MOVIE REVIEW: Sex Tape

Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) in Columbia Pictures' SEX TAPE.

Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) in Columbia Pictures' SEX TAPE.

Published Aug 22, 2014

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SEX TAPE

DIRECTOR: Jake Kasdan

CAST: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper and Rob Lowe

CLASSIFICATION: 16 LNSD

RUNNING TIME: 95 minutes

RATING: **

 

 

 

THIS is a balls-up of a comedy that’s window-dressed with a titillating title.

Then again, it shouldn’t be too surprising as it is from a director who gave us inferior movies like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Bad Teacher.

Aside from How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel looking a more sculpted and sexier version of himself – after all, he was working alongside a bombshell like Cameron Diaz – that’s the only flattering thing I can say about this bore.

Sex Tape gets off to a penetrating start with college sweethearts Jay and Annie enjoying a sex life that even Hugh Hefner would envy. Any chance they get to bonk, they do… until she falls pregnant.

Life swiftly changes from exciting and adventurous until routine is the mantra for the married couple – now with two kids.

Finding time for sex is virtually impossible between both their schedules. And Annie is on the verge of landing a big job thanks to her “family friendly” blog about parenting.

Eventually, Annie decides something needs to be done about their lack of intimacy, and after fobbing her kids off on her doting mother, she prepares for a night of passion with her husband.

Unfortunately, getting into the x-rated zone ends up being a clumsy grapple. And so Annie decides to spice things up by filming their acrobatic moves as listed in The Joy of Sex on Jay’s new iPad. He gets a countless number of them that he often gives away to family and friends.

After a successful satisfying homerun, so to speak, Annie asks Jay to delete the video. But he forgets and the video gets uploaded on to every one of his iPads, which are synchronised.

The situation isn’t helped when their close friends’ son decides to blackmail them, threatening to upload the video on to a pornographic website.

And so begins the couple’s mad dash to a) retrieve all their iPads and erase the video b) deal with their brat of a blackmailer and c) break into the YouPorn building and delete the video from their server.

Sex Tape could have been a funny, engaging and promising comedy. But it proved to be more of an anticlimax with its preposterous situational comic moments, especially in the scenes with a somewhat sleazy Rob Lowe, as Hank Rosenbaum, putting the moves on Annie amid them getting high together.

Annie’s tantrums toggle from cute to annoying, which steals from the impact of Diaz’s performance.

Thankfully, Segel offsets the unfolding inanity with his more unruffled personality.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether the Hangover franchise had some influence on the director.

The scenes with Jay being savaged by a ferocious dog, and the end reels with flashbacks to the making of the video, smacked of being of a similar blueprint.

There are relatable moments for parents but on the whole this is a far-fetched, preposterous letdown that manages to whet the imagination but not the entertainment appetite. Rather hire the Zack and Miri Make a Porno DVD.

If you liked any of the American Pie movies or Zack and Miri Make a Porno you will enjoy this.

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