Sex Drive

Sex Drive (2008)

46% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 107 reviews)

Runtime: 109 minutes

Directed by: Sean Anders

Starring: Josh Zuckerman, Clark Duke, Amanda Crew, James Marsden, Seth Green

From: Summit Entertainment

I apologize for not having something new posted much sooner, but the end of the month and the start of this one I was so busy with a number of activities and finally I have the time to do this. It will be something I saw more than once on the big screen back in late 2008 and I’ve seen on DVD, but only its original cut and not the unrated cut (more on that later).

This was released in October of ’08 and it was advertised on TV well enough but for whatever reasons, it did not do all that well at the box office; that’s a shame. It’s one of those raunchy flicks starring young people; but, it’s not one of those mindless crapfests such as the previously reviewed College. Rather, this has a heart and you’ll enjoy it instead of being sent into alternating fits of rage and boredom. It’s about a dorky guy, Ian (Zuckerman) who creates an exaggerated persona online and he finds a girl on there and she asks to meet him in Knoxville, Tennessee. That’s a problem as he lives in suburban Chicago. But, the rest of his blended family happen to be out of town for the weekend, so they leave and he, his chubby dorky friend Lance (who nonetheless is suave with the ladies) (Duke) and his tomboy lady friend Felicia (Crew) “borrow” the 1969 Pontiac GTO-a sweet-looking ride-of Ian’s homophobic brother (Marsden) and they drive down to Tennessee so that he can have “an encounter” with the online girl, without knowing for certain if she’s actually a young lady, or a lady at all. Along the way they engage in various hijinx, including ending up on an Amish farm and meeting one sarcastic guy there (Green!)

The movie is of the vulgar type and not everything’s realistic (while it’s true that as seen in the movie, the Amish teenagers always go through a period of Rumspringa, I don’t think it’s a huge bash that rivals anything the largest frats on the largest campuses can put on, and certainly you won’t have Fall Out Boy performing there. Yes, they’re in the film), but overall the few times I’ve seen it I have always had a good time with it. There are funny moments throughout and it’s never dull; the story moves along about as fast as a ’69 GTO, as a matter of fact. Some things are on the predictable side (Felicia and Ian are “just friends” but things start to change…) and there are some curveballs along the way; it’s always entertaining and like I said it’s not just raunchy stuff the whole time. It’s a game cast where the leads are people that many people aren’t familiar with but they equate themselves well (Crew looks very attractive in the film, IMO); Duke is best known for being Michael Cera’s pal and does stuff online with him-I’m just going off of hearsay as that’s not the sort of thing I watch-and he’s a nice find. Marsden is great as a buff obnoxious lout who unveils a big surprise at the end and I’m not always a fan of Green-Robot Chicken’s popularity is beyond my comprehension-but he was pretty amusing in his role. You’ll probably recognize another familiar face or two as some character actors have some brief but good roles. So, if you like vulgar comedies but want to see something with a heart too, check this out.

The unrated cut on the DVD is 20 minutes (!) longer and while I’ve only seen the intro to it, I can tell you it’s a parody of unrated cuts with alternate takes and some blown takes too. As the intro (which is the opposite of subtle) states, unrated cuts on DVD are almost always BS as it really should be “an alternate cut” as usually it’s just added footage rather than more visceral stuff being cut out to avoid an NC-17 or R rating, depending on the rating they ended up with. So, the producers/director made it a gag and from what I hear it’s pretty humorous if you have the taste for something like that. I say it’s something that needs to be spoofed, so one of these days I’ll watch it.

I’ll be back on Friday with another review.