40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) Reviews

• Spoiler : Highly offensive ending...

  follower-fillet2002-07-22

  Spoiler: While most of the offensive and insulting material in this film is unsurprising and rather dependent on one's moral point of view I have to agree with HEP632 and Malmir comments regarding the final scene with the lead character and his ex-girlfriend. It is inexcusable that this rape scene is treated so casually.

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• rape is never OK

  astev9tu2005-05-22

  OK, so the movie wasn't great. Not bad, but not great either. I'm sure you've read a million plot summaries by now. Some good laughs, some cheesy dialogue... (what follows is a spoiler, but I recommend you read it before seeing the movie) And then comes the rape scene. Thank you to all the other comments posted acknowledging that rape is bad. Having non-consentual sex with a bound, drunk, delirious ex-lover? This is what passes as OK in Hollywood these days? The worst part is the fact that not only is the fact that it was rape never mentioned in the rest of the movie, but the victim is held responsible! I actually signed up for an IMDb account JUST to condemn this film. I'm sickened by having watched that filth.

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• I didn't know the 21st century looked like this!

  hep6322002-03-14

  It doesn't take much to get me to go to a movie, and I had high hopes for a movie with a) Josh Hartnett, and b) a clever premise. I looked forward to insightful and funny commentary about the relationship between sex and love and men and women in our post-modern world. What I got was breasts. Lots and lots of breasts. While the movie does a fairly good job (by Hollywood standards) of including a panoply of attractive women instead of a cookie-cutter ideal, the women are ultimately reduced to meaningless bodies that crave the "power" that sex supposedly gives them. WARNING: WHAT FOLLOWS IS A COMMENT ABOUT THE END OF THE MOVIE, WHICH IS SOMEWHAT RELEVANT TO THE PLOT. SO DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW. I could go on in that vein for hours, but what REALLY made me almost walk out on this film is the fact that Matt, the hero, is RAPED by is ex-girlfriend in the final minutes of the movie. Did nobody at the studio recognize that act for what it is? If the gender roles were reversed in that scene, it would have totally changed the mood and content of the film. As it was, I kept waiting for Matt, or ANYBODY, to call the police. Instead, movie goers get a happy ending where Matt's new girlfriend finally FORGIVES HIM FOR BEING RAPED. Hooray for Hollywood. I guess it's not even safe to go to romantic comedies anymore. Sigh.

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• Enjoyable, BUT...

  Susie-72003-04-13

  Overall, I enjoyed this film. I liked the leads and thought they had good chemistry, and while not as funny as, say, American Pie, I did find many of the jokes amusing. However, there was one aspect of the film that really bothered me, which I notice has been mentioned by others as well. (SPOILER WARNING) Now, if a woman was handcuffed to a bed and sleeping and somewhat delirious and her ex-boyfriend showed up and had sex with her, when she is clearly in no position to give consent, few people would hesitate to label that as rape, and it certainly would not go without mention and condemnation in the film. Yet Nicole rapes Matt, and the only issue that seems to arise is how he screwed up. Excuse me? Granted, blaming the rape victim is not a new concept, but one would hope in this day and age it doesn't find its way into films, at least not without suitable counter statements being made. Male rape is a serious issue that is rarely dealt with as such, and movies like this tend to reinforce the erroneous belief that male rape doesn't exist, except in prison, or Deliverance. Maybe we shouldn't expect this movie to have any great social impact, challenge the views of the establishment, but acknowledgement that SOMETHING wrong had happened (other than Matt "screwing up") would have been nice. I seriously hope Nicole didn't get to collect on her bet. Also, someone suggested that it was unrealistic for Matt not to have woken up before he had an orgasm. I'm not a guy, so I can't speak from experience, but there are such things as wet dreams. It seems to me that was essentially what Matt had, only unbeknownst to him, he had a little help. (That's actually what I found unbelievable; surely he would have long since had a wet dream on his own. But it's a movie.)

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• Is it still funny if we flip it round.

  Chewbaccy2005-08-02

  Over the years there have been many chauvanistic male movie characters who produce stereotypical images to the viewers. However if we look at 40 days and 40 nights and flip the plot around so that it is a girl who has to go the aforementioned length of time without having sex and we no longer have a comedy but an extremely offensive movie. ***PLOT (if you can call it that) SPOILERS!!!! Take the scene where the girl tries to seduce him on the photocopier or the two girls in the store room who kiss. I am not a prude in any way but if those scenes were reversed and it was a female on the receiving end then the scenes would have had a far darker meaning. And lets not even go near the scene at the end where the ex-girlfriend ruins the mission so to speak. Once again flipped around this would surely be rape. Which begs the question is it funny? I don't think so. Yes it is only a teen comedy and maybe I should lighten up somewhat but where the American Pie films had a certain charm and illustrated the prat falls for both men and women, 40 days and 40 nights went for morally questionable gags to sell the movie.

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