In “Sex Tape,” Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel worry their marriage is getting a little dull, a little routine, a little … chaste. So they dig out a book on carnal connections, set up their laptop camera and decide to make their own sex tape.
They just forget to erase it afterwards – and then watch in horror as it accidentally goes public.
That’s their big mistake. The movie’s error? It burlesques “The Joy of Sex” but remains, weirdly, joyless.
Give Diaz the benefit of the doubt. She has always had a raunchy sense of humor, which has sometimes hit (“There’s Something About Mary”) and sometimes not (“The Sweetest Thing”). But if Kristen Wiig’s “Bridesmaids” was the breakthrough, Diaz’s films were laying the groundwork.
And director Jake Kasdan – who also got her and Segel some dirty laughs in “Bad Teacher” – does start things off well with a quickly cut sequence detailing their union’s hot-and-heavy early days – when, to twist a current phrase, it was all about conscious coupling.
But once the tape – which isn’t actually a tape, but a computer file – gets made, and then gets out, the movie loses its way.
That seems to be the fault of the script, although trying to figure out exactly where a rewritten screenplay went wrong is like trying to autopsy a giant jellyfish. Wait, here? Or … here?
The original idea came from Kate Angelo, who wrote the Jennifer Lopez snoozer “The Back-Up Plan”; it was then redone by Segel and his frequent writing partner Nicholas Stoller, who collaborated on the screenplays for ”The Muppets” and “The Five-Year Engagement.”
On the face of it, they’re definitely the more reliable source of laughs. But their movies have a sort of meandering approach to structure, and a weakness for giving far too much screentime to Jason Segel. And those are the two biggest problems “Sex Tape” has.
For example, the plot is all over the place. Is it about getting back the individual IPads the file’s been loaded onto? Yes – until it becomes about a blackmailer. Which preoccupies it until it becomes about an assault on a website’s computer servers.
One of these sequences – involving a visit to an oddball corporate exec, played by Rob Lowe – is occasionally funny, mostly because of a running gag about the man’s awful taste in art. (And the deliberate casting of sex-tape pioneer Lowe — along with a very quick reference to “the Snow White incident” — is slyly wicked.)
But the other sequences aren’t funny, and go on too long. And expect, far too confidently, that we are going to find extended closeups of Segel’s big, pale, mugging face absolutely hilarious.
Diaz, who I think would probably win both gender’s vote for Best Person To Hit Happy Hour With, is a good sport and gets most of the laughs (as well as several shameless chances to show off her toned bod). Lowe is slightly, satisfyingly strange.
But in the end, “Sex Tape” doesn’t seduce, it doesn’t surprise and it certainly doesn’t satisfy. It only leaves you feeling a little taken advantaged of, as you take your walk of shame back to your car – and hoping you never hear from it again.
SEX TAPE
2 stars, out of 5
Snapshot: A dirty comedy that’s neither dirty enough, nor particularly comic, with Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel as a married couple whose amateur porn movie goes distressingly public.
What works: Diaz is a good sport and gets most of the laughs.
What doesn’t: It’s not particularly funny, with far too much time spent on Segel’s mirthless mugging and not nearly enough jokes.
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel. Director: Jake Kasdan. Rating: R, for nudity, sexual situations, alcohol abuse, strong language and violence. Running time: 90 minutes. Where: Find New Orleans and Baton Rouge showtime at www.nola.com/movies.
Article source: http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2014/07/sex_tape_review_dirty_comedy_i.html