By now, there are two things that you can expect from any buzz-worthy summer comedy: a raunchy red band trailer and an unwelcome amount of product placement. For the new film Sex Tape, which reunites Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel with their Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan, we get both.
In Sex Tape, releasing July 25, Diaz and Segel play Annie and Jay, a married couple whose love life has gone sour. With hopes to rekindle the fiery heat they shared when they first dated, they decide to film themselves having sex – for three straight hours. Unbeknownst to them, Jay’s Cloud account uploads the footage for all of his friends and family members to view. Now, the couple has to reclaim the iPads they gave out as parting gifts at a Christmas party before their very private video is shared with the world.
Sex Tape looks like it will have some fun satirizing modern technology. “Nobody understands the Cloud!” Segel blurts at one point in the trailer. “It’s a f**king mystery!” At the same time, there is a remarkable amount of product placement, from the iPads to Sony’s Cloud computing. However, there should still be a good number of laughs (and based off the opening few seconds of the ad, a lot of humping). In my opinions, this looks a lot better than We’re the Millers, and could have a similarly leggy box office run in the late summer.
The script has promise, too, coming from Kate Angelo, a writer from Will & Grace and The Bernie Mac Show. Naturally, Kasdan’s TV background (Freaks and Geeks, New Girl) makes them a good match. Let us hope their quality, mixed with an inspired premise, can make for some big late summer laughs.
And hey, even if Sex Tape turns out to be lacklustre, at least Rob Lowe looks like he is having a blast.