Minor Marvel Characters Make Major Movie Debut

Now playing at a multiplex near you:

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

(Dir. James Gunn, 2014)

The latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Gunn�s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, is for sure one of the funniest movies of the year.

Sure, it�s a big action-packed sci-fi spectacle, but for me, it was all about the laughs. And there are a lot of them, many coming from one-liners spouted by the lead, Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation, ZERO DARK THIRTY), who carries the movie like a reigning comedy champ.

Funnier still, is Pratt�s co-star, an animated raccoon named Rocket voiced by Bradley Cooper, in maybe my favorite performance of his, who�s as much a master of weaponry as he is wisecracks, employing both in battle.

In this adaptation of a long running comic book series that I�ve been unaware of despite the fact it has been in existence since the year I was born (1969), Pratt plays Peter Quill, who we first meet as child in 1988 played by Wyatt Oleff witnessing his mother�s (Laura Haddock) death in the film�s opening moments. The young boy is abducted by aliens immediately afterwards, and we flash forward 26 years.

Pratt, identifying himself as a �junker,� flies around in his spaceship called �The Milano� scouring various planets for stuff to steal while listening to an old school tape compilation of �70s hits called �Awesome Mix. Vol. 1.�

From the dark, rocky terrain of a planet named Morag, Pratt obtains a mysterious orb (the movie�s McGuffin) which is sought for evil purposes by the villainous Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), who sends the green-skinned Gamora (Zoe Saldana, who was blue in AVATAR) to fetch it.

After Pratt tries unsuccessfully to sell the orb the much more stable planet Zander, Saldana steals it from him, but a couple of bounty hunters (the aforementioned raccoon, and a tree-like creature named Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel) get caught up in their chase/fight sequence mix.

The friction fraught foursome gets arrested by the Nova Corps, an intergalactic military/police force stationed on Zander, and run by Glenn Close as Nova Prime Irani Rael, with the always reliable John C. Reilly as one of her high-ranking officers.

From there, the thrown together team joined by Drax the Destroyer (WWE pro-wrestler Dave Bautista), who�s bent on taking revenge on Ronan to murdering his family, break out of imprisonment (in a hilarious chaotic set-piece to the tune of Rupert Holmes� �Escape (The Pi�a Colada Song),� and set about to keep the dangerously powerful orb away from the destructive devices of Ronan, and his boss Thanos (Josh Brolin), who you may remember from the stinger at the end of THE AVENGERS.


Also caught up in this crazy, uber colorful mayhem, is a blue-skinned Michael Rooker (HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, The Walking Dead) as the leader of the Ravagers, a rag tag posse of alien ruffians also after the orb. Rooker�s gravel voiced scenery chewing makes you believe that extreme racist redneck stereotypes will no doubt flourish in the depths of space and other dimensions.

Now, it may seem silly redundant to say that this Phase 2 Marvel movie has a STAR WARS-ian swagger to it, as every summer sci-fi/comic book contender draws upon the blueprint of George Lucas� original 1977 space opera, but with this particular entry with its motley crew onboard a hunk of junk spaceship traveling to seedy ports thing a-goin� on, I can't help going there.



Also, it has more than one Han Solo figure present in the rogue smartass bravado of both Pratt and Cooper, leaving Diesel�s Groot to be our Chewbacca stand-in. There�s a great running gag involving how Groot can only say �I am Groot,� and how each time (with different Diesel inflections), Cooper�s character can understand what he�s really saying, a sort of Han and Chewie-ish situation.



Bautista's Drax being able to only take things literally (�Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast. I will seize it.�) is another highly amusing thread.

The big ass CGI- saturated battle sequences were a bit too visually cluttered for my tastes at times, but the sheer amount of fun I had with what director Gunn and his co-screenwriter Nicole Perlman kept hurtling at me and the audience made that not matter so much.

Just like Pratt�s coveted cassette compilation is called, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY is an awesome mix. It takes nifty sideline superheroes, only known to hardcore comic fans, and makes major stars out of them (it's also certainly a star-making part for Pratt). But more importantly it made me a laugh a lot, while it proved once again that the Marvel formula - Stan Lee cameo included � has a lot of life left in it.

And, of course, stay for the traditional post-credits scene, which, I won�t spoil, but I will say that it hints at the resurrection of an infamous Marvel character apparently still trapped in a world he never made. That probably is a bit of a spoiler, sorry.

