Porn in the Premise: A "Sex Tape" Review

A friend once told me that she and her husband decided to experiment one day and filmed themselves while having sex, just so they can have a third person POV of themselves making love. Thing is, just as how convinced they were that the output would be sexy and porn-worthy, the final product just showed how horrible they looked in bed. So they did the right thing to do and destroyed the video…let’s just hope there aren’t any more copies lying around *wink wink*.

Before marriage, Jay (Jason Segel) and Annie (Cameron Diaz) have been having sex so great that they often do it whenever and wherever it’s convenient. Sadly, things started to slow down when they had two kids, and both of them were too busy with their daily routines that fitting sex it into their schedule has become a challenge. When they finally had the chance to be by themselves one night, the couple decided to spice things up a little bit and filmed themselves going crazy and making love.  It would have been just another fun night, if only the file wasn’t uploaded to the Cloud and synced with several other devices, automatically sending the video to their friends, families, and who knows who.

Sex Tape Trailer

Much more than the humor, there was one thing that stuck to me after watching the film – the barrage of Apple advertising that’s already a few inches close to being hard-sell. Starting with the exclamation of how sturdy the iPad was after being thrown outside the window, to how unbelievably crystal clear its HD camera is – with the  abundance of not-so-subtle branding in the film I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out it was produced by Michael Bay! Okay, Apple products were the central elements that moved the plot forward, we get that, but the film didn’t have to shove it to our faces every couple of scenes to prove a point. It ruins the fun, you know.

Speaking of the fun, the premise made me look forward to some awkward hilarity that you’d only enjoy when you’re with the right crowd. True enough, this isn’t the kind of film that you would watch with your mom around however, it’s also not as hilarious as I hoped it would be. Sure, there are a few chuckles every in a scene or two, but that’s that…just chuckles. Every now and then a scenario may make you grunt and giggle, but none that’s memorable enough to make you leave the cinema laughing.

Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz were perfect for their respective roles however; we don’t see them doing anything new in this film (aside maybe from the fact that you get to see Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz naked). They were just their usual selves doing their usual performance which kinda contributed to the predictability of the movie as a whole. The quick appearance of Jack Black however, is a real refresher and made me realize how much I missed seeing this guy in the screen.

Sex Tape had a good premise which had some real potential to become another Hangover or Jump Street franchise.  Sadly, it fell short when it came to delivery and frankly, even in the humor department. The in-your-face branding just made it worse. At the start it was a good turn-on but it ended up becoming one of those awkward one-night stands that you won’t even remember next week.

All the images, videos, and materials used in this post belong to "Sex Tape" and/or to their respective owners. I do not own these materials. No copyright infringement intended.
by Geoffrey Ledesma