Diaz and Segel embrace unusual thespic ‘obligation’
SEGEL AND DIAZ. Portray a couple bored with the humdrum of day-to-day married life.
As we watch the adult comedy romp, “Sex Tape,” starring Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel, we find ourselves in increasing awe of the lead actors’ seemingly utter lack of inhibitions about the daunting task of “sharing” their naked bodies (in all their glory!) with millions of viewers all over the universe.
Given the films’ central plot premise, there’s no escaping nude scenes, so Diaz and Segel have simply decided to “embrace” the unusual thespic “obligation”—and have a fun time while they’re at it!
As the film’s title explicitly intimates, Diaz and Segel play a couple bored with the humdrum of day-to-day married life. To bring the excitement back to their marriage, they decide to make a tape of their intimate sexual romps, with the view in mind of immediately erasing the incriminating evidence right after they watch it.
Alas, Segel is not an expert techie, so instead of erasing the darned thing, he sends copies of it to the gadgets of his friends and family members! —What to do?!
The rest of the frisky film is all about their desperate ploys to get those incriminating copies back. Instead of solving the problem, however, their inept moves just makes it worse.
An entire subplot involves a top web company executive (Rob Lowe), who wants to make Diaz’s blog popular. To make sure that he doesn’t inadvertently get to watch her sex tape, she and her equally desperate hubby “invade” his mansion, and get into all sorts of dicey situations, some of them involving his huge “killer” guard dog.
Even later, Segel pinpoints a most unlikely culprit who uses the sex tape to force him to cough up a huge sum of money to buy his silence. In desperate retaliation, Segel and Diaz effect another “invasion”—this time, of the porno website’s headquarters, to make sure that their three-hour sexual “epic” isn’t released for everyone to feast his eyes on!
This is when another gifted comic, Jack Black, makes his feisty cameo appearance, adding significantly to the film’s zany humor quotient.
Despite the leads’ and cameo players’ best efforts, however, “Sex Tape” is entertaining only in occasional spurts. Some of its subplots and other comedic brainstorms, which may have looked great on paper, simply doen’t end up reaping a consistent harvest of laughs.
Still, we should note that, when the film’s comedic gambits do work, the theater audience responds with voluble enthusiasm, indicating that the production’s empathetic value is unusually strong.
Finally, it must be observed that, while Diaz and Segel uninhibitedly “share” practically everything they’ve got, they never came off as tacky and prurient. —Now, that takes talent!
