This is 40... This is awful!

      I recently saw This Is 40 and I have never been more disappointed in a movie theatre. The movie is basically a sequel to Knocked Up but with a different cast. The main "plot," if you could call it a plot, was about the struggles of an upper middle class marriage. To begin, the cast is really not likable and the supporting cast members are a constant reminder about how dull the main characters are. I think that the casting was poorly done and casting is one of the most important aspects of a film. The character development was very weak which made it hard to follow throughout the movie.
     
      The length did not help at all. A slow comedy like this should not be just shy of two and a half hours long. My friends and I were almost praying for the end to come, but the film just kept adding more and more inner stories to the major story. There were a lot of forced conclusions to the inner conflicts. I think Judd Apatow was trying to be too adventurous with this film and it did not pay off. Plus, every humorous part was shown in the credits, so there were barely any surprising laughs throughout the film. I do not understand why a movie would spoil itself before it even premiers. I think that there were a lot of unnecessary scenes that did not move the plot along at all. Along with a lot of unnecessary plot lines, there was also a lot of forced humor, which is very unlike Judd Apatow's movies.

      I was truly excited for this movie, but it really let me down. In the trailer a critic said that "This is by far a Judd Apatow's best movie!" It was the worst by far. The movie was just like a hear beat monitor. It went up then flatlined, then up and flatlined again throughout the entire movie. I wish the film settled on a certain genre instead of switching between a comedy and a drama the entire time. If you could not tell, I was very dissapointed and I really want Judd Apatow to surprise me with a great film in the future.

There is still hope.