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There was a lot of groaning going on in Jake Kasdan’s Sex Tape, but it wasn’t coming from on screen. The new comedy film from the director of Bad Teacher and Orange County begins with a glimmer of hope and an interesting premise. Annie (Cameron Diaz) is a popular blogger on the verge of selling her online voice to a major toy company. Jay (Jason Segel) works in radio. Together they have two children and a very large suburban home (on the salary of a disc jockey and a blogger…okay) but something isn’t right. Annie and Jay have lost the spark. In an effort to get it back they decide to send the kids to Grandma’s and spend a night being “intimate”. It’s cute, it’s a little funny and it has the potential for an authentic look at a married couple’s struggle to keep the spark alive. Then it all gets f**ked.
Still unable to get anything going despite an empty house and a number of tequila shots, Annie suggests that they make a sex tape. Jay, of course, agrees and the couple land on the idea of attempting every position from The Joy of Sex. Cue musical swell and it’s the next day. Annie requests Jay delete the video, Jay says he will, but he doesn’t. Soon, thanks to some dubious computer logic, the video has synched with iPads that Jay had given away as gifts (he gets free ones at work). Now in the possession of friends, family, and *gasp* the wholesome CEO of the toy company considering Annie’s blog, the video threatens to…do something. Prompted by an anonymous text, the couple are soon out on a whacky quest to hunt down the devices before their shameful acts of lovemaking are seen by the world. And out the door with them is any chance this film will say anything meaningful about sex.
If some of that didn’t make much sense to you, don’t worry, it doesn’t. It makes no sense. The film is built on logic so thin it threatens to blow away in the wind. Seriously, who gives away iPads? If you’re the CEO of a toy company and you’re interviewing a potential business partner, you don’t accept high price electronics from them. You probably own the high-priced electronics anyway, you’re a CEO. Also, Jason Segel’s character can remotely sync all of these iPads to share his music, but he can’t think of any way to get rid of the video? Has he ever heard of Google? HOW DID THIS PREMISE GET MADE INTO A FEATURE LENGTH FILM!?
Deep breath. The film exists in that strange land where characters think exactly like comedy writers want them to and no way else. And it’s too bad for the actors. Cameron Diaz is not exactly a natural comedian, but you can’t say she doesn’t give it her all in almost every role. Unfortunately, by the second half of the movie she’s devolved into the “nagging wife” archetype that sitcom viewers know and love. It’s a surprise director Jake Kasdan wasted such potential, especially considering he also directed her in Bad Teacher, where her gonzo personality was used to full effect. Jason Segel gets to have a bit more fun as “bumbling dad”, but his awkward charm wears thin pretty quickly. This is expounded by the fact that every set-piece joke is so blatantly telegraphed it almost becomes a lesson on how not to do comedy. I’m happy to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy a movie, but I’d have to suspend it so far for this one that I’d be comatose.
On top of its cast, the film also wastes its 14A rating. Though Cameron Diaz prances around in various states of undress, and genitalia account for almost half the film’s punchlines, it could easily have gotten by with a PG-13. There is nothing provocative or challenging in this film unless you consider the act of sex provocative and challenging. Even the sex tape feels like a MacGuffin by the end. It’s a series of over-used physical gags pasted together over something that they want you to think is risqué and challenging. Even a surprise cameo late in the film is squandered with hackneyed writing and an almost pointless interaction.
I’m not normally so hard on films and it doesn’t feel very nice, but I really like comedy and I care about it being done well. At a time when female-driven comedy films are growing in quality and popularity, Sex Tape feels like a major step backwards. It could have opened an interesting dialogue on sex, viral culture and pornography, but instead it opted to play on tired assumptions for cheap laughs. Like real-life celebrity sex tapes, this feels like a heavy-handed cash grab. Combine that with the blatant product placement and white-washed cast and Sex Tape is about as unsexy as a film can get.
Reviewed by Evan Arppe.
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