
I rented this because Redbox has a delayed release pattern and therefore “A Million Ways to Die in the West” isn’t yet anywhere to be found at the local neighborhood 7-11. “Sex Tape” is about as bad as you’d expect. Despite a talented cast, the movie’s a dud, both as comedy and as romance. The script is riddled with cliches (Segel and Diaz have to re-discover “the reason you started fucking in the first place”) and nearly every attempt at giving its audience the feels lands with a thud. It’s the sort of film that believes a character naming off a checklist of strange, quirky-sounding porn sites is shocking and therefore automatically guffaw-inducing. Whether due to his own failings or due to having to bounce off of Diaz’s mediocre comedic talents, Segel’s timing is off, and such performance flaws lead to a genuine lack of chemistry between the two leads. It doesn’t help that the characters are consistently placed in situations that stretch suspension of disbelief, such as a climactic scene where Diaz snorts cocaine in order to impress the CEO of a company, or when Segel is nearly blackmailed by his best friend’s son. As said best friend, Rob Corddry provides a few laughs, but it’s too little too late.
Grade: D+