Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Kate Angelo, Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, Rob Lowe, Nat Faxon and Jack Black
Studio: SONY/Columbia
“Sex Tape” must be what happens when you’re a comedian with a base audience, but that audience isn’t big enough to open a summer movie. Somewhere in the mix, I feel that Segel and Stoller had something to say. Unfortunately, SONY is very much in the Cameron Diaz movie and they wanted to craft a film that played to her strengths. The result is a CG tittied, broad stroke joke and forced raunchy relationship comedy that came across as schizo in every sense of the word. The film is barely over 90 minutes, but each minute feels like an eternity as the central joke is stretched to cover a cast of comedians that should’ve known better. The only weird laugh I got out of the movie was Rob Lowe’s bizarre Disney caricatures.
Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel don’t work well together and I’m not sure who to blame. Diaz seems like she wants to force control over material, but it didn’t derail “Bad Teacher” that much. Then, there’s Segel. Unless he’s working with Muppets, Segel comes across a push-over that can be bullied through a production. I mean, wasn’t “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” a paper thin analogy for how women he works with can screw him over? If that wasn’t enough, there’s the constant backhanded compliments to the Internet Porn community. Jack Black plays it straight, but that’s about it.
The second half of the film is so weak that it makes the small bumps in the first half worse for the experience. Having a big goofy race over something that doesn’t matter is dumb. Making the weight of the decision be about Cameron Diaz losing her white privilege blog opportunity doesn’t ring true in the new American economy. It’s on par with when Sweet Dee started trying to control her viral video image on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. If you act fake, then the audience can tell.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!