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| Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel |
As the legendary Bart Simpson once said,
"I never thought it was humanly possible, but this both sucks and blows." That could apply to the messy, rauncy new comedy "Sex Tape," which in spite of the charming leads and a handful of fun moments, is a rather tame, mostly laugh-free affair and mostly a low-brow ad for Apple products, who should consider suing for slander. After ten years together and two kids, Jay (Segel) and Annie (Diaz) try to put some spice back in their relationship by making a sex tape. The recording leaks and the couple struggles to get it back off the web. Directed by Jake Kasdan, who along with Diaz and Segel brought us the equally mediocre comedy "Bad Teacher" (of which Diaz made a whopping $40 million off of in a generous back-end deal, but I digress), "Sex Tape" is a lame, disappointing effort with its funniest moments at beginning and end. Much like bad sex, it starts off well and ends with at least one person satisfied, but loses steam considerably somewhere in the middle. In other words, it's a mess, which is sad given I usually like Segel, trimmed down here for the obvious (but very choreographed and carefully photographed) sex scenes. It starts off promisingly showing how the couple's relationship has wilted sexually, but it really limps along when it becomes a scavenger hunt for that darned video. The extended episode in the second act that has the two trying to locate the tape at the mansion of an executive (Rob Lowe, ironically cast here given his own sex tape experiences, how we forget) is just painfully executed and a low-point in the careers of both director and all actors, involving a large dog, an iPad, cocaine and no laughs to speak of. "Sex Tape," after a genuinely amusing cameo from Jack Black, finally ends with the showing of the tape itself, albeit in super fast-forward, and admittedly it's the funniest part of the movie, but even with good sex, it's all too brief. "Sex Tape" could've been a sharp, Apatow-like look at relationships and sex, but it's more of a quickie: too easy, too shallow and with little meaningful conversation. Unsatisfying for sure, but probably enjoyable enough to score a few bucks at the box office.
Wes's Grade: C
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