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The Much Better Than Expected James Brown Biopic GET ON UP

GET ON UP (Dir. Tate Taylor, 2014)

  

I wasn�t psyched about the prospect of a PG-13 rated
James Brown biopic from the director of THE HELP, yet Tate Taylor�s GET ON UP
far exceeded my expectations.



Don�t get me wrong, it�s no masterpiece. It�s a bit
disjointed, and suffers from many of the tired true-life story tropes that
bogged down Clint Eastwood�s JERSEY BOYS, but it�s anchored by an invested,
confident performance by Chadwick Boseman as the Godfather of Soul, and its
concert sequences are electrifying.

Boseman, best known for his portrayal of another African American who made history, Jackie Robinson in Brian Helgeland's 42 last year, doesn't really resemble James Brown but he's got his voice, inflections, and definitely his dance moves down. It satisfyingly shows that Boseman has worked hard to step into the shoes of the hardest working man in show business.

Scripted by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, who co-wrote FAIR GAME and EDGE OF TOMORROW, the film bounces around through the decades with each year given a title like �1965: Mr. Please Please Please.�



After a beginning shot of Brown walking through a dark backstage hallway towards the sound of screaming fans (hello again, WALK THE LINE, and its satirical sister WALK HARD), Taylor delves right into one of the seedier stories of the man's past: his PCP fueled tirade with a shotgun in tow towards a room full of insurance agents, one of whom made the mistake of using Brown's private bathroom in his business located in the same building.



This incident bookends the timespan-hopping bulk of the movie which takes us from Brown's poor childhood living in a rundown shack in the middle of South Carolina woods with an abusive father (Lennie James), and neglectful mother (Viola Davis) to his legendary performances at Apollo Theater in 1963 (one of the greatest live albums ever) the T.A.M.I. show in 1964 (one of the greatest concert films ever) his riot-quelling show in Boston the night that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, his triumphant concert at the Olympia Hall in Paris in 1971 (another essential live album), and back again to his youth.



I so wanted to leave the version of Brown as a boy (played by twins Jordan and Jamarion Scott) behind, but the film kept bringing him back into the time-shifting narrative, even surreally inserting him into a later-day scene to make some sort of point that I'm not sure I understand.



Despite that Brown sang that this man's world �wouldn't mean nothing without a woman or a girl,� we don't learn much about his first two wives, played by Jacinte Blankenship and Jill Scott, except that they had to put up with a lot of shit.



The movie focuses more on Brown's friendship with Famous Flames bandmate Bobby Byrd played by Nelsan Ellis (True Blood, THE BUTLER), and his relationship with his manager Ben Bart, 

well acted by Dan Aykroyd, who appeared with the real Brown in THE BLUES BROTHERS back in the day.



These scenes are fine, but perfunctory and the same device of breaking the fourth wall - i.e. Brown talls directly to the camera throughout the film - that JERSEY BOYS did to death, doesn't help matters much either.



But, again, the fact that somebody with the name Chadwick Boseman can capture the fiery force of nature of the Funky President in so many standout scenes is cause for celebration.



There are times when Boseman's Brown comes on like a caricature, but then Brown often did in real life. One only needs do a Google image search or spend time with some clips of the man on YouTube to see that Boseman does a really respectable job with the role. 



Sure, I would've liked to learn more about how Brown's saxophonist Maceo Parker (Craig Robinson), who had many complaints about how his boss fined band members for making mistakes, left to join Parliament/Funkadelic in the '70s then returned to the fold in the '80s, or spent a little more time with Little Richard, wonderfully played by Brandon Mychal Smith, but then we're talking mini-series territory and the film, at 138 minutes, is long enough.



But Boseman's Oscar worthy performance surrounded by a roster of some of the greatest soul and funk music (all the original recordings) makes for a must see in my book (or on my blog).



So despite its many flaws, including a very uneven flow, GET ON UP is about as good as a PG-13 rated
James Brown biopic from the director of THE HELP can be.

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BOYHOOD: The Film Babble Blog Review

BOYHOOD (Dir. Richard Linklater, 2014)

Richard Linklater�s much buzzed about BOYHOOD is the best, and most real feeling film of the year so far. It takes us on an engrossing journey through the life of a boy from age 5 to age 18, covering the significant events in that timespan with powerful poignancy.

