Comedy is hard, and being funny is such a subjective experience. Where someone will think a certain bit is hilarious, another will think it is repulsive. More and more, cinematic comedy has gone from clever to crude. Looking back at the history of comedy movies, it seems that the rich well of witty humor has come to a murky, muddy bottom. There is no better example of crude comedy than Sex Tape.
Cameron Diaz plays Annie and Jason Segel plays Jay. When we meet them, she is writing on her mommy blog that becomes the preamble of the tale. We see a flashback of the two meeting and have college sex again and again. They cannot keep their hands off each others genitals, and hook up all the time and everywhere. Eventually the two get married and start the ascension into adulthood.
We move forward a few years and a few kids, and Annie and Jay are stuck in a rut. She is about to sell her blog to a giant family company called Piper Brothers owned by a seemingly stuffy man named Hank (Rob Lowe). Jay works in the music industry and gets new iPads all the time, giving all the extras to friends and family. This hard-to-believe hook is the linchpin of the screenplay.
Well, to spice up their love-life, the two decide to make a sex tape by going through the entire sex manual The Joy of Sex at one time using the iPad’s camera feature. After a few shots of liquid courage, the two do the dirty deed multiple times and in all of the multiple positions.
The next day after sobering up, Annie insists that Jay delete the file. Instead, he accidentally syncs it to all the other iPads he owned. They had been given to such unsuspecting recipients such as the mailman, future boss Hank and their friends Robby (Rob Corddry) and Tess (Ellie Kemper). Then someone contacts Jay and makes reference to the sex tape. Their secret is out to someone. The film becomes a hunt down for all the iPads before the sex tape gets leaked onto the internet. Along the way there is much sex, profanity and drug use.
Sex Tape is one of the foulest films of 2014. There is almost no redeeming value within the framework of the screenplay. All of it comes down to is a series of ‘F-bombs’ that drop the intensity of the blitz on London. There is a big difference between using profanity for a punch and profanity as a crutch. The writing team has very few actual jokes, so they resort to cuss word after cuss word hoping the shock value will propel the hilarity. It does not and becomes humiliating an embarrassment after a while. The film wears out its welcome at the speed of light.
At times one almost feels bad for the cast that has to spill this filth all over the screen. Rob Corddry is a funny guy but he looks pained about delivering his lines. The charming Ellie Kemper looks embarrassed by this display of guttural language. Her appeal is lost in this world. While most would place the entire blame on director Jake Kasdan, the man behind Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Bad Teacher, the true blame needs to go to Jason Segel. The television actor/writer has been trying to break into the mainstream with Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Muppets. He was brilliant in I Love You, Man. Here, he just seems lost within the confines of the screenplay, playing the doting moronic dad. Eventually it becomes a bad parody of Homer on The Simpsons. Cameron Diaz is slowly becoming a sad version of her former glory. While she was perfect in There’s Something About Mary, that was 25 years ago. Her endearing girl-next-door charms are fading into middle age and only her Shrek voiceovers are a claim to success.
The only single element of the film that is positive is the dynamic between the two leads. The idea of a married couple still passionate after many years is refreshing. It is a rarity to see a married couple not straying but still mad about each other. To put it bluntly, Sex Tape is a total waste of time and energy with all the good bits in the trailer. If you have seen the trailer, you have seen the movie. The only people who will flock to this film are the ones who live at Mr. Skin and want to see a naked Cameron Diaz. Those people will surely not be disappointed.
Why is it so hard to shoot a great comedy these days? I haven’t seen a well-done, smart and humorous enough movie since the first Hangover and I’ve been desperately waiting for another one for ages. I absolutely adored Jason Segel in HIMYM and even in I Love You Man he put out an excellent effort (I Love You Man Review), but Sex Tape was a disappointment. As are all films that show everything there is to show in a two-minutes trailer. However, I do think the screenplay and the whole plot of the movie is the one to blame, thus I am willing to give Jason another chance.