Film review: Sex Tape (15)

Sex Tape (15) review

CHEMISTRY: Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel work well together – but Sex Tape is a bang average rom-com.

It had to happen sooner or later. Having enjoyed a year that has seemingly delivered blockbuster after blockbuster, I’ve finally stumbled across a bit of a stinker.

It’s no great surprise, given the slightly smutty nature of the title, but Sex Tape is one of the more tacky films that I’ve seen in a while.

That’s no slight on Cameron Diaz, of course. Although she can now seemingly only play one particular character, she still looks bloody good on the big screen.

But I digress (this isn’t a beauty contest, after all).

Sex Tape is the latest comedy by Jake Kasdan, of Bad Teacher fame. It centres on couple Annie (Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel), who appeared to do nothing other than have sex during the ‘honeymoon period’ of their relationship.

Fast forward a few years and they’ve got two kids and less time for each other – and their sex life has become pretty non-existent.

In a bid to spice things up a bit, Annie suggests that she and Jay should film themselves in the act, on their iPad.

Bad idea? You betcha. As a man in the music industry, Jay’s iTunes playlist is apparently pretty hot stuff.

So he’s got an app that will sync his iPad to others that are linked to his account.

Despite Annie telling him to delete their home movie, Jay decides against it – but accidentally shares it with a host of other devices.

Desperate not to become internet porn stars, the pair then embark on a madcap hunt to track down all of the incriminating tablets in a bid to keep their sordid secret.

Among those to have been given iPads by Jay are best friends Robby (Rob Corddry) and Tess (Ellie Kemper), Annie’s prospective boss Hank (Rob Lowe)… and the postman (of course).

There are some humorous moments as the pair attempt to track down the compromising footage, but genuine laugh out loud scenes are in pretty short supply.

As touched upon earlier in this review, Diaz is pretty well accustomed to playing the attractive female in a cheesy rom-com. She still looks the part, but there was nothing ground-breaking about her character here.

Segel is solid enough as Jay and the pair do have pretty good chemistry – which is a good job, considering the amount of sex scenes they share together.

I did find Robby and Tess pretty funny as the pair’s hapless sidekicks too, while their son Howard (Harrison Holzer) really should really have got a bit more air time.

There’s an overall message in Sex Tape that most couples will be probably able to relate to.

In a pretty distasteful way, Annie and Jay are trying to remember why they fell in love in the first place.

It’s just about watchable if you’ve got nothing better to do with your time, but you’ll probably (scratch that, definitely) not want to take the kids with you.

However, as it fails to be either funny or romantic, Sex Tape has to go down as one of the biggest flops of the year so far.

Rating: 2/5 (Watched at West End Cinema, Boston)

Showtimes at West End Cinema, Boston (September 12 to September 18)

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