It�s able to tell its simple coming-of-age tale so well for one simple, astounding reason: writer/director Linklater shot the film intermittently over 12 years, capturing actor Ellar Coltrane stretch by stretch as he grew into early adulthood.

Along for the real-time ride is Patricia Arquette as Coltrane�s beleaguered mother, Linklater regular Ethan Hawke as his flighty father, and Lorelei Linklater (the director�s daughter) as his sister.

When the film begins in 2002, to the tune of Coldplay�s �Yello,� parents Arquette and Hawke have been separated for some time.

Despite his estranged wife taking the kids and moving away to Houston, Hawke hopes for reconciliation, but it doesn�t seem likely as he�s an unemployed musician, and Arquette has eyes for her new psychology professor (Marco Perella).

Like everything else in the film, this is seen through Coltrane�s eyes so at times we only get glimpses of such and such event � something that effectively conveys how kids� memories can be.

Arquette marries Perrella, but he turns out to be an abusive alcoholic so after some appropriately unspecified period of time she uproots the family again. Meanwhile Hawke sheds his deadbeat dad skin, and marries a nice Christian lady (Jenni Tooley) whose mother (Karen Jones) gives Coltrane his first Bible (personalized!), while her father (Richard Andrew Jones) gives him a rifle for his fifteenth birthday.

Hawke�s birthday present to Coltrane is much more important: a three CD compilation he put together entitled �The Beatles: Black Album,� a collection of the best tracks from the solo work of the fab four (See the track listing here). This especially touched me because as a Beatles fan, I�ve made a likewise mix and have known so many others that did the same thing � i.e. try to make a new album by the band from the highlights of their post Beatles' careers. 

Since DAZED AND CONFUSED, Linklater has expertly blended music into his movies � here, with a soundtrack of 40 songs by such seminal artists as Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Yo La Tengo, Gnarls Barkley, The Black Keys, and Wilco � he�s made the a stirring soundtrack to a life; an awesome mix that gives that gives Chris Pratt�s coveted �Awesome Mix Vol. 1� cassette in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY a run for its money.

Within the naturalistic flow of BOYHOOD, Coltrane develops skills as a photographer, gains and losses a high school girlfriend (Zoe Graham), and has to deal with another of his mother�s drunk spouses, lastly a Afghanistan war veteran played by Brad Hawkins (�I�ve made some bad life choices,� Arquette says).

Through all these events, large or small, Linklater�s exceedingly well constructed film says a lot about the passing of time. It�s never preachy or pretentious about it, it just observes how people and times change yet still stay the same in a way that many movies have tried but never pulled off as touchingly.

Linklater's gamble that this would be movie-making time well spent really paid off in Coltrane's understated performance, matched with some of Arquette and Hawke's best acting.

Longtime Linklater cinematographers Lee Daniel and Shane F. Kelly really outdo themselves here too � the film is full of striking shots of Texan locales, and crisp close-ups of Coltrane and the cast.

Its 2 hour and 45 minute length may put some people off, but remember Ebert: �No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.� 



Linklater has done something really special here, something he�s come close to in his excellent BEFORE films, which also well utilize Hawke and the passage of time, he�s shown how much genuine, overpowering emotion can be triggered by a such a cleverly sincere cinematic experiment.

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Luc Besson�s LUCY: Over-The-Top Yet Still Underwhelming

Opening today at a multiplex near you...

LUCY (Dir.Luc Besson, 2014)

It�s too bad that Scarlett Johansson�s Marvel Universe co-star Samuel L. Jackson isn�t here to exclaim �check out the big brain on Lucy!� PULP FICTION-style, because Luc Besson�s new sci-fi thriller keeps asking us to do just that.

Johansson�s Lucy is an American student in Taipei, Taiwan, who gets forced into being a drug mule for an evil Korean crime lord (Choi Min-sik). But the colossal catch is that the drug the bad guys implant in our protagonist is a powerful synthetic called CPH4 (which looks a lot like the bright blue crystal meth from Breaking Bad), which increases one�s control over their mind rapidly bit by bit until it reaches 100% brain capacity.

This gives Johansson hyper-intelligence, superhuman strength, and the ability to change her metabolism, but this alteration in her body�s chemistry means she�ll need more of the drug within 24 hours or she�ll start decomposing. So Johannson travels to Paris to track down the other drug mules and confiscate their CPH4 with the help of Amr Waked as a grizzled French cop.

