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Okay, they got me. This one's funny. Granted, you do need to put up with an opening half-hour of stupid crap like guys saying oh-so-true funny things about sex and some feeble gross-out gags, but it gets good after that and stays good.

Steve Carell couldn't have been cast better in the lead, so it makes sense that he wrote this for himself, but the real gems here are those who tackle their once unclaimed roles with a vengeance -- Paul Rudd, Catherine Keener, the black dude who's not listed on the poster credits and hence will have to go unnamed for now, and the white goth chick who plays Keener's teen daughter and will just have to settle for the same treatment.

Once the novelty of the fact that this guy's a virgin is done being beaten to an exhausting death, a love story begins here that holds up as involving, giving some absolutely hilarious moments the advantage of surprise. What works for this one is that, while the general plot is pretty straightforward, it never shies away from being unabashedly phucking absurd when a window is opened. It's got a nice message that will likely be shot down as kooky by the same insecure retards that the film itself ridicules, but it makes sure not to take itself seriously (which a few too many "comedies" do these days).

The garbage unloaded within the first act is what made the "sex comedy" "American Pie" so obviously written by an actual virgin, garbage like characters spewing out facts about sex that are supposed to be funny because they're "sooo true!" but just... aren't. Then there's the bad habit the movie has in that segment of acknowledging its own jokes, as if we didn't catch how gross something is until a character sarcastically comments on it.

It seems though as if a real virgin wrote the first act and then handed the writing job over to someone who's lived 40 years and had stuff like sex and a relationship or two, because all of a sudden the wacky-yacky humor takes a back burner to humor that, while poking plenty of fun at it, captures the reality of a date, a confused teenage girl, and other jazz that actually has to do with people and some stuff they might bump into outside of a movie theater. It's the humanity of the flick that gives it its well-earned right to go absurd at this point, and go absurd it does. I won't spoil the end, but let's just say you've likely had one hell of a bad day if you don't lose it over how blatantly moronic a laugh can be. This is one to put you in a better mood than when you entered the theater.

(four bongs)

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