Posts tagged Judd Apatow

“Can Just Be Skipped”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

This Is 40 is written and directed by Judd Apatow, and some are calling it a sequel to his 2007 Knocked Up, but it is only an elaboration of two of the characters in that earlier movie.

Paul Rudd plays Pete, and Leslie Mann plays Debbie, and she also happens to be Apatow’s wife.

Pete and Debbie have two daughters, Sadie, who is 13, and Charlotte, who is 8, and they also happen to be the real daughters of Apatow and his wife.

But before you start thinking, “Oh, isn’t that nice,” be aware that the language used by the two girls is so profane that they wouldn’t even be allowed to see their own movie in the theater.

Not that they, or anyone else, for that matter, should want to see this movie.

Pete and Debbie are both turning 40 in the week of December 5, and the movie opens with a scene of both of them in the shower, but the conclusion is not expected, and we hear, “That is the worst birthday present you could ever give anyone.”

Yes, the beginning is gross, but supposed to be funny, which could also be said about the entire movie.

Then we get a cliche scene about Debbie’s birthday cake, which claims that Debbie is only 38, and Pete explains to the daughters that their mother doesn’t want to be 40, and so the cake indicates 38.

You couldn’t write this stuff, and if you read a recent story about Apatow, it might not have been written, because the story says that Apatow likes to shoot a lot of footage of the actors improvising the scene, and if Apatow thinks the improvisation is good, he will go back and keep shooting the scene with the new ideas until he has what he wants.

And even then, that scene might not make it into the final cut.

Meanwhile, back to the movie, we see Pete planning his own elaborate birthday party, Debbie having to figure out if one of her employees is stealing money from the store, the girls constantly fighting while being obsessed about watching episodes of the old “Lost” television series, many references to modern celebrities and excessive use of modern technology, and disjointed scenes that don’t really fit together.

This Is 40 can just be skipped.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”