Sex Tape – Film Review

Director: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper and Rob Lowe

Release Date: Sep 3

The release of this new comedy really could not have been timed better.
Mere days before release, a massive Hollywood scandal explodes over the net. Nude pics of well-known celebrities have spread like a virus and the whole world is readjusting to how they see these famous actors. Or, in many optimistic cases, stoically refusing to readjust at all. In the heat of such a scandal, a film about a sex tape accidentally going viral has never been so relevant.
It’s a crying shame that it isn’t that good.

sex tape

Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz star as Jay and Annie, a happily married, but sexually hibernating couple. In one desperate attempt to spice up their sex lives, they blunder wildly into the unfamiliar world of video-taping and Internet porn. The act inevitably goes awry, with Jay inadvertently syncing all the content on his current Ipad with dozens of others he has given away as gifts (he’s a radio DJ who constantly updates his software, which always seems to encompass Apple products for some reason).
And so begins a desperate search to retrieve all the Ipads that have the dirty deed on it, so that they might preserve a shred of dignity among their friends and colleagues.

While there is a lot of interesting things happening in this film, it is marketed primarily as a comedy. How many laughs the film elicits from the audience is directly proportional to how much they will enjoy it: this is not a film people look to for political commentary.
Yet that is the only place that the film holds any real value, because this is frankly just a dull film. It is rigidly formulaic, with every twist easily anticipated. Oh, what’s that son? You’re making a video for your 4th grade graduation, which will be shown in front of the entire school and their parents? I’m sure this will not affect me in any way…

Sex-Tape pic 3

Many of the one-liners and gags are just worn out from other comedies of the Judd Apatow variety, and involve a lot of inneunedos and physical comedy (people falling down/being hurt while very naked). It can be funny if well timed, or balanced nicely with more straight characters, but this is just crude for the sake of crudeness.
The jokes come across as either crass or clichèd, but sometimes they are just plain bizarre. Case in point is the encounter Jay and Annie have with Annie’s potential employer Hank, played by the all too likable Rob Lowe, in their attempt to steal back his Ipad.

This entire segment is the highlight of the movie, but is littered with jokes that just don’t land. Rob Lowe, who has really impressed since his debut as a comedy actor on TVs Parks and Recreation, has a lot of…..specialized artwork littered around his house. Without spoiling anything, it gives us a glimpse of his inner child and suggests that he would be an interesting character to develop much, much further. Without this development and with the delivery of these reveals so lazy and uninspired, their inclusion just feels odd.
The same goes for the other laughs in this segment. The director has a grasp on what can be hilarious, but his grasp is slippery. Shoe-horned in for the sake of it is a scene in which Annie is invited to do cocaine with Hank. This may very well be the best bit of the film (aided in no small part by the excellent Cameron Diaz), but it also feels aimless and out of sync with her character.

rob loww

For the most part, everyone seems a little confused with their characters, with none of them having any sort of depth to explore. Jay could be argued to be the exception, but the fact is that his character is simply Jason Segel. It’s just as well that the cast are as likable to watch as they are, Diaz in particular. As it is, likable characters are about all this film has going for it as a comedy, with the ‘jokes’ as forgettable as they are.

But what about that tasty bit of commentary that the film is making? As mentioned, there is a lot going on that makes this a relevent film, even if it isn’t a very good one.

*minor spoilers ahead. You’ll get over them though. This isn’t Game of Thrones*

Most significantly, Sex Tape explores what we consider to be ‘private’, and if that concept even exists anymore. The fact that the Ipad Jay uses to film the act synchronizes with others automatically says a lot about how the private sphere is constantly shrinking beyond our control. Technology tracks our information often without us even realising it. You’d be amazed at how much information the new Facebook messenger app has access to on your phone…

Cameron Diaz

What is even more intriguing is that their married friends, Robby and Tess, have sex in the back seat of a car in the middle of a neighbourhood. This is very much a public place, even at night, and yet this is considered more private than Jay and Annie’s act in their own home. The fact that Jay and Annie catch them in this act is glossed over, barely even remembered in the narrative of the film. This just goes to show how blurred the lines between public and private have become.

As a direct result of this, and probably the best combination of commentary and performance in the film, we see how this affects the younger generation in a modern era. This is personified in the character of Howard, Robby and Tess’s son. He is very much a pint-sized adult, speaking with decorum and able to manipulate people with his impressive knowledge of computer technology.
He is the first to find the sex tape and, instead of being shocked and telling his parents, as you might expect, he makes copies and calmly blackmails Jay with them. What is so shocking about this course of action is the fact that it does not appear shocking over the course of the film!
Due in no small part to the Internet, children are being exposed to all forms of inappropriate content that parents simply don’t know how to control. This is encapsulated nicely in Jay genuinely believing the Cloud is actually a cloud in the sky.
*End of spoilers*

sextape

In short, watching Sex Tape is the equivalent to looking up those Jennifer Lawrence nude pictures that have been going around and only being able to find breaking news websites.
It might be informative, but it probably wasn’t what you were looking for.

Score: 2/5 
Written by Stephen Hill

 

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