40 Days And 40 Nights Review

The phrase Down South assumes, ahem, gargantuan proportions as 40 Days And 40 Nights hits the halls. After flicks like American Pie and Austin Powers, you really thought that the ha-ha jokes about various south-side anatomical parts and fruits were over and done with, but when someone tries to shove raunch and romance together like in this flick, it really fails to, ahem, get it up.

Speaking of which, is it weird in here, or is it just me? No, it really is weird in here. And I actually thought that I had seen the last of pucker-face Josh Hartnett in Black Hawk Down.

Anyway, Matt (Hartnett), dot-commer and sentimental schumck, is mucho frusto after being dumped by his galpal for a better catch. Pining away for more reasons than one, he eases his hormonal urges by acting like a he-rabbit given the go-ahead by a she-rabbit - like a pooch that has just puddled, he hops from gal to gal not unlike a mountain goat on an Alpine Peak.

The fun starts when Matt decides to lay (ha ha ha) off sex for 40 days and 40 nights, during Lent season. This self-imposed celibacy gets his whacko roomie to launch a betting pool so that people can actually wager on whether this guy can really abstain from boinking for that long. Matt, of course, is blissfully unaware of this pool (and, for most parts of the movie, what his anatomy is upto).

He hits a dead end when he meets the drool-inducing custom-made Erica (Shannon Sossamon). He spends the rest of the movie falling in love with her and holding off his natural (ahem) urges, till he gets through the ghastly 40 days. What helps him not soften his resolve is also the bet that had been making the rounds of his office and the Internet.

The flick is not really that bad if you're about 15 and think that a whole lotta jokes about posteriors and anteriors are tickling. 40 Days... might have completely hit rock bottom if it weren't for the funny supporting crew and the medical tidbits that manage to elicit a couple of guffaws. The lines too don't exactly have the chasteness level of a Christmas play, and do involve a lot of T& A stuff.

I never had much hope for Josh Hartnett or his appalling choice of movies - does anybody remember him from Pearl Harbor and then Black Hawk Down? And now this! Talk about being a lemming on a suicide mission! He does manage to pass muster here, though, and does occasionally bring out the grins, even if he looks like someone just made him take in a particularly stinky pair of socks.

In sum, the movie is an object d' (f)art in its own dumb way, and if you have a day to kill or need a place to hide, then this might be a good option.