New comedies aren't playing in movie theaters. But old ones are?
Why are '40-Year-Old Virgin' and 'Trainwreck' back?
It wasn’t just a good idea to get out to the theater to see the new “Naked Gun” movie. It was treated as an almost noble enterprise to support a big-screen theatrical comedy when they seem so hard to come by in 2025.
To actually sit in a theater and laugh with a group of strangers, surely one of the great experiences of the movies, seems to be turning into a rarified experience at a time when the new “Happy Gilmore” movie is on Netflix and the new Will Ferrell movie made barely a blip on Prime Video.
So it’s a little surprising that, if we can’t get new comedies in theaters, we can still get old ones.
Starting this Friday, audiences can see two Judd Apatow movies, 2005’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and 2015’s “Trainwreck,” at the movies. And not just as a one-night-only Fathom Entertainment screening, but for a full weeklong run.
I suppose that, in the doldrums of late August at the movie theater, Universal is just throwing whatever at the screen and seeing what sticks. But it’s just a little strange given how tough it is for a new comedy to hit the big screen, to the point there seemed to be so much riding on “Naked Gun.”
Like, IMDb says Apatow’s next project (after his disastrous 2022 Netflix satire “The Bubble”) is going to be a “brand comedy” like “Unfrosted,” this one about the cola wars of the ‘80s. Is that going to play in theaters, or go straight to streaming?
If getting out on a late August night to see Steve Carell get his hairy chest waxed (for real) reminds audiences how good it is to see a comedy in a movie theater – and if it reminds studios that not everything at the multiplex has to be a superhero movie or a horror movie – so much the better.
I certainly liked both “Trainwreck” and “Virgin” when they came out. I loved “40-Year-Old Virgin” when I reviewed it for Madison’s Capital Times back in 2005, giving it four stars and putting it on my Top 10 list of the year. While the original review has been scrubbed from the Cap Times’ website, I found a copy of it still existed on the Madison.com site.
Here’s an excerpt. Man, I was over the moon for it.
“I can't remember a film that integrated R-rated laughs with heartfelt sentiment quite as well as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" does. The film is consistently hilarious from start to finish, hitting you with one hard, tears-inducing gag after another, but in chasing yuks it never once loses its warm-hearted spirit. It's the funniest movie so far this year, and in a year that includes the like-minded "The Wedding Crashers," that's saying something.”
(“Chasing yuks.” Oof.)
“As you might expect, a movie called "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" might build up to a certain key event in its climax, so to speak. And while I'm dying to tell you how it ends, I'll restrain myself. It's just so unexpected and outrageous and wonderful, a glorious capper to one of the best times at the movies this year.
“If you've stayed away from the movie theater in this summer of sagging box office returns, this is the one you've been saving yourself for.”
I was a little less enthusiastic about “Trainwreck,” in part because Amy Schumer had just finished a masterful season of her Comedy Central series “Inside Amy Schumer,” with instant-classic sketches like “Last F—able Day.”
From my original Cap Times review:
“If “Trainwreck” starred someone named Amy Smith, I would recommend it without hesitation. It’s a smart and sparkling romantic comedy with great writing and winning performances, and just enough of an edge to keep things interesting.
“But “Trainwreck” was written and stars Amy Schumer, who just completed one of the greatest, most fearless runs of television ever with the third season of “Inside Amy Schumer” on Comedy Central. So to see her in what is basically a traditional romantic comedy, even one that she wrote, seems a little constraining. She certainly belongs in the big-screen rom-com clubhouse. But she’s already created a much cooler clubhouse on her own.”
I’m curious how Apatow’s style of comedy, which emphasizes character and improvisation over plot, and balancing raunchy comedy with emotional sincerity, will play in 2025. Apatow himself once complained that stadium seating and big recliners in theaters aren’t conducive to comedy, that people need to be closer together and sitting up straighter to allow the laughter in a theater to become contagious.
But if getting out on a late August night to see Steve Carell get his hairy chest waxed (for real) reminds audiences how good it is to see a comedy in a movie theater – and if it reminds studios that not everything at the multiplex has to be a superhero movie or a horror movie – I’m not going to complain.
Good post, Rob, thanks. Years ago, I was listening to a podcast about the movie business and, much to my dismay, the guest (whom I have forgotten) said that small character dramas were essentially going to disappear from the theater and that these movies were now being made for direct-to-streaming.
For the most part, that's true. Is it the same for comedies?
Now that we can watch movies on a big screen at home, are the only films made for theatrical distribution the big-budget special-effect blockbuster popcorn movies? I'd understand if that was the case, but it's a little depressing, at least for those of us who love the theater.