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Sex Tape
| Released |
3 September 2014 |
| Director |
Jake Kasdan |
Starring
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Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Lowe, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, Nat Faxon |
Writer(s)
|
Kate Angelo, Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller |
Producer(s)
|
Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
94 minutes |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Rating |
16 |
|
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Carry On Snoring.
Sex Tape is a very uncomfortable film to watch but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel do spend an inordinate amount of time with their buttocks on display but that is by no means the most embarrassing aspect of their performances. Throughout the film their air of frazzled desperation to transform the material into something that approaches comedy is deeply uncomfortable to watch. On screen, they may be going at it hell for leather (both literally and figuratively) but their manic scenery chewing is met with tumbleweed blowing through the cinema auditorium.
Annie (Diaz) and Jay (Segel) once had a passionate relationship but ten years of marriage and two children have slowed down their sex drives considerably. In an effort to rekindle their passions, they send the kids off for the night and wind up putting themselves on camera working their way through the landmark ‘70s book The Joy of Sex. Unfortunately, Apple obsessive Jay forgets to delete the video and inadvertently shares it amongst everyone on his iPad network - including family, friends and important business clients. The couple have one night to delete the tape from the devices before it goes public. Wackiness ensues.
The calibre of this wackiness is decidedly sub-standard and for the most part, just plain weird and ill-judged. The sequence in which the couple try to track down an iPad in the home of a successful businessman played by Rob Lowe is particularly jarring - his love of Slayer, cocaine and Disney films is clearly meant to be inertly hilarious but isn’t, while the Segel versus German Shepherd battle that ensues made me wish I was watching There’s Something About Mary instead.
Director Jake Kasdan may have had a hit with the leading actors when they teamed up for Bad Teacher but the poor quality of the material here means that it can’t possibly match that film. Segel and Diaz have very little to work with - the only thing we really get to know about Annie and Jay is that when they were college students they had the compulsive sexual appetites of Bonobo monkeys. In short, they are deeply boring, no matter how much flesh they flash. The same can be said for the film as a whole, a gag-free mess.
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Linda O’Brien |
