys feels in this situation.

I REALLY want to get into the details of the show, but I cannot do that without giving away many spoilers.

But I will say this. If you are a fan of the musical "Hair", you will definitely walk out of the theatre with a smile on your face.

Blessed Be,
Dr. S.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cool insite to how the shit actually works!

Thanks for the review, We'll go see it tomorrow.