Rated
R (Strong Sexual Content, Nudity, Language and Some Drug Use)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 34 Minutes
Cast-
Cameron
Diaz-Annie Hargrove
Jason
Segel-Jay Hargrove
Ellie
Kemper-Tess
Rob
Corddry-Robby
Rob
Lowe-Hank Rosenbaum
Nat
Faxon-Max
Nancy
Lenehan-Linda
Timothy
Brennen-Walt
Sebastian
Hedges Thomas-Clive Hargrove
Giselle
Eisenberg-Nell Hargrove
Harrison
Holzer-Howard
Kumail
Nanjiani-Punit
Artemis
Asteriadis-Kia
Randall
Park-Edward
Jack
Black-Owner of YouPorn
Directed
by Jake Kasdan
Note: Screened on Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at AMC Loews Kips Bay 15.
 |
| Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel try their best but "Sex Tape" ends up being a limp affair. |
Homegrown
Video proudly proclaims on their homepage that it is the 'original amateur porn
site' and it is indeed true as they were the
first company to commercially release and distribute homemade, amateur pornography
to customers who were hungry for such content. In fact, they've been doing it
for thirty-two years now. I'm amazed they're actually still in business given the
rise of free pornographic video sharing websites like YouPorn and PornHub,
which boast tens of thousands of amateur porn videos, all literally at the fingertips
of Internet users. Hell, there's over forty-six
thousand videos currently uploaded in the 'amateur' category on YouPorn, and
that's only for one website! Homemade sex tapes aren't quite the taboo they
once were ten years ago (you can thank Hollywood for that), with many couples
nowadays making them for their own personal—and sometimes non-personal—use. Sure,
it's obviously embarrassing when something that was meant to be viewed in private
gets out to the public but other than that, who cares? Jay and Annie cares, that's
who! Played by Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz, Jay and Annie are a long-married
couple who attempt to spice up their love life by making a sex tape, which—of
course—accidentally gets out in Jake Kasdan's latest film, appropriately titled
"Sex Tape." The premise seems to promise plenty of raunchy and ribald
humor but sadly, that's not the case. Despite Diaz and Segel's best efforts,
"Sex Tape" is just another bland and unfunny R-rated comedy.
College
sweethearts Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay Hargrove (Jason Segel) used to have
sex all the time but their passion for physical intimacy has noticeably cooled after
ten years of marriage and having two kids. Wanting to celebrate a potentially lucrative
business deal with morally-minded corporation Piper Brothers, who are looking
to acquire her popular mommy blog Who's
Yo Momma, Annie decides to send the kids away to her mother's (Nancy Lenehan)
and surprise her husband with a night of wild lovemaking. Arriving home and seeing
his wife roller skating in nothing but a see-through shirt and panties immediately
gets Jay excited. The couple races to the bedroom and gets down to business but
discover that they've unfortunately forgotten how to be physically intimate
with each other. After downing a few tequila shots, Annie suggests that they
should spice things up by recording a sex tape on their iPad. Jay readily agrees
and together they shoot a three-hour marathon demonstrating every position featured
in Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex. Despite
intending to delete the file the very next day, Jay unwittingly leaks the video
when his iPad syncs to all the other iPads he had given away as presents. Realizing
his error when he receives a series of mysterious texts, Jay, along with his wife and
their married friends Tess (Ellie Kemper) and Robby (Rob Corddry), frantically
set out to retrieve the iPads before friends, family, and potential employers
like Piper Brothers CEO Hank Rosenbaum (Rob Lowe) get a chance to view the Hargrove's
extended lovemaking session.
 |
| "Nobody understands the cloud! It's a f*cking mystery!" |
Like
Seth MacFarlane's "A Million Ways to Die in the West," Jake Kasdan's
"Sex Tape" is another one of those aggressively mediocre comedies that
offer a few scattered laughs here and there but little else. Part of the problem
lies with the premise, which seems more suited to a half-hour sitcom special. It's
just too thin and one-note to sustain a feature-length film, even if it's only an
hour and thirty-four minutes long. Sure, it makes "Sex Tape" an easy
sell for Columbia Pictures/Sony but it feels like someone came up with the premise
and then didn't bother to figure out all the particulars. The language and 'peek-a-boo'
nudity is the only reason the film even has an R-rating as much of the comedy
is too tame to make much of an impact, with Kasdan often settling for cartoonish
slapstick to get laughs. In fact, it's surprising how small-scale the picture
is compared to the similarly-themed "Neighbors," which also featured a
couple trying to stave off a stagnant marriage (the two comedies coincidentally
share a common link with Nicholas Stoller, who directed "Neighbors" and
polished the script for "Sex Tape" with Segel and Kate Angelo).
It
takes almost half the film for the titular sex tape to get made and then leaked
but the promise of outrageousness from that event unfortunately never materializes.
The second act is just one long protracted sequence set in Hank Rosenbaum's spacious
mansion where Jay frantically roams around trying to find Hank's iPad while being
chased by his angry German shepherd. You can feel Kasdan struggling to mine
the high-concept premise for three acts' worth of story. The few laughs you'll get
are largely extraneous, such as Hank's bizarre paintings of himself in various
Disney classics or his huge tattoo of rapper Eazy-E on his backside. It's frankly pathetic
when the amount of laughs your comedy offers can be counted on one hand. But what
of the sex tape itself? The big climactic release the picture builds to couldn't have
fallen more flat as half of the tape has Jay inexplicably singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame in a
loincloth. Making matters worse, the editing in the film is lazy and the whole affair plays
like an extended ad for Apple products. Although much has been made about how "Sex Tape"
gets technology wrong given that the likelihood of a naughty video file leaking
onto 'the cloud' is low but in the context of the film, it makes sense...mostly. That's pretty
much all the praise I can give honestly.
 |
| The supporting cast is amusing but the script is just too sub-par to be funny. |
Cameron
Diaz and Jason Segel are appealing in their roles and they try their best despite
the sub-par script. However, the two never click as well as they should, with Diaz
struggling at times to keep up with Segel's rapid-fire improv. Don't get me
wrong, they work well together (see the much superior "Bad Teacher," also directed by Kasdan, as
an example) but for a film about rediscovering the passion in your marriage, Diaz
and Segel can come off as rather stiff. The supporting cast that Kasdan has gathered
is a bit more entertaining to watch, with Rob Lowe being the standout as he gleefully
riffs on his troubled past by revealing that underneath his character's good-guy
image is a Slayer-loving cocaine fiend. Ellie Kemper and Rob Corddry make for an
amusing pair as well while an uncredited Jack Black has a scene-stealing cameo.
Released
on July 18, 2014, "Sex Tape" has received abysmal reviews with a paltry
20% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics found Kasdan's latest to be a 'flaccid' affair as
it 'neither [has] the conviction to embrace its smutty premise nor enough laughs
to function as a worthwhile rom-com.' The audience at the advance screening ate
the film up but their enthusiastic response didn't translate to box office success
as it flopped with an anemic opening weekend debut of $15 million. That's lower
than this summer's other high-profile comedy flop "A Million Ways to Die
in the West." "Sex Tape" could've been the next great sex comedy
but the end result is bland and forgettable. You're better off just watching
"1 Night in Paris." At least you see the actual sex happen in that video!
Final
Rating: 2 out of 5
"Who
has sex for three hours?! That's the length of the movie Lincoln. You did the full Lincoln!"
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