The reason Jake Kasdan’s Sex Tape really shouldn’t have been released is the same reason amateur sex tapes shouldn’t ever be released: while the two leads occasionally look like they’re having fun, the experience really doesn’t translate to the audience, who instead get stuck focusing on the painful scripting, the awkward acting and the inescapable feeling that, though this should be exciting and progressive and sexy, it’s actually weirdly boring.
Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel head up this iPad ad-masquerading-as-a-film, playing a married couple who decide to spice things up by filming a night of passion. However, thanks to a complex syncing system, the video accidentally gets uploaded to iPads the couple have generously gifted to their friends and family. (#RichWhitePeopleProblems #SeriouslyWhoCanAffordToGiveAwayEightiPads #WhatIsLife.)
The plot isn’t bad, drawing as it does on our culture’s increasingly exhibitionist streak as well as our tech-paranoia. However, instead of delving into interesting discussions regarding sexuality, intimacy, pornography and empowerment, Sex Tape becomes more like a family farce caper than the wickedly edgy adult comedy promised by its title. A blur of dog attacks, break-ins, diarrhea jokes, precocious tween blackmailers and cuddly YouPorn barons, the script betrays a genine fear of sex. Diaz and Segel’s outings in nudity-filled Forgetting Sarah Marshall and hump-endorsing Bad Teacher proved much more comfortable with filth – but then, their characters in those films weren’t one-dimensional married couples, and so didn’t need to be cloaked in guilt, shame, a tired reconciliation narrative... and strategically-placed sheets.
Rob Lowe makes a nicely self-aware cameo as a drug-addled metal-head – but if Rob Lowe is the highlight of your Sex Tape, you’re very old-fashioned indeed.