PLOT:
A teenage virgin finds a possible soul mate in an internet chat room. And with the convincing of one of his friends, he takes his bullying brother’s car without permission and end up on a road trip to get laid. But you know those crazy teens, once the kinda hot female friend shows up for the ride, there are going to be all sorts of misadventures. Trailer park sex addicts, partying Amish and much, much more. It’s another case of teens gone wild.
REVIEW:
I liked AMERICAN PIE. In fact, I liked it a lot. I also really thought PORKY’S was hilarious. While not so much with the sequels, I still had fun with them as bad as they were. And of course, I really enjoyed SUPERBAD. So what about SEX DRIVE? Well, there you go… I have no idea. This is a movie that borrows heavily from every other one of those movies, and sort of reminded me of ROAD TRIP or EURO TRIP. But I think I found more in common with the latter of those films. A teen meets a hot chick on-line and wants to meet her so he can get laid. I have no problems with that story, because it can be funny. And while Sex Drive has some funny moments, those involving Seth Green and James Marsden, it just didn‘t generate the laughs I expected. When Seth Green does his Seth Green thing, except as Amish, it was pretty hilarious. I didn’t necessarily have any issues with Josh Zuckerman in the leading role, and I actually thought Amanda Crew was pretty charming. But Clark Duke I just didn’t get. He’s the “cool nerd”? Really? He really didn’t generate charisma or charm. I think this role could have been cast much better. I’ve seen this guy when he is actually funny, but this role and this actor didn’t feel right.
I’ve already described the plot, you know, a teen looking to get laid. But I will expand as we find Ian (Zuckerman), an awkward teen who is IM’ing with some hottie with the screen name, Ms. Tasty (Katrina Bowden) on a message board. He has told her a few white lies about who he is and sort of exaggerated on his body type. But hey, maybe she’s doing the same. But once he goes to bed, he has a nice little dream that she is servicing him. Well, when he wakes up, the doofus takes off his dirty underwear just in time for the whole family to come in and say hello… this includes dad’s new fiancé. I kept wondering if Jason Biggs had turned the script down as this was a truly “Jim” moment. In fact, there are a lot of “Jim” moments. So when the rest of Ian’s family goes away for the weekend, Ian’s friend Lance (Clark Duke) convinces him to take his bully brothers wheels. Ian’s brother Rex (James Marsden) is a major ass to his poor brother, but as an audience, we all laugh at his buffoonery. And yes, Mr. Marsden really is funny as the jock and overly homophobic big brother.
Oh, I can’t forget Amanda Crew. She plays Felicia, Ian’s best friend who might just have a thing for her best bud. Ya think? Of course, because this is a very, by the numbers teen sex romp from a script by Sean Anders and John Morris, based on the book called “All the Way” by Andy Behrens. Sean Anders also directed, and I give him credit for going all the way and making a crude, semi-hard R rated sex comedy. But it just wasn’t really all that funny. As I mentioned, I did laugh a few times when Green and Marsden were around. I even sort of smiled at that donut costume. Sex Drive is not a bad movie, but it is a major case of déjà vu that just didn’t inspire guffaws. The sick humor, including a trailer park sex sequence involving the promise of someone being shit on, or the white trash dad whose testicles visibly hang out of his boxers, offered a some gross out hilarity. But it all felt so uninspired and sort of dull. I did however enjoy much of the Amish community… seriously, who knew those folks like to party so much?
I really wanted to like this movie. The trailer looked as though it had promise and some of the supporting cast is quite good. And I will also give a couple of props to the final sequence where I was kinda sorta surprised with the Ms. Tasty storyline. But other than that, it is all very predictable without the heart that the American Pie crew offered… yes, I even liked Tara Reid in that. I would almost recommend this if you are into this type of movie and you need to add the “unrated” version to your Netflix cue. Hell, I might even give it another try in unrated form. But going to the theatre and spending your hard earned dollars… not so much.
My rating 3.5/10 — JimmyO