Morgan Freeman is on hand as a neuroscientist who first appears in cutaways from the main action lecturing a college classroom his theories about the brain�s untapped potential. These bits capture Freeman in narrator mode (when is he not in narrator mode?), and, mashed with cuts to nature footage, and time lapse cinematography, serve to visually sucker punch us with heady imagery and lofty conceptual themes.

This makes for some watchable eye candy especially when it comes to the fun of seeing Johansson kick lots of ass with her mind, but all the pseudo intellectual posturing that all the collective conscience of all humanity contains the entire history of the universe and �wow, what if we could tap into that?� seems purposely aimed to shoot way over the heads of most movie-goers so they�ll think the movie is way smarter than it is.

Johansson beautifully builds upon the emotionless alien persona she exhibited in Jonathan Glaser�s UNDER THE SKIN earlier this year largely because we get to witness her invested transformation from college party girl to atomic super-heroine. Unfortunately as the climax approaches, Johansson literally gets absorbed into the surreal set pieces � i.e. she morphs into a black tentacle mass of squid�s limbs taking over a computer lab � as her presence becomes less and less interesting.


LUCY takes the �Flowers for Algernon�/CHARLY � i.e. everyman takes drug and gets super smarts - scenario, also recently utilized in the Bradley Cooper vehicle LIMITLESS and filters it through the �to understand how we live now, let�s begin at the very beginning� thesis of Terrence Malick�s THE TREE OF LIFE, which means, yep, there are dinosaurs. There's also a bit of Danny Boyle's time lapsing intros/outros from 127 HOURS happening too. I guess it�s all part of life�s rich pageant as Inspector Clouseau would say.



But for all these influences and/or pretensions, there�s little that�s actually thought provoking about the over-the-top yet still underwhelming LUCY. It tries so hard to be mind blowing, but it keeps coming up short. 


That said, Besson�s film is a vast improvement over THE FAMILY, his misguided mob family comedy last year, and it appealingly harkens back to his late �90s cult classic THE FIFTH ELEMENT. I also appreciate that it�s a summer blockbuster wannabe that isn�t a franchise entry, and isn�t in 3D.

However, no matter how much its stylish energy tries to obscure it, LUCY is a silly popcorn picture matinee masquerading as egghead cinema.

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A MOST WANTED MAN: The Film Babble Blog Review

Now playing at an indie art house near you:

A MOST WANTED MAN

(Dir. Anton Corbijn, 2014)

In what�s sadly one of his final performances, Philip Seymour Hoffman looks horrible.

This certainly fits the part, as Hoffman�s character, G�nter Bachmann, in this adaptation of John le Carr�s 2008 espionage novel is a pale, sweaty, boozy German mess of man wrapped in a schlumpy, rumpled suit who�s the head of, as he puts it, �an anti-terror unit that not many people know about, and even less like.�

The scenario of the film, the third feature length production from former music video director Anton Corbijn, is set in present day Hamburg, which was, as the opening titles tell us, where Mohammed Atta and his fellow conspirators planned the 9/11 attacks.



The German port has been on red alert ever since so when a mysterious hooded half-Chechen, half-Russian immigrant (Grigoriy Dobrygin) suspected of being a Jihadist enters the country illegally, Hoffman�s agency tracks him as a potential terrorist threat.

Dobrygin, having escaped a Turkish prison, has come to Hamburg to claim a huge inheritance from his corrupt Russian colonel of a father, with the help of Rachel McAdams as a human rights lawyer.

Caught up in these shady complications are Willem Dafoe as a private banker in charge of Dobrygin�s father�s funds, Robin Wright in a brunette wig as a CIA agent who�s not to be trusted, and Homayoun Ershadi as a prominent Muslim professor, who Hoffman suspects will channel the money from Dobrygin�s inheritance to Islamic radicals.

Being that it�s a sparely paced, gray-toned thriller, A MOST WANTED MAN may put off some movie-goers as being cold and as hard to follow as the last adaptation of a le Carr� bestseller, Tomas Alfredson�s TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, but Corbijn�s take on the material, working from a screenplay by Andrew Bovell, is actually very straight forward, that is, if you pay close attention. I will concede, however, that it is an extremely icy study of the least glamorous aspects of spy work.

At first, Hoffman�s untimely death hovers over the film�s proceedings, but, as a testament to how amazing an actor he was, that fades away. We then only see and hear him as the jaded chain-smoking, hard drinking intelligence operative whose subtle methods are thought of as being redundant in today�s world of counter terrorism.

