Sex Drive

When I went to see Sex Drive I was half expecting most of the film to be a continuous romp. Boy was I surprised.

It is packed with jokes from start to finish that should appeal to a large number of people.

The level of the acting is one thing I will compliment. The actors seem to be enjoying themselves (I wonder why? Ho Hum).

At some points I did feel that things where a little stupid such as a couple of the sex scenes.

Sex Drive is a hilarious movie that can be throughly enjoyed by nearly anyone.

I couldn't bash "Sex Drive" in good faith. For a comedy of its type, and all of you know what I mean by this coming of age sort of comedy, it had a lot of slow parts that weren't funny, and needless sentimentality that only served to slow the movie down. However, when it was funny, it was super funny.

The ongoing gags were pretty notable, and performances were top notch, notably by Seth Green as the sarcastic Amish guy. This may reign as best sarcastic performance in any movie, ever. The energy between the various performers was right and helped execute most of the gags effectively. As I mentioned, I have complaints, but they are trivial. If you want some goofy humor to eat popcorn to, give it a shot.

I loved every minute of this movie!! If you are looking for a non-stop constantly-falling-out-of-your-seat film, then Sex Drive is perfect for you. It is an instant teen comedy classic, in my books. James Mardsen and Seth Green steals the show but up and coming actors: Josh Zuckerman and Clark Duke did extremely well for themselves and prove themselves to be the next big thing in the future. It is just about as funny than Superbad and American Pie (1,2,3) and the plot of the movie was just so simple and well-made. Hopefully, Sex Drive will be a teen classic in the next few years because it's extremely funny, raunchy & has a little bit of it's sweet side, too. Sex Drive is awesome and super hilarious!!!

So there was a screening of Sex Drive at the theatre, so I thought "what the hell?"

From the preview, I thought it could have gone one of three ways: 1. A horrible attempt at an R-rated comedy in the same fashion of a pretty good comedy a decade ago. (Like College tried for American Pie, and failed) 2. A mediocre R-rated comedy with bits here and there. 3. A movie that knows what it's going for and hits its mark.

I would have to say, this movie is very close to #3. The movie isn't a great movie, but it has no delusions on what it is. With the plot of a guy driving cross state just to get some ass, there's not a lot of directions you can go with it. The makers know this, so they make the best of it.

No real need to stress much on the story. It's simple, basic, predictable. Bad? I wouldn't say that. The story is really more of a momentum pusher than anything. It's really only there to prevent this from being a series of jokes and gags just jumbled together. There's no real big twist, a few lessons to be taken form it, but they all have been done before. You can pretty much tell what's going to happen at the end within the first 15 minutes. But the story isn't really the important thing here, so no real points taken off for that.

All the actors are good. Clichéd, yes, but they are likable. The goofy, virgin lead guy who's trying to get some tail is played wonderfully by Josh Zuckerman. Pulls it off flawlessly with all the awkwardness and uncertainty that the character would have. Amanda Crew is also really good at the "BFF" of Josh's character. The two have pretty good chemistry, even with all their awkwardly close moments. It isn't perfect, but being in some of those awkward situations, they were (while pushed a bit) familiar.

A surprise is James Marsden. You may remember him as Cyclops from X-Men, and he pulls off a great punk-ass older brother with a sense of humor of his own. He is the typical ass hole older brother in these kind of movies, but he pulls it over very well. Seth Green just seems like he's cruising through the movie. I think he's got a lot of talent and I knew even if the movie was going to be bad, he would provide a good set of laughs. And as a sarcastic Amish engineer genius, he's just fits in this movie seamlessly.

But I have to give a lot of credit to Clark Duke. His first real movie. He was a party extra in Superbad, if I'm not mistaken, the one who called McLovin' a bad ass. Like Seth Green, he just seems to glide through. He also has great chemistry with Josh Zuckerman. You can tell the two of them just had a really good time together on this. He is the suave ladies man who's guiding his pathetic best friend on his verge of losing his virginity, while getting some action himself. He doesn't have the look of the typical character, but he pulls it off excellently.

I put a lot of emphasis on the characters and actors. They were the backbone of the movie. Not the story, but the characters. There's also a hand full of supporting characters that do a good job at their parts, and an unwelcome (well, for me it was unwelcome) appearance by Fall Out Boy.

