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Outrageous comedies are all the rage these days. Most of them, however, seem geared toward college party animals and 20-something slackers. But with his latest R-rated comedy, Sex Tape, director Jake Kasdan offers a flawed but funny adventure that focuses on an older, more responsible, married-with-kids crowd.
Sex Tape follows along on a wild and crazy—and potentially humiliating—adventure with Jay and Annie (Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz), a happily married couple whose attempts to spice up their marriage go horribly wrong. After years of juggling marriage, kids, and work, Jay and Annie decide to send their kids away for the night, hoping to reconnect and have a little bit of fun together. But when their three-hour sex tape is accidentally uploaded to all of their friends’ iPads, they race off on a desperate mission to destroy the evidence.
Of course, as Jay and Annie set out on their quest, audiences are asked to overlook one big, gaping plot hole. You don’t have to be a technical genius to understand that anything that’s uploaded to a network of devices can just as easily be removed. But, apparently, poor Jay understands less about technology than the average grade school student, and he’s convinced that they need to get their hands on every iPad in their network to remove the video from each one.
Fortunately, though, by the time the film reaches this overwhelming obstacle, most viewers will have already settled into the story. They might even be willing to accept such a huge flaw in the storytelling—because, as it turns out, there’s actually something strangely charming about Sex Tape. It isn’t as crude or as graphic or even as over-the-top as you might expect. Maybe that’s because it’s isn’t the story of a drunken hookup at a frat party or an ill-advised one-night stand; it’s about a couple of otherwise responsible adults who just want to let loose and shake things up a bit. And as idiotic as some of their actions may be, you might just feel sorry for them—at least a little bit.
The stars, meanwhile, help to sell the story. Though Segel and Diaz both have a tendency to overplay certain roles, they’re both surprisingly likable here. Segel’s Jay is sweet and well-meaning and lovably bumbling—and while Diaz still has her share of freak-outs, they aren’t nearly as shrill as they could be.
The problem, however, is that the story is disjointed and rambling. After one rather hilarious problem (involving Rob Lowe and a vicious canine) is solved, another one rears its ugly, irritating head. And instead of ending the film on a high note, it simply falls apart, resorting to the kind of over-the-top wackiness that it had successfully avoided for the first hour or so in order to fill the last 30 minutes.
There’s no denying that Sex Tape is a blatantly flawed comedy. But if you’re willing (and able) to overlook some pretty serious problems with the plot, you’ll be left with a couple of cute characters and some entertaining antics. It may not be worth paying a sitter to see it on the big screen, but it’ll make a good Saturday night rental.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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