This weekend there were a few movies that came out that I had been looking forward to, including W. and Sex Drive (sorry Max Payne). I only had time to go on one date, so l flipped a coin and brought her along to Sex Drive (you’re welcome, N). I think it was a pretty good choice, even though I hopefully find time to see Josh Brolin do his thing before Quantum of Solace drops.
Yes, this is funny.
I can’t say I was expecting too much, but the trailer did have me feeling at least decent regarding my odds at having a good time, with its catchy soundtrack including Time to Pretend by MGMT, sexy Helvetica typeface, and Clark Duke (who was amazing in Clark and Michael).
As I watched, I was practically waiting for all of the cliched teen sex roadtrip comedy cliches. These are things like losing virginity to a dream girl (check), getting arrested (check), car breaking down (check), meeting weird people along the way (check), a lot of nudity or gross out jokes (check and check), and the ending where everything ends up great, considering how bad things were (check).
However, the last thing I would call this movie is derivative. It has all of the familiar components, but they come together in a way that left me laughing more than any comedy I’ve seen in awhile, including Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
The story – a loserish guy named Ian meets a girl on the Internet, and he decides he will finally lose his virginity to her. Tagging along are his charming buddy (Duke) and his cute best friend (Amanda Crew) that he is in love with even though she likes Duke. Love triangle on a road trip: classic. They borrow Ian’s jock brother’s (played incredibly over the top by James Marsden) car, and set out.
I’d hate to ruin all of the jokes, but of note was Seth Green’s sarcastic Amish character. From what I’ve seen of him, it basically is Green playing himself if he had a beard and drove a horse and carriage.
He gets the biggest laughs, along with the random and ridiculously awkward situations the movie is brimming with. Going back to Marsden, though, here he’s completely unhinged. He’s an ultra-macho, homophobic guy that loves his car more than anything else. Hilarity ensues.
This movie doesn’t have the heart or quotability of something like Superbad, and things happen pretty much exactly as you would expect regardless of the implausibility, but looking past that, this is a solid teen comedy. I’m not sure if someone outside of that demographic will be able to appreciate it, but if you’re looking to burn 2 hours and feel good coming out of the theater, you really can’t go wrong.
out of 4
1 Comment
November 13, 2008 at 3:27 pm
You only had time to go on one date = only one girl was sympathetic enough to go with you