There are few things worse than a comedy that's not funny. There have been a serious excess of those as well. Dane Cook just had a movie a few weeks ago, and that was a haggard piece of crap. I actually have to say though, I laughed quite a bit in this movie. With the plot, there are going to be quite a few of the sex jokes, involving spooge, penises and homosexuality. Most of them though actually delivered. I can't actually say there were too many flat moments with the jokes. Yes, there were some, but the jokes that worked out-weighed those that didn't.

The climax got really over-the-top, but it did continue on with the laughs, and was satisfying. The closure did take a bit longer than necessary, but didn't drag. The movie was actually well paced and I was never bored.

This is no Superbad. It's not anywhere in that league. I walked out of this movie saying "This is 2000's Road Trip." No, Road Trip wasn't a masterpiece or one of those comedy powerhouses, but it was really good for what it was going for. An over-the-top, R-rated comedy. See it with a group of friends in the theatre. Definitely see it with a crowd, it will probably make it that much more enjoyable. 3.75/5

Also, if you saw the trailer and had no interest, then you probably would want to skip it. It has it's intended audience, and will probably please those people and few others.

Okay, so, Sex Drive: It's rude, it's certainly crude, but is it actually in any way good? That's the question that faces many teenage comedies of similar nature these days; so very often over the past decade, the answer unfortunately has been a resounding and overwhelming 'no', but there always remains a select few reminders that even the dumbest of comedies can still thrive upon just that. Sex Drive is thankfully one of these films. It's outrageous and ridiculous in its portrayal of teenage romance, filled with characters that speak more broadly as caricature than real, definable human beings, but it all works –for the most part- in the favour of its silly, edgy routine. Sure enough, it's a film that is far more likely to put a smile on the younger faces of the audience, but that assessment goes without saying; in short, there's some good fun to be had here, but only if you don't mind the gross-out variants of humour and can appreciate the comedy on its own merits. Expect anything more than that, and you'll be disappointed.

For all intents and purposes, Sex Drive rarely ever strays far from the road of teenage rom-coms. Taking place for the most part on the open road where many comedians make brief cameo appearances as wacky characters that bump into the main cast, the narrative that binds Sex Drive's gags together is something that has been done to death. In this vein, the movie can get tiresome—and at 110 minutes long, the biggest flaw becomes the sometimes meandering, directionless pace of which moves the plot along. Sure enough such sprawling pit-stops are usually followed by a series of great, laugh out loud bursts of humour, but this incessant need to fill up space needlessly makes Sex Drive feel like a much longer drive than it actually is.

That being said, despite the formulated, familiar approach to this road trip story, Anders and Morris do well to capitalise on the stronger elements of such a narrative. The cameos never feel redundant and fabricated; the trip itself gives way to some great comical situations; and characters, believe it or not, actually grow (albeit, very slowly) over the course of the journey. Furthermore, behind all the profane, raunchy sex jokes and slapstick lies a straight forward, but nevertheless engaging unrequited love story that doesn't feel tacked on and as derivative as it plays out on page. It's a romance that never quite takes off, but with decent characterisation and performances from those involved, it's enough to give the story a warm core that pays out with an ending befitting of your average genre movie.

To watch a movie like Sex Drive for the romance however, is a bit like eating a hot dog for the bun; the real drawing power and force of conviction that draws you into the surreal, ridiculous world displayed here is through the characters, and the awkward, downright hilarious jams they get themselves into. For the most part, the movie strikes gold most when the comedy is just that—character driven—and it's always fun to watch lead character Ian (Josh Zuckerman) constantly get into uncomfortable, cringe-inducing moments of embarrassment.

Of course, a lot of such moments succeed primarily upon the clever, rat-a-tat, teenage colloquial dialogue that Anders and Morris accentuate through their script, but a lot of it also comes down to the performances of the cast who bring their characters to life vividly and with shades of naturalism that brings out the script's modern, laid back feel. As a result, Sex Drive all the more feels casual, and while this again reinforces the slack attitude devoted to the meandering pacing, such a style works well to give the movie a personality of its own that reflects its characters.

In the end, although I had some qualms with the movie's runtime, and it's sometimes unfocused approach to narrative, I nevertheless had fun with what Sean Anders delivers here. It's a relentlessly convincing picture with a youthful vision that many directors so often forget or simply neglect to touch upon when making such movies. As a result, Sex Drive will undoubtedly speak a lot clearer to younger audience members than their older counterparts, but if you happen to be a part of that demographic, then there is definitely some great laughs to be had here; unabashedly immature and not afraid to get dirty, Sex Drive is a long ride, but it's worth it in the end for the fun that it expels over that trip.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)