This Is 40

Complaining about a Judd Apatow movie being too long is as pointless as complaining about a Kubrick film being too cold or an Eli Roth film being too violent. Apatow has constructed something of a comedy empire, and, considering his massive success, it’s hard to believe he feels any need to change his instinct to make his pictures longer than people seem to want or expect from a comedy. That said, his midlife-crisis family comedy This Is 40 is too long.

Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann star as Pete and Debbie, the same married couple they played in Apatow’s Knocked Up. As the movie opens, Debbie is turning 40 but tells everybody she’s younger. She runs ...