When you see a comedy with a title like Sex Tape, you would be forgiven for assuming that you’re about to watch a comedy that will be somewhat funny and maybe even raunchy. Alas, Sex Tape neither amuses nor titillates, making the whole thing quite a limp experience indeed. You’d probably have a much better time watching an actual sex tape on somewhere like full tube xxx for free instead of paying to see this flick.
Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel star as a married couple with two young children who have lost their way in the bedroom. They are the kind of couple who wouldn’t have a clue what pet play, bondage and BDSM actually are. If this film mirrors your own reality then these must be new to you too. Anyway, the film’s mildly amusing intro has Diaz’s blogger describing how their once-busy sex life has dwindled over the years, with career and family taking up almost every spare moment. In an effort to reignite that sexual spark in their marriage, the couple decides to make a sex tape. It is nothing like the sort of sex tape you’d see on fuckedtube.xxx; instead, it is awkward and cumbersome. After Segel’s character forgets to delete the video the next morning, it is wirelessly uploaded to every iPad that he has given out to family members and friends, sending the pair on a race to stop the tape from being seen. You don’t actually get to see the sex tape or any action in fact, so if you’re watching just to see Jason Segel’s junk, then you might like daddy porn instead.
Three, yes, THREE, screenwriters wrote Sex Tape, including lead actor Segel. While the overall concept could allow for comical musings on marriage and sex, the script ensures that all things said on these subjects are either irritatingly tame or frustratingly clichéd. The two leads, while generally likeable, struggle with the material. Segel’s more “natural” performance stylings come across as moronic here, and Diaz’s smile just doesn’t help her forced performance.
Director Jake Kasdan, who previously directed Diaz in the poor comedy Bad Teacher, has a C.V. packed with television credits, including directing stints on Freaks and Geeks, Californication and New Girl, so it should come as no surprise that this feels like a television sitcom. Kasdan’s direction is just poor, a lacklustre effort that manages to stifle any shred of humour stemming from the painfully unfunny screenplay.
‘Forced’ seems to be the word that comes to mind when looking back at the overall film, with scenes trying so hard to be funny and edgy while managing to accomplish neither. Basically, this is a comedy for adults that seems to have been written by adolescents. You’re better off finding laughs in some poor celeb’s actual sex tape.
THE REEL SCORE: 3/10
– G.T.
