NEW comedy Sex Tape is missing that one key word for it to really work - chemistry.
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And it’s not just the usual sort of chemistry between the lead actors, but also the chemistry that provides humour, a strong plot and an overall good film experience.
Jason Segal (How I Met Your Mother) and Cameron Diaz (The Other Woman) play a married couple who in a moment of reigniting the sex spark in their marriage make a sex tape.
The next morning, the amateur film has been inadvertently synced to all their friends and family’s iPads causing not only major embarrassment but also a desperate attempt to regather the devices before people can watch the sex tape.
It is the sort of ridiculous shenanigans that we expect from a film with the title Sex Tape.
Segal and Diaz have previously worked together in Bad Teacher, where Diaz shone as a lazy educator opposite Segal’s optimistic gym teacher. In that film the pair worked well together but in Sex Tape it is hard to not see Segal as the goofy husband he played in How I Met Your Mother and Diaz as the eye candy.
Seeing Diaz dance around a living room in her underwear is something we have seen before in Charlie’s Angels and this film is such a non-adventure that even a scantily-clad Diaz struggles to save it.
Sex Tape also stars comic performers Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation, Ellie Kemper (Bridesmaids) and Jack Black (of Tenacious D fame).
Even those established actors can’t garner great laughs from a script that relies on the technical naivety of the middle-aged for plot points.
Segal also wrote the script, which pales in comparison to his other efforts including The Muppets Movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Five-Year Engagement – all very good film scripts.
Jake Kasdan (Orange County, Bad Teacher) has been caught in a trap of working with actors he is familiar with and the production is left a bit stale because of it.
There will be fans of the performers who will still happily pay money to see this film but it would be a better Sunday night DVD rather than date night film.
Sex Tape is full of slightly risky adult comedy, some half-hearted slapstick comedy and a plot that relies on technical naivety to drive it.
Sex Tape (MA15+) is now showing at Bendigo Cinemas. For session details see page 3 of the Bendigo Advertiser.
Follow film reviewer Chris Pedler on Twitter @FilmNerdChris