“40 Days and 40 Nights” is a spicy, sexy comedy about a guy who swears off anything sex-related for 40 days and 40 nights. The problem is that it’s unclear why he takes this vow. It’s got something to do with some issues he has with his ex-girlfriend, Nicole, but it appears as though he is just doing it to prove to himself and everyone else that it can be done. So, this brings up the question of what not having sex with anyone has to do with his ex-girlfriend, Nicole.

Aside from this confusion, the movie is quite entertaining.

-The film stars teen heart-throb Josh Hartnett as Matt, the guy with issues. He has this problem where whenever he is having sex, it appears as if the ceiling opens up above him to reveal a giant black hole. This freaks him out and is one of the reasons he swears off sex. During his 40-day experiment, his friends and co-workers start placing bets on whether or not he can last the full 40 days.

Also, to make things tougher, he meets a girl named Erica at the local laundromat and eventually falls in love with her. She is taken aback a little at first by his vow but soon comes to accept it and helps him maintain his celibacy. Also helping him, or maybe not, is his brother who is becoming a priest. Matt goes to his brother with all his problems but doesn’t always find solutions. The movie ends when Matt is forced to choose between ex-girlfriend, Nicole, and his new love, Erica. I won’t tell you whether he makes it through the full 40 days and 40 nights, but in the end it’s not really relevant.

Ironically, the movie’s funniest moments don’t come from it’s star, but rather the supporting cast. This isn’t surprising, since we last saw Hartnett in the completely serious war masterpiece, “Black Hawk Down.” Matt’s friends and roommates are what make this movie funny. They all bet money on a different day that Matt will give in to temptation, so they have some pretty interesting techniques to get Matt to crack. One plan is to pour some crushed up Viagra into his drink, but that fails because, of course, it ends up being put into someone else’s drink. Matt’s roommate, Ryan, played by Paulo Costanzo (“Road Trip”), checks up on Matt by coming into his room with a blacklight scanning for “unidentified substances.”

All in all, the movie is hip and sexy. I found it funny when, near the end of Matt’s long sexless journey, he starts envisioning every girl he sees naked. Of course, every single one of these women are good looking; I guess ugly people no longer exist in the movies. As a humorous side note, Erica works as a cyber-nanny, meaning she sits in front of a computer all day blocking out porn from places it shouldn’t be. Who puts that in a movie, honestly?

Three stars for “40 Days and 40 Nights” because it’s not quite worthy of four, but it’s still an average comedy. The DVD is pretty boring; there are no deleted scenes or anything exciting like that. Aside from that, I still deem this “buyable” if you’re a big fan. If you’re like me, you can rent it, watch it once, enjoy it and then, maybe, somewhere down the road, you will meet again at a friend’s house or on channel 8.