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This Is 40: The Shooting Script
Five years after Judd Apatow introduced us to Pete and Debbie in Knocked Up , Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles as the couple in the writer/director's This Is 40 , a comedic look at the everyday life of an American family. What emerges is a portrait of the challenges and rewards of marriage and sex and romance, career triumphs and financial hardships, aging parents and maturing children and everything in between. This Is 40 captures what it takes for a family to flourish in the middle of a lifetime together, rendered with the unique intimacy of a filmmaker collaborating with his own wife and children. The Newmarket Shooting Script Book
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2012
About the author
Judd Apatow
22 books286 followersJudd Apatow is an Emmy Award-winning American film producer, screenwriter, director and former stand-up comedian. He is best known for producing a distinct series of critically and commercially successful comedy-style films, including Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked Up, Superbad, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Pineapple Express, and Funny People. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the critically acclaimed cult television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 31, 2021
Great dialogue. I wish I could cuss as effortlessly and with as much wit as these characters do.
June 21, 2025
This is 40 – The Shooting Script by Judd Apatow – the best review on my blog is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
8 out of 10
The Oscars ceremony took place last night, and Anora won big time, Sean Baker became the first man to receive four Academy Awards for the same film – as producer, for Best Motion Picture of The Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Film Editing, furthermore, Mickey Madison was rewarded for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading role, and This is 40 is just about
- As good
I am joking, although I have not been overwhelmed by Anora, first of all, the Russians in there seem to be too stupid to be credible, yes, I know, it is a Raunchy Comedy – I had to look up raunchy and this is what I have ‘energetically earthy and sexually explicit, Similar: seductive, but for US ENGLISH, we have shabby or grubby’
Hence, in a comedy, protagonists stumble, fall downstairs, sit on a toilet (that is from This is 40 - I need to remember that I took that as the subject of the note, but if a spoiler alert is still needed, then I warn you that I will not stay ‘on message
Also, I did not find the ending of Anora compelling – now, how about this, we have a sort of spoiler alert above, and the, if I give the story of another movie, does that count, I will say that the sex there, in the finale…
- This is not what happens in real life
I mean, she was so thrilled – in love? – by the Russian son of an oligarch (an oxymoron otherwise, these people are ghouls, they invade Ukraine, but this is more of a joke, not all Russians, white people, Vietnamese or any kind of group that you take has good and bad within) and then hey, presto, there is another romance?
Is this serious?
And the feeling is so intense, the attraction so febrile that they cannot wait, they have to do it then and there?
Let me try and put in a few words about This is 40, I have said that it is about as good as Anora, which is an allegory, Anora is better, it won the Palme d’Or in 2024, and that prize is the most relevant, a better indicator than the Oscars
Over the past few years, we have had two motion pictures, Anora and Parasite https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... that have won both
- The Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Film
Revenons a nos moutons – in This Is 40, Paul Rudd is Pete and Leslie Mann is Debbie, they are married and will turn 40 soon, albeit the wife does not want to admit to it, and the humor comes from the confusion
At the doctor, she has declared a few years for her day of birth, they get along quite well, one could envy that relationship – she even offers felatio at some stage, although the two daughters come banging at the door…
Climax is missed, and instead, we have another moment of (dark for Pete) humor, there is also the bathroom kind, literally, Pete sits a lot on the toilet, with his iPad, to escape from his duties, I assume, though I may be wrong
They have trouble on the horizon, Debbie controls this shop where she has an incredibly sexy employee, who sold clothes worth nine thousand per month, however, she is also suspected that she may have stolen 12k
Desi has a new car, lives in an expensive place, but the explanation is not that she is a thief – she has sex at the shop, and we can see her on the security cameras – instead, we see that she is an escort and has 20 clients per year
Meanwhile, Pete has left Sony, to launch a start-up, he has a small record company, but he is in danger of losing so much, they may have to sell the house, his father, always remarkable Albert Brooks is asking for money
Indeed, Albert Brooks is sixty or so, but he has three children that are what, four, and he does not remember their names, they are too much for him to handle – then there are those planes that fly every eight minutes
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
8 out of 10
The Oscars ceremony took place last night, and Anora won big time, Sean Baker became the first man to receive four Academy Awards for the same film – as producer, for Best Motion Picture of The Year, Best Achievement in Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Film Editing, furthermore, Mickey Madison was rewarded for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading role, and This is 40 is just about
- As good
I am joking, although I have not been overwhelmed by Anora, first of all, the Russians in there seem to be too stupid to be credible, yes, I know, it is a Raunchy Comedy – I had to look up raunchy and this is what I have ‘energetically earthy and sexually explicit, Similar: seductive, but for US ENGLISH, we have shabby or grubby’
Hence, in a comedy, protagonists stumble, fall downstairs, sit on a toilet (that is from This is 40 - I need to remember that I took that as the subject of the note, but if a spoiler alert is still needed, then I warn you that I will not stay ‘on message
Also, I did not find the ending of Anora compelling – now, how about this, we have a sort of spoiler alert above, and the, if I give the story of another movie, does that count, I will say that the sex there, in the finale…
- This is not what happens in real life
I mean, she was so thrilled – in love? – by the Russian son of an oligarch (an oxymoron otherwise, these people are ghouls, they invade Ukraine, but this is more of a joke, not all Russians, white people, Vietnamese or any kind of group that you take has good and bad within) and then hey, presto, there is another romance?
Is this serious?
And the feeling is so intense, the attraction so febrile that they cannot wait, they have to do it then and there?
Let me try and put in a few words about This is 40, I have said that it is about as good as Anora, which is an allegory, Anora is better, it won the Palme d’Or in 2024, and that prize is the most relevant, a better indicator than the Oscars
Over the past few years, we have had two motion pictures, Anora and Parasite https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... that have won both
- The Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Film
Revenons a nos moutons – in This Is 40, Paul Rudd is Pete and Leslie Mann is Debbie, they are married and will turn 40 soon, albeit the wife does not want to admit to it, and the humor comes from the confusion
At the doctor, she has declared a few years for her day of birth, they get along quite well, one could envy that relationship – she even offers felatio at some stage, although the two daughters come banging at the door…
Climax is missed, and instead, we have another moment of (dark for Pete) humor, there is also the bathroom kind, literally, Pete sits a lot on the toilet, with his iPad, to escape from his duties, I assume, though I may be wrong
They have trouble on the horizon, Debbie controls this shop where she has an incredibly sexy employee, who sold clothes worth nine thousand per month, however, she is also suspected that she may have stolen 12k
Desi has a new car, lives in an expensive place, but the explanation is not that she is a thief – she has sex at the shop, and we can see her on the security cameras – instead, we see that she is an escort and has 20 clients per year
Meanwhile, Pete has left Sony, to launch a start-up, he has a small record company, but he is in danger of losing so much, they may have to sell the house, his father, always remarkable Albert Brooks is asking for money
Indeed, Albert Brooks is sixty or so, but he has three children that are what, four, and he does not remember their names, they are too much for him to handle – then there are those planes that fly every eight minutes
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
October 10, 2022
This book was not what I expected. I guess I set my expectations too high. The book is about relationships within a family. Yes, relationships can be tangled and trying and that is the meat of the book.
January 5, 2023
A great script that hits a little differently these days.
March 31, 2024
I wasn’t a fan of the beginning, and the end felt a little disjointed but the middle was pretty funny.
July 24, 2015
A lot to like, but the main character Pete is just unlikeable.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews