Review: ‘Sex Drive’

Travis:

When I first saw the red-band trailer for this movie I thought it looked funny, but then again ‘College’ looked pretty fun by the trailer also. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself laughing hysterically outloud throughout the ‘Sex Drive’. I know, because I am apparently an uninhibited loud-laugher during funny movies, as I am told by fellow movie geeks.

‘Sex Drive’ succeeds in a strange way… there are some original and creative elements to the film, but there is also a great deal of the movie that consists of story elements and jokes that have been done before. Despite this, ‘Sex Drive’ actually manages to triumph over it’s setbacks. I found myself watching these scenes that reminded me of other movies like ‘American Pie’ but it didn’t bother me because it still felt fresh. For example, the opening scene involves a very embarrassing and hilarious scenario when Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is expected to get out of bed and greet his future step-mother along with his father and older brother… problem is he’s had a very good dream and he doesn’t want the evidence found.

The movie follows the main character of Ian, who has been carrying on an online relationship with Ms. Tasty (Katrina Bowden), using an exaggerated representation of himself. When she offers to “go all the way” for him if he drives out to see her, he plans a road trip encouraged by his womanizing friend Lance (Clark Duke). Just before taking the trip in his bully of a brother Rex’s (James Marsden) 1969 GTO named The Judge, his best friend Felicia (Amanda Crew) barges in on the trip. The trio travel nine hours to Knoxville, Tennessee so that Ian can lose his virginity. Along the way, the trio encounters various characters that add danger and excitement to their journey. The most enjoyable of these comical encounters being Ezekial (Seth Green), the sarcastic Amish guy that helps the trio out a couple of times. Ian and his friends are introduced to a side of Amish life that hadn’t expected as a result of this encounter.

The story eventually comes full circle with a humorous ending that relies heavily on the much-used and very effective visual gimmick of Ian’s Bandito’s Dozen donut costume he must wear for work. Zuckerman, Clark and Crew do a fine job as the trio of relative unknown actors playing teenagers involved in a complex love triangle. James Marsden really shines as the typical bully brother, combining elements from both Stiffler of ‘American Pie’Â  and from Bill Paxton as Chet from ‘Weird Science’. This is the polar opposite side of Marden’s Prince Edward from ‘Enchanted’.

[rating:3.75/5]

Zac:

This new addition to the teen sex comedy genre packs a few pretty good laughs, but ultimately brings little or nothing new to the table.

Ian is kind of a dork, he has a couple close friends and a longing for a girls privates.   He has an online chat partner where he is posing as a jock jackass with “Ms. Tasty” online, talking about random perverted things throughout the night.   When not handing out Doughnut coupons in a Mexican ethnic Doughnut suits, Ian is hanging out with his two best friends, Felicia and Lance.   Felicia is the cute friend that Ian probably wants to hook up with, but instead acts as the shoulder to cry on when she is not “twat blocking” him from hooking up with other girls.   Lance is a suave, smooth talking, womanizer that is Ian’s motivator to get laid.   They both act as the Devil (Lance) and Angel (Felicia) to his ears as they encourage how he should treat women along the course of the film.   Either way, they all end up on a road trip to Knoxville to meet Ms. Tasty as she convinces Ian to come down there with a promise of going “all the way,” and as you would expect many hi jinks ensue, the first being stealing Ian’s brother Rex’s prized car, ‘The Judge’.

If you are starting to go, this sounds very familiar, it’s because it is.   The film borrows heavily from a lot of the films in the genre before hand, but it adds enough freshness to the proceedings to keep you entertained, not to mention a few flat our hilarious scenes.   Though the film opens with a blatant rip off of the opening to American Pie, the jerk brother from Weird Science, the road trip to score but the best thing is right next to you from The Sure Thing, road kill execution from Me, Myself, and Irene, and I could go on and on.   But some how, the film does manage to keep you laughing, and while it might be borrowing, it takes, or at least tries to take, a new spin on an old bit; though not always successful.   The way they try to spin the three leads as a love triangle, just fail miserably and are totally unbelievable.   And, we can’t forget to mention the odd and out of place Amish Rumspringa plot of the film, just odd.   If you are interested in young pretty girls and nudity, this has that as well, so if you’re into that, at least you will have that going for you too.

Now, lets take a look at the actors, most of which you won’t recognize.   James Marsden is the biggest star here as Rex, Ian’s older brother, and he does a fine job of being a douche bag meat head that cause hell for his little brother.   Marsden does a good job at making the character dim and offensive and nails the prescribed part for the genre.   Clark Duke is the only other face many of you guys will probably recognize, as he has popped up in a couple of Michael Cera movies as they are buds, and he plays the role of Lance.   Now, when I described Lance earlier, you probably weren’t expecting the guy to look like Clark Duke.   He is kind of pudgy, wears glasses, kind of covering a receded hair line, and looks kind of like a loser if you saw him on the street, not the suave hunk you would expect.   But the casting works once you get past the looks as he can definitely talk the talk and drops plenty of funny one liners and smoothness along the way.   So while he might not fit the stereotype, the filmmaker’s kind of turn the part on its head a little bit and they get a decent payoff with Duke in the end.   Josh Zuckerman plays Ian and he plays the awkward, dorky, virgin well here, but he doesn’t do it as well as Emilie Hirsch and Jason Biggs have in the best of the recent sex comedies.   Amanda Crew stars as Felicia the female lead, and she does a good job of being cute and endearing but not a prude at the same time.   Unfortunately, she has to work through the brunt of the triangle romance mess as most of it revolves around her decisions, and it kind of holds her back a bit, but other wise, she does a decent enough job.

In the end, Sex Drive is a decent, unoriginal, comedy that makes the most out of putting some new spins on old bits and gags.   The film has a couple of really funny scenes, and keeps you laughing most of the time throughout.   The flick was a tad long, but the finale is hilarious, they just took a bit too long to get there.   If you’re a fan of the genre Sex Drive is decent effort worth picking up on video down the line, but don’t be rushing out to see it in theaters, as there are plenty of other more worthy films you should be checking out in the first place.

[rating:3/5]

Ram Man:

It is always fun to go to a film not having seen anything about it. In today’s world of blitz marketing it is neat trick if you can do it. “Sex Drive” was just such an experience. I had prescreening thought of it being  the same ol’  teen sex comedy  recycling old jokes and a few nude women in it to keep our focus. I was correct but suprisingly, I enjoyed the film.

Sex Drive stars Josh Zuckerman (Kyle XY) as Ian, a nerdy highschool kid, who has decided to get a girlfriend and lose his virginity before he graduates. Unable to ask out his best friend who he has had a crush on for years or pick up the girl he works with at the Donut shop, Ian starts shopping on the internet. He discovers one of those bimbo types that everyone gets on their my space page.Instead odf deleting it,  Ian becomes a cyber-stud for Ms. Tasty, telling her he is a footballl star and sends her a doctored photo of himself with washboard abs and freaks out when she wants to meet in person. James Marsden stars as Ian’s older brother Rex, a brainless gearhead who gets through loving his bright orange GTO and picking on his younger brother Ian. I believe Marsden watch “Weird Science” numerous times to prepare for the role and bring out his inner Chet. Just when Ian is about to give up the though of meeting Ms. Tasty, best friend and fellow nerd Lance (Clark Duke) talks him in to stealing his brothers car and taking a trip to get laid! During his deliberation Ian had also invited his other best friend  Felicia (Amanda Crew),  the girl he was crushing on to spend the weekend at his house….as friends. So as they are pulling away Felicia shows up and joins the quest, only she thinks it’s to Ian’s grandma’s house not the last temptation of Ms. Tasty!

The normal things happen…Lance hooks up with a trailer trash hooker at a gas station and ends up in bed with her at her parent’s house with Ian and Felicia drinking Grape soda witht he folks waiting for them to finish.   That was until her muscle-bound ex-con boyfriend shows up forceing Lance to bolt from the scene in his birthday suit. The best part of the film comes from of all places the Amish. The GTO brakes down and Ian sees his life pass before his eyes because Rex is going to murder him for wrecking his car. That is until Ezekiel shows up in his buggy and offers to fix the car for the group. They agree to work off the debt. During thier stay in the Amish Wonderland, Lance finds a hot Amish chick. The Amish sure know how to kick it. They have a drunked bash with no other than Fall Out Boy performing! The laughs are faster here than the horsepower on the GTO. and the car is repaired and the group is on thier way again…less Lance who stays behind to   be with his hot new Amish babe.

The rest of the film is a little predictable except for a surprise from Ms. Tasty at the face to face meeting. I will let you find out about that yourself. Sex Drive is a funny quirky teen sex comedy that will have you laughing as you exit the theater.

[rating:3/5]

Melissa:

What has two thumbs and really liked this movie?   THIS GUY! Well, girl… but whatever! I’m totally ignoring my high school girl crush on Seth Green to give you an unbiased review… but FYI I had magazine clippings of him on my wall!

It seems like the movie industry got in a really bad habit over the past decade or so in hiring 30 year old, ridiculously pretty actors to play high school students. I don’t know about you, but I was insanely awkward in high school, and my fellow students did not have wrinkles and receding hairlines! Sex Drive does a great job in casting believable, like-able actors who fit the part of the average kid.

We start off with Ian, a cute, geeky kid who has yet to cash in his “V” card. (Lose his virginity for those who haven’t become hip to my lingo yet.) He’s been romancing a girl on a chat line, (by romancing I mean lying his face off and being a complete jerk), and when she asks him for a “friendly” visit, he and his friends venture off on quite the road trip! His best friend Lance (Clark Duke) is a smooth talking ladies man who looks like he should be playing Dungeons and Dragons. It makes no real sense AND I LOVE IT! His other BFF is Felicia (Amanda Crew), a beautiful girl who really digs jerks, and who Ian happens to be in love with. Since he knows that she’s not interested, it’s time to pursue other options… ROAD TRIP! Oh, did I mention that they hijack Ian’s brothers sweet ride?

Sex Drive is really funny without having to lower themselves to the standard of the falling down, fart jokes that have been saturating the theaters via the spoof movies lately (Does Disaster Movie ring a bell?)

Now back to the pretend boyfriend of my youth, Seth Green. Green plays Ezekiel, an Amish passerby who helps the trio fix their car when they are stranded. He’s completely sarcastic and ridiculously funny in the role! Then again, I can’t think of one role that I haven’t liked him in. He has to be one of the hardest working people in film, with all the voice over, directing, acting, writing, and producing that he has done! Ok, maybe I still have a slight crush…lol

So if you are looking for a teen movie that includes actual humor, go see Sex Drive. Just please don’t encourage anymore spoof films that end in “Movie”.

[rating:3.5/5]

Jeremy:

A bit of filmmaking structuring here.   Obviously, not every film gets a $100 million budget.   There are low-budget films, and there are cheap films.   If you don’t have much money, try not to make a cheap film.   If you’re going to make a cheap film, make sure the story is interesting and/or original.   If the story isn’t original, make sure you tell the unoriginal story in an original way.   ‘Sex Drive’ is an R-rated, sex comedy that hits the wrong end of every one of these equations.

The film tells the story of Ian, an 18-year-old virgin, who meets Ms. Tasty, a “hot chick”, over the Internet.   When the girl tells Ian she actually wants to meet him, he feels that all his dreams have been answered.   Fully realizing that it could be a guy, Ian and his friends, Lance and Felicia, set out on a road trip from Chicago to Knoxville that seems to last a week and a half.

‘Sex Drive’ starts off as a cheap knockoff on ‘American Pie’.   All of Ian’s friends want to help him lose his virginity, but his reluctance with girls and his all-around discomfort hinders any chance of that.   In fact, you never really understand what this guy’s problem is.   He gets the “green light” on a number of occasions only to walk away from it.   It might help if the actor behind Ian was any good, but Josh Zuckerman is devoid of any amount of charisma.   He is definitely no Michael Cera.   He’s not even Jason Biggs, and that’s saying something.   You have to make that comparison since Ian and Jim from ‘American Pie’ are essentially the same character.   It seems that character was just cut and pasted into this film.

The ‘American Pie’ segment quickly converts into a ‘Road Trip’ knockoff complete with recognizable guest stars.   Seth Green pops up as a member of an Amish community.   It’s basically watching Seth Green being his typical, sarcastic self while wearing an Amish costume.   Brian Posehn makes an appearance as a carnival worker, but he’s given absolutely nothing to do.   That part is a complete waste, as Posehn is a hilarious comic who, I think, makes one joke here.

There are several wasted opportunities in ‘Sex Drive’.   At the very beginning of the film, Ian is chatting on line with Ms. Tasty, and he’s attempting to think of a witty line to her flirtations.   He looks at a poster of Jean Claude Van Damme hanging on his wall.   An overly fake, European accent kicks in on voiceover telling him what to say.   It’s funny.   It happens once.   It should have happened more.

There really isn’t very much about ‘Sex Drive’ that is all that funny.   Most of this stems from how unoriginal the comedy is.   Many times the film goes for the obvious joke.   See a pair of soiled underwear on the floor?   Think someone’s gonna slip on them?   See the roadkill that Ian is trying to put out of its misery?   Think the animal is gonna die from only one wack of a crowbar?   See the old people?   Think they’re gonna be annoyingly vulgar?   There are times where the movie doesn’t take the obvious road to humor.   Who ends up being behind the wheel of a car straight out of ‘The Fast and the Furious’ is one, unexpected joke.   The Amish rave scene is another pretty funny segment.

However, there are only two aspects to this film that are flawlessly funny throughout.   One is James Marsden, who plays Ian’s olver brother, Rex.   He’s the typical, older-brother-in-a-sex-comedy-jerk, but Marsden plays the part with an all-out audacity.   He really seems to be enjoying himself here.   Even when he’s being overly cruel to Ian, you can’t help but laugh, and this is due to Marsden’s obvious sense of humor.   In fact, Marsden’s presence is probably the only thing keeping ‘Sex Drive’ from being a National Lampoon, DVD release.   To boot, Marsden has pretty much been the selling point on this film from day one.   It doesn’t matter how many times they show it in the commercials or the trailer, seeing Marsden attempt to drop kick a half-opened garage door is comedy gold.

The other aspect to ‘Sex Drive’ that is hilarious is the donut costume that is the other backbone to the film’s marketing.   I don’t know who designed it, but it is a masterpiece of costume craftsmanship.   The right eye of the thing is a hatch that pops up revealing Zuckerman’s head.   The mouth moves up and down when he talks, something he works even when talking casually to his friends.   It’s really something to behold, but, like most else this film does right, it’s used way too sparingly.   It’s used near the beginning and then forgotten about.   The last part of the film where the donut costume reappears is really the only laugh-till-you-cry part of the move.

There have been several comedies out this year.   Some like ‘Disaster Movie’ and ‘College’ have crashed and burned.   Most, however, have been incredible hits.   With films like ‘Tropic Thunder’, ‘Pineapple Express’, and ‘Hamlet 2’, 2008 has been a great year for comedy.   With its unoriginal story and misuse of what is actually gets right, ‘Sex Drive’ would have been a mediocre comedy on an average year for comedy.   However, getting a release in 2008 can only hurt it.   ‘Sex Drive’ is one that is likely going to be lost in the shuffle, and that’s not unfortunate.

[rating:2/5]