lifebsideben

I bought the 40-Year-Old Virgin DVD right before the parents came to visit in December, but didn’t get a chance to watch it before they showed up. While they were here I offered, but they said they had recently rented it and only got through 15 minutes of it before giving up, thinking it was too stupid/not funny/?. This is the same thing they said about Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, so I almost took that as a good sign. But, still didn’t get a chance to actually pop the badboy into the player until a few days ago.

It started a little slow, at least to Val, who wasn’t sure she was going to like this at all… but I was warming to it quickly. First of all, if you’ve ever worked at a retail, especially commission-based, electronics store (I gave my pound of flesh at a mall Radio Shack in 1989), you recognize the personalities and total disregard for anything resembling professional behavior exhibited. Ah, the days of “restocking” (nothing where it actually went) and “closing up for the manager” (watching folks rifle through the inventory looking for stuff to steal extended demo at home), or “going to the bathroom” (hitting on girls working in the clothing stores… [Val if you read this: that was everyone else]).

Anyhow, I was impressed. Momentum continued to build, the laughs were consistent, and I know someone exactly like the Virgin. Well, except that he’s not a virgin… but he’s got everything else down. Let’s see:

• huge sci-fi memorabilia collection, with special shelves
• awesome videogame setup
• lots of premium electronics
• anal about his belongings
• shy with the ladies

On the other hand, he’s almost always had a serious girlfriend as long as I’ve known him, so I guess it’s not a total match, but hey. (Rich I still love ya man!)

By the time of the final “Age of Aquarius” scene, we were rolling. Nice work. I took a quick peek at some of the extras and the gag reel in particular was pretty funny. There’s a lot of other goodies included, so we’ll definitely be revisiting this disc. So I guess this proves it after my years of proclamation: my parents are officially old, crazy, or both.
[rate 4.5] Wow, really? Yeah… check it out!