Hoffman�s scenes with Dafoe, in which the two distinguished actors� hushed toned German accents duel it out in the shadows of salvage yard meetings, smolder with intensity. Likewise the jarring climax, a superbly shot sequence that�s as haunting as hell.

This fine follow up to Corbijn�s excellently artsy 2010 George Clooney vehicle THE AMERICAN is obviously elevated because its Hoffman�s last completed film as the lead, but it's still well worth seeing regardless.

Hoffman himself is always worth seeing because he would completely become his characters. And here his character is the character of the film � weary, depressed, deeply cynical, yet still ideally determined to try to �make the world a safer place.�

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Monty Python: Older, Fatter, But Still Funny As F***

Last weekend, on Sunday, July 20th, my wife and I attended and laughed a lot at a live broadcast of �Monty Python Live (Mostly),� featuring the legendary British comedy group�s final performance ever (or so they claim) before a sold-out audience of 15,000 at The O2 Arena in London, England.

The event, the last of a 10 show run, also sold-out at our venue, North Hills 14 in Raleigh, N.C., and from what I hear, at many of the 2,000 theaters around the globe that carried the broadcast, indeed proof that Python still has powerful pull even at this late date.

Despite some annoying sound glitches at the beginning, it was a hilarious delight seeing the surviving members - John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin � on stage together for the first time since their Hollywood Bowl concerts in 1980, energetically perform a revue of such classics as �Nudge, Nudge,� �Spam,� �Argument Clinic,� �Parrot Sketch,� �The Lumberjack Song,� and, of course, �Always Look on the Bright Side of Life� on a massive set with an orchestra (conducted by longtime Python collaborator John Du Prez) a couple dozen dancers, giant video screens, and, at one point, during the �Every Sperm is Sacred� number, candy-striped penis-shaped cannons that spewed confetti all over the audience.

The show�s tagline �One Down, Five to Go,� refers to the sad fact that sixth member Graham Chapman died in 1989, but Chapman�s presence was felt throughout the three hour program in the form of footage mostly from their classic BBC program Monty Python�s Flying Circus used to link the live segments and songs, and in lines like �He�s gone to join Dr. Chapman� added to �Parrot Sketch� with the audience�s roaring approval.

Much of the material presented was similar to that immortalized in the 1982 concert film MONTY PYTHON LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL � including the use of the filmed �Silly Olympics� and �The Philosophers� Football Match� bits from the rare German episodes of Flying Circus � but there were several routines from their last motion picture, MONTY PYTHON�S THE MEANING OF LIFE, that had never been publicly performed before.

Those included an expanded version of �The Penis Song� sung by a cheeky as can be Idle, the aforementioned �Every Sperm is Sacred,� �Galaxy Song,� which is capped off by filmed cameos by physicists Brian Cox and Stephen Hawking (an audience shot afterwards showed Hawking in attendance), and �Christmas in Heaven,� which begins with an excerpt of Chapman singing from the original film.

Sketches that I was pleasantly surprised to see: �Vocational Guidance Counselor,� �Anne Elk's Theory on Brontosauruses,� and �Protestants Can Use Condoms� (also from THE MEANING OF LIFE).

I was also elated that actress Carol Cleveland, who�s been there since the beginning appearing on Flying Circus as well as all of the Python�s movies and stage shows, was there to reprise her pivotal parts. Guest appearances by Eddie Izzard, Mike Myers, and Warwick Davis helped liven things up as well.

Since I, and most watching, knew every line, it was funniest when the Pythons went off book. While quips about Palin�s �boring� travel shows, and Cleese�s multiple marriages were scripted, Cleese�s asides about bad reviews in the Daily Mail in the midst of the �Parrot Sketch�/ �Cheese Shop� mash-up apparently weren�t planned as they amusingly sidetracked, yet still didn�t sabotage Palin�s quick on his feet performance.

Having disliked many previous repackagings of Python, such as Idles�s musicals �Spamalot,� and �He�s Not the Messiah (He�s a Very Naughty Boy),� and the animated biodoc of Chapman: A LIAR�S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, I was so happy that �Monty Python Live (Mostly)� was a cringe free 45th anniversary celebration as well as a fitting send-off to the greatest, most influential comedy group of all time.

