Reviews for this film from our members:
- Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: …a bad sitcom pilot with only more self-centeredness and more vulgarity that would make HBO blush.
- Jason Bailey @ Salon
- Excerpt: It’s a stark autobiography and uncomfortable confession, where laughter is the casual byproduct of situation and personality (rather than the other way around) and dramatic beats ring painfully true.
- Chris Barsanti @ Film Racket
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Frequently great when it involves Rudd and Mann tossing barbs at each other… and just plain leaden whenever it’s doing anything else.
- Jesse Cataldo @ Slant Magazine
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Comedy producing/writing/directing juggernaut Judd Apatow shares his midlife crisis with Paul Rudd as his standin …and the irony may be that the film represents a midlife career crisis for the Apatow brand.
- Edwin Davies @ A Mighty Fine Blog
- Excerpt: It suffers from some of the issues of Apatow’s previous films – namely lumpy, uneven pacing – and anyone who hasn’t been won over by his past films is unlikely to be won over by this one. However, it is still his best film yet.
- Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: …succeeds at giving American comedic cinema another kind of neurotic couple to spotlight than the ones usually found in your average romantic comedy.
- Jim Dixon @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: Don’t be deceived by the fact that the trailers for “This is 40” open with footage from “Knocked Up.” Writer/director Judd Apatow is trying to make a more mature movie here. He hasn’t succeeded, but he is trying. “This is 40” is certainly his most ambitious movie to date. It’s also an overlong, self-indulgent and unfocused mess.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: [A] contrived and sometimes callous look at two people we’d rather not see again.
- Kate Erbland @ Film School Rejects
- Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk
- Excerpt: But aside from catching up with the wacky pair in their own spinoff movie, and with just a few years separating the two films, the film seems more like an expansion of the first movie rather than a separate film altogether.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Foul-mouthed and forced, it seems that Lifestyles of the Rich, Ribald and Rowdy has morphed into Lifestyles of the Selfish, Spoiled and Stressed.
- Daniel Kelly @ Danland Movies
- Excerpt: m not sure “This is 40” is as rewardingly courageous as “Funny People”, but it’s an enticing feature none the less.
- Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
- Josh Larsen @ LarsenOnFilm.com
- Excerpt: …an irate rant masquerading as a cute family project.
- [New – 10/3] | Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
- Excerpt: There are a lot of imitators these days of the Judd Apatow esthetic he established in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. One of those copy cats is Apatow himself. In This Is 40, Apatow turns his sense of entitlement and self-appreciation into a bloated, barely-believable mess barely saved by its leads.
- Matthew Lucas @ From the Front Row
- Excerpt: If Apatow makes us squirm while we laugh along, then he’s probably hit the nail right on the head.
- Piers Marchant @ Sweet Smell of Success
- Excerpt: Bittersweet really doesn’t do it justice — try a few uneven squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate.
- Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Like most of Apatow’s movies, it’s a half-hour too long and filled with too many side characters. Also like most of his movies, it’s often very funny.
- Jason McKiernan @ Next Projection
- Excerpt: On its face, this is a big comedy very much in line with the Apatow oeuvre up to this point. But dig a little deeper, and you uncover humanity that will instantly resonate with anyone who is trying to raise a family in this modern culture.
- Brent McKnight @ Beyond Hollywood
- Excerpt: Things I learned from THIS IS 40: Marriage is the worst thing that can ever happen to you, and turning 40 is pretty much dying.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Tiago Ramos @ Split Screen [Portuguese]
- Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: This Is 40 is a comedy like Raisin Bran is a box of raisins.
- Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: You have to wonder if writer-director Judd Apatow has seen the sad state of romantic comedies and determined to make it better. This is his best film since “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
- Marcio Sallem @ Em Cartaz [Portuguese]
- Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: If I was on a date with This is 40, I would thank it for the nice evening, ending it with a firm handshake and by leaving a fake phone number.
- Norm Schrager @ Meet In the Lobby
- Excerpt: … a narrative mess, a stack of repetitive story blocks hastily piled into a 2-hour-plus comedy. But it’s also really funny.
- Frank Swietek @ One Guy’s Opinion
- Excerpt: Only fitfully amusing and overall rather irritatingly self-absorbed.
- Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com [French]
- Phil Villarreal @ Becauseitoldyouso.com
- Excerpt: This is 40 feels more like the hyperextended pilot episode of a premium TV drama than a movie. No one comes of age, stops the evil land developer or kisses in the rain. After the credits roll, life goes on. Sure, it will suck, but it will be just funny enough to make it all worthwhile.
- Andrew Wyatt @ Look / Listen (St. Louis Magazine)
- Excerpt: Similar to Apatow’s other feature outings as a writer-director, This Is 40 is at its snappy best when it balances generous, almost riff-like comedic performances with sardonic observation into human relationships.
