Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) have been married for a while, raising two kids, and their sex life has dwindled. To spice things up, they decide to make a homemade adult video, resulting in a three-hour recording. Jay promises to delete it but forgets, and the video syncs to all the iPads the family has ever owned. Unfortunately, Jay doesn’t sell old models; he gives them to relatives, friends, and even random people like the mailman. Now, it’s a race against time for Jay and Annie to track down everyone who received the video and delete the embarrassing recording.
The Problem with Modern “Adult” Comedies
The big problem with modern “adult comedies” is that they’re not really for adults. The trappings of “adult” cinema (some nudity, strong language, explicit jokes) are layered onto a framework typical of Hollywood, which aims for universality and “family-friendliness.” This results in comedies that are neither one thing nor the other, like “Sex Tape.”
Behind the Scenes
During filming, the movie was titled “Basic Math” because it was difficult to get permits for a film called “Sex Tape.”
A Closer Look at “Sex Tape”
“Sex Tape” doesn’t feature any full-frontal nudity, but its R rating seems justified. Cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt could probably teach a master class on “How to Pack a Film with Nudity Without Showing a Nipple.” For example, Cameron Diaz (or her body double) is shown from every angle, and she looks stunning for her age. The other attributes of an adult comedy are present: plenty of sex jokes and sex itself. But strip away the fluff, and you’re left with a simple situational comedy with basic plot twists and a moral so naive it’s tear-jerkingly sweet. You want to give the writers candy, pat them on the head, and send them to Disney to write cartoons about Chip and Dale.
Listing all the script’s contrivances and oddities without spoilers is impossible, so you’ll have to take our word for it. You won’t miss them; their concentration reaches critical levels near the end when the couple, unwilling to pay a blackmailer $25,000, rush to destroy the servers of a major internet company, with little regard for security, and taking their kids along in the middle of the night. And if such “genius” plot twists don’t get to you, Jack Black’s heartfelt moralizing speech will, especially since critics at the press screening had to listen to it twice due to a projector malfunction.
All of this could be forgiven if the film offered interesting, charming characters and quality humor. Remember the hit “We’re the Millers,” which wasn’t exactly a scriptwriting masterpiece either? Unfortunately, Diaz and Segel don’t click as a duo. Diaz carries the whole film, while Segel just widens his eyes and acts like a damsel on the verge of a breakdown. The funniest scenes, oddly enough, are those where Diaz is paired with Rob Lowe, who plays her potential boss, the head of a “clean” company who listens to heavy metal, drinks scotch, and snorts cocaine in his spare time. Annie has to get “completely wasted” with him while her husband searches for the iPad on the other side of the house, fighting an aggressive dog (which is not funny at all).
Final Verdict
Unfortunately, “Sex Tape” has few such witty and original moments, and many more things that are frankly annoying. The only thing that deserves unequivocal applause is the work of the special effects artists, who de-aged Cameron Diaz in the opening scenes so well that you can’t even tell it’s a “fake.” It’s incredible; she didn’t even look that good in “The Mask”!