This Is 40 DVD Review

Director: Judd Apatow

Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow, Chris O’Dowd, Jason Segal, Lena Dunham, Megan Fox, Melissa McCarthy, John Lithgow

Rating: 15

Extras: TBA

Running Time: 134 minutes

Judd Apatow’s career is a collection of hits and misses. If the hits work, they are blinding, but the misses go down like a lead balloon. THIS IS 40 falls bang in the middle, and as such it’s hard to make much of the film.

If you have seen the predecessor to THIS IS 40, KNOCKED UP, you know just how much more interesting Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s characters were, but the sequel makes you realise that just because somebody was interesting doesn’t mean you have to make a bloody long sequel about it. In KNOCKED UP, they seemed the most controlled out of everybody, but with age becomes the utter demise of any capability in life by the looks of it, and you end up doing things like shouting at your children while trying to give your husband a blowjob because you want a cigarette. It’s funny sure, but it’s desperate, and that seems to be the whole film. It falls into sitcom like capability, and maybe it would work better that way but instead they have put it into a movie that runs for more than two bleeding hours.

Fortunately the cast lift the story into watchable territory. The mixture of old faces and new really come together, and while Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann have great onscreen chemistry they are often pushed under the rug by their supporting cast. The MVP of the movie does go to Maude. While the character comes off the most brattish, Maude’s over the top shouting and love for all things musical and Nicki Minaj really makes her the most likeable. The same goes for her little sister in the movie, who has the perfect mixture of naivety and token ‘child that knows too much’ role. We would say we would love to have a sequel based on these two, but looked what happened when we wished for a sequel on Pete and Debbie.

THIS IS 40 has some funny parts, but in reality it is a drawn out, celebrity cameo fuelled bonanza that could have worked if it was on a smaller screen. But the most annoying thing is is that it still comes up a million times better than any other studio comedies that are around.

THIS IS 40 is available on DVD and Blu-ray now