Older, fatter, but still funny as fuck, the Pythons put on a Hell of a last performance that I�ll definitely purchase when it inevitably gets a Blu ray/DVD release, with hope later in the year.

For those who can�t wait, however, �Monty Python Live (Mostly)� will be re-broadcast at many theaters on Wednesday, July 23rd and Thursday, July 24th. Click here for more info.

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The Forced Farce SEX TAPE Plays It Too Safe

SEX TAPE (Dir. Jake Kasdan, 2014)

Jake Kasdan�s follow-up to his lackluster 2011 BAD TEACHER, which re-unites that film�s stars, starts promising with Cameron Diaz mommy blogging about how her and her husband Jason Segel were once sex-crazed college sweethearts.

Diaz�s voiceover takes us through an amusing opening montage of flashbacks, featuring Diaz and Segel fornicating every chance they get; everywhere they can on campus. But now, as she laments, they�re married with two children and tons of adult responsibilities, leaving very little time for intimacy.

So Diaz decides to send the kids off to her mother�s, dress up like Roller Girl from BOOGIE NIGHTS, and entice her hubby to try every position in �The Joy of Sex.� Segel loves the idea (�I�m very excited right now!�), and sets up his new iPad to record their sexy-time activities.

After their three hour session, Segel stupidly doesn�t delete the video like Diaz asks him to do, and in the next day it gets leaked out to all the iPads that he�s given away to friends as gifts (he�s a music industry exec � reminiscent of Paul Rudd's character in THIS IS 40 - who constantly buys new iPads to upgrade, you see). As mysterious texts taunt the couple about their video�s embarrassing content, Diaz and Segel frantically scramble to keep their friends, neighbors, and even the postman from seeing it.

This is a perfect setup for some juicy social satire, but sadly SEX TAPE takes turns into severely strained sitcom terrain. Diaz and Segel running around to steal back the offending iPads takes us through several exceedingly stupid scenarios, especially one involving Rob Lowe, no stranger to sex tapes, as a CEO of a company interested in buying Diaz�s mommy blog.

Diaz and Segel deceive their way into the creepy Lowe�s mansion, and while Segel is chased by a trained attack dog while trying to retrieve his iPad, Diaz snorts cocaine with Lowe as Slayer blares on the stereo.

This sounds funnier than it is, as I bet much of the movie would in description, but the sloppy execution creaks resulting in more cringes than laughs.

Rob Corrdry, who always seems to be the sleazy best friend to the male lead in these movies, and Ellie Kemper (The Office, BRIDESMAIDS) tag along as Diaz and Segel�s neighbor friends, whose son (the obnoxiously smug Harrison Holzer) turns out to be the one who discovered the video. Holzer tries to blackmail Segel with the threat of uploading their film to YouPorn unless he�s paid $25,000, so then the plot goes from getting back all the iPads to breaking into the pornographic website�s headquarters to get the video off their server.

For all of Segel�s constant yapping about how nobody understands �the cloud,� and the privacy issue conflicts that the film flirts with, SEX TAPE really doesn�t have any real take on touchy subject of sex in the age of the internet. Its only semblance of a point of view, offered by Segel after finding an eleven inch double-sided dildo in a drawer in Lowe�s home, seems to be that everybody has sexual fetishes that they�d prefer to keep private.

Despite that plenty of Diaz and Segel�s flesh is on display, this forced farce is tediously unsexy. It keeps dangling the carrot of racy fun in front of its audience, then snatches it away again and again. Even when it gets to its HANGOVER style finale � i.e. in which we finally get to see a bit of the shenanigans the whole film has been teasing � the clunky slapstick in each shot sabotages any sense of titillation.


SEX TAPE doesn�t improve much on Kasdan�s BAD TEACHER (soon to have a sequel) and it comes nowhere near the comic heights of the director�s best film WALK HARD. It�s a shame because Diaz and Segel have good comic chemistry together � their excited back and forths made me giggle a few times � but they so deserve a much sharper, way weightier screenplay than what Segel co-scripted with Kate Angelo, and Nicholas Stoller.

I so wanted to like it because Diaz and Segel make such a likably attractive yet dorky couple. It's too bad that they're stuck in this throwaway of a summer comedy, one that, much like Ben Falcone's mediocre Melissa McCarthy vehicle TAMMY, overestimates how laughter it can get from its talented cast riffing on top of a bare bones lowbrow premise.

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