The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Jane Lynch

Is sex really that important for an individual to be happy and in order to maintain a healthy relationship? If you would ask Andy (Carrell) he really wouldn't know because he is 40 and he is still a virgin, but that doesnt upset him at all. With failed sexual attempts in the past, Andy's mind has somehow managed to move on and not be affected by the opposite sex and has more or less turned him into a geeky loner. David (Rudd), Jay (Malco) and Cal (Rogen) are colleagues of Andy who learnt of Andy's virginity and have taken it upon themselves to ensure that he loses it. Each of them have their own way of tackling the issue and Andy ends up bearing the brunt of it. From picking up drunk girls, speed dating, chest waxing, shemales and everything else that comes along with it, Andy has tried it all. The movie is a hilarious take on attempted sexuality and can keep you rolling on the floor in splits. Steve Carrell does not attempt to make you laugh the way Jim Carey does, it just somehow manages to happen. The only pain point in the movie was its extended runtime which runs well over 2 hours. You really dont want a movie of its time to be so long and one would rather it be a movie you watch, enjoy and forget. The long runtime gives the movie a lot of slow moments that pulls the humour away to a point that you want it to now end and get over. Having said that, the movie is not a disappointment, far from it and is indeed something that would make you laugh hard, very hard.

Thumbs up: Steve Carrell and some really outstanding humour

Thumbs down: Too long a runtime

Rating: 7.3/10

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European Vacation (1985)

Genre: Adventure/Comedy/Drama

Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively

The Griswold family is back again, and this time they are on an European vacation. When Clark Griswold (Chase) and his family win a trip across Europe via their Pig in a Poke gaming show victory, it was a dream come true, only for Clarke. His son Rusty (Lively) and daughter Audrey (Hill) are not quite keen on the trip but are forced to come along on their parents' insistence. The trip turns out to be a string of unfortunate events. Under-promised hotel accommodations, car accidents, stolen cameras, a dog falling off the Eiffel Tower, Ellen (D'Angelo) being featured in a pornographic movie and a lot more. Sadly though, the movie fails to live up to any humorous expectations and can get quite boring. A stretched story line and nothing interesting to throw up makes the movie fall flat on its face. There seems to be little difference between this movie and the previous one in terms of the storyline. Both of them are based on the same Griswolds having a similar travel experience and with similar catastrophe. The movie fails to live up to the entertainment levels that the previous movie gave us and seems like a bad attempt at recreating the old magic.

Thumbs up: Nothing exceptional

Thumbs down: Bad humour, monotonous

Rating: 5.0/10

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American Pie Presents Band Camp (2005)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Eugene Levy, Tad Hilgenbrink, Arielle Kebbel, Jason Earles, Crystle Lighting, Mat Barr, Jun Hee Lee

In continuation to the American Pie movie series, the fourth installment sees a revision in cast and the brother of Steve Stiffler coming on as the main protagonist. Matt Stiffler (Hilgenbrink) wants to be just like his brother and aims at getting into making spy movies of college girls, again, just like his brother. His misbehavior at school sees him getting assigned to band camp, a boring and dull annual festival where the bands of various colleges battle it out for the ultimate victory. Elyse (Kebbel) is the band lead and also the very person against whom Matt had tried playing a prank and got sent to band camp in the first place. Matt is finding it extremely hard to fit in between the bandies and decides to make a spy movie with the help of his dorm mate, Ernie (Earles). With a revision in star cast and the lack of any decent storyline, the movie fails on almost all aspects. It lacks outright humour and any form of entertainment and fails to live up to the American Pie brand name. If you're expecting the fun that the previous movies had showcased then you are badly off the mark.

Thumbs up: Nothing specific

Thumbs down: More humour and a better story

Rating: 5.0/10

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Grand Masti (2013)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani, Ritesh Deshmukh, Manjari Phadnis, Karishma Tanna, Maryam Zakaria, Bruna Abdullah, Kainaat Arora, Pradeep Rawat, Sonalee Kulkarni, Suresh Menon

First step, collect all the famous gags and jokes from American Pie, Mr. Bean and Austin Powers movie, put them all together one after the other, hope that the audience has never seen those movies in the past, add loads of skimpy bikini clad girls and voila! Amar (Deshmukh), Meet (Oberoi) and Prem (Shivdasani) are good friends who have now moved on in life and are all married. Amar is unable to make love to his wife anymore ever since his son, Pappu came into this world. Meet's wife is his senior at work who is too involved with work to give him any attention and Prem's wife is extremely occupied with the house chores to spend time with him. Frustrated, the trio decide to attend their college re-union without their wives so they can get lucky with some college girls and once again re-live their happy days. The movie is an assortment of sleaze and random jokes that do not seem to blend with the story and exist only to supposedly entertain. An over-load of nonsensical humour coupled with horrible performances and a non-existing story, creates the perfect environment to walk out of the movie in the first 30 minutes itself. Yes, there is loads of eye candy in the movie to ogle at and if that is your objective of watching the movie then go ahead, else avoid at all costs.

Thumbs up: Nothing

Thumbs down: No story, too much sex

Rating: 3.0/10

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