Sex Tape, 2014.
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Ellie Kemper, Rob Lowe and Rob Corddry.
SYNOPSIS:
After a tequila-filled night of sex, a married couple awakens to find they’ve mistakenly distributed their amateur adult film to the public and must go on a mission to suppress it from going viral.
Sex Tape, directed by Jake Kasdan, is a sex-based comedy that sadly lacks the plot, characters and jokes that would normally make a movie of this type of smash hit.
The film opens by detailing the foundation of Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie’s (Cameron Diaz) relationship. They met in college and from the outset they couldn’t keep their hands off one another. What followed was a decade of sex, sex and more sex… none of which (though showed in many different places and positions) brought the laughs. Two kids later, the couple has lost their mojo and now, upon noticing, decides it’s never too late to get it back.
At this point, the movie still showed some promise. There were a couple of extremely funny moments between Jay and his children that hinted this might just be more than a one-joke film. Like the moment after their kids exit the house where Jay turns to Annie and asks something like, “Is it just me or is the big one becoming kind of a d*ck.” Then there’s the moment in the car when Jay turns to his son in complete seriousness and asks, “Who are you!?”
Unfortunately, after successfully setting up this funny dynamic between Jay and his son, the plot forces the couple to send the kids off to Grandma’s house so they can get a little freaky. They guzzle liquor and decide to record themselves on their iPad doing a three-hour marathon re-enactment of “The Joy of Sex.” The following morning, they realize they’ve synced the film to several iPads now in the hands of friends, family and most importantly the CEO of the company interested in purchasing Annie’s family-friendly blog. The remainder of the movie is a zany adventure following the couple as they cruise all over town attempting to retrieve the Apple products.
After 94 minutes of drawn out sequences, random plot threads and tech ads, you find yourself feeling like the joke is on you. Even the big scene where the couple records their sexcapade -you know… the one responsible for the film’s title- falls completely flat.
The script for Sex Tape, written by Kate Angelo, along with Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, presented a few issues that should be noted. As a viewer, it forces you to suspend belief and accept that a character routinely giving out old iPads to their friends and family is plausible. Also, you’d have to believe he would do this without first wiping the iPads to their factory settings. Further you’d have to believe he’d accidentally sync his adult film to every one of them… which then makes you question the likelihood that this could possibly be the first time he’s made this blunder.
The high points of Sex Tape all arguably come from the smaller characters and cameos. Although they weren’t all that funny either, they did provide the needed boosts of adrenaline necessary to push the film cross the finish line. Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper, who play the couple’s best friends, bring a few laughs, as does Rob Lowe and an uncredited Jack Black, the lattermost who plays the owner of a porn website in the film.
Sex Tape is one of those ultra-marketable, high concept comedies where the whole equals less than the sum of its parts.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
William Fanelli is contributor to Flickering Myth – You can follow him on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vq4CudKRk&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E
Originally published December 26, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
