Sex Tape: Movie Review

Sex Tape: Movie Review

Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segal, Ellie Kemper, Rob Corddry, Rob Lowe
Director: Jake Kasdan

Predicated around the idea that two people could record a sex tape, upload it to the eponymous cloud and then find it distributed around, Sex Tape, with Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz has the potential to bring some risque humour to the fore.

Segel and Diaz are Jay and Annie, who spent their youth fornicating at every possible juncture; now, with 2 kids, demands of life and scant time, the spark has dimmed a little. Jay's working in the music industry and Annie's a blogger, trying to sell her writing wares to a wholesome Mom and Pop company headed up by Rob Lowe's Hank.

On the spur of the moment, the duo decide to record a sex tape to rekindle and reignite some of the long dormant spark. However, when they discover the video's gone wider than expected, they race to recover the various iPads that Jay's distributed which houses the mucky moments within - before the damage is too great.

Sex Tape really does have promise; with Jason Segel's escalating penchant for nudity in his movies, and Cameron Diaz appearing naked (from behind) and as a Boogie Nights style Roller Girl, it appears that raunch is clearly on the cards.

But the initial bout of frolicking gives way to a rather tame piece that's neither fish nor fowl.

With copious placements for iPad at every opportune moment (including one where Segel's character, having dropped it out of a window comments on how versatile and well-constructed it is), and some rather limp raunch that barely raises a titter, let alone an eyebrow, the resulting piece is something that's more suited to a formulaic farce rather than delivering on the promise of outright hilarity.

Diaz and Segel make for a recognisable duo with the overly talkative Segel delivering the majority of the straight lines while facing ludicrously silly moments; Diaz keeps up and proves game, but there's no real bite here for anybody to latch onto, despite relatively consistent comedic chemistry that's been mined before.

The highlight of the piece is swiftly dispatched early on when Jay and Annie head to Hank's place to recover their material and end up in an escalating farcical situation which sees Jay taking on a guard dog and noticing Hank's propensity for having himself painted into various Disney movie scenes around the home.

It's the only area that proffers up something of a series of laughs in this distinctly unsalacious comedy that's more of a safe proposition and at ill odds with its title. Inevitably portions of the tape are viewed towards the end of the movie, but by then, the promise of potential laughter is thwarted by a lack of any real passion for all that's gone on - that's even with a tenacious cameo toward the end.

Ultimately, this Sex Tape could have done with a large hit of comedic Viagra.

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