Sex Drive: Just Gross-Out Teen Comedy Backed by Internet Hype

The aptly titled Sex Drive doesn't promise anything it knows it won't deliver. If the surprisingly mass internet campaign for such a small picture wasn't enough of a clue, the film has little going for it, settling for a well-worn groove of gross-out gags and random acts of violence. Director Sean Anders, whose last picture was 2005's little-seen Never Been Thawed, doesn't struggle with the material but can't seem to help rushing it. The film is a jumble of scenes under the guise of a road trip that brings to mind raunchy comedies like Road Trip or Old School but seems to be sorely missing the mark on delivering the same laughs. This is a boilerplate sex comedy that knows where it's coming from so it doesn't struggle to make the audience work too hard.Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a virgin. If you haven't figured out a good 30 percent of the jokes armed with this bit of information, Sex Drive should be a laugh riot. For the rest of us, Ian has met a young lady named Ms. Tasty on the Internet and disregarding any sense of safety, has agreed to meet her in person for what promises to be the fulfillment of his sexual fantasies. With his best friends Lance (Clark Duke, acting like he walked out of a Judd Apatow film and never looked back) and female-friend-maybe-love-interest-he's-probably-going-to-end-up-with-her-at-the-end-of-the-movie Felicia (Amanda Crew, who's actually pretty good), Ian steals his brother's prized car, a '69 GTO Judge, and hits the road. The brother, Rex, played by James Marsden, is one of two actors in the film who completely steal the scenes they are in, elevating it to negotiable comedy heights. The other actor is Seth Green, playing a sarcastic Amish man who happens to be a gifted engineer. His delivery alone makes the scenes he is in instantly re watchable while Marsden's moronic hyper-masculine Rex is a riot.

Maybe we're being too rough on the film, expecting more from it than it delivers but Sex Drive goes out of the way to plow headlong into any gross-out gag that comes its way. Plenty are derived from odd sexual habits or misspoken words in high-tension situations. Ian is saddled with enough awkwardness to render him unsociable while Lance is inextricably the ladies man not because he is capable of the role but because the film requires him to be. Felicia gets the least time in the cliche blender, coming out relatively whole as a character capable of a variety of emotions. At 109 minutes, the film overstays its welcome long after the obligatory (?) Fall-Out Boy cameo at what can be best described as an Amish frat party. The film stresses for some sort of emotion, whether it be friendship or a budding romance between Ian and Felicia. When those quiet scenes do arrive in the midst of the noise and fury and sex, they feel illegitimate, seemingly out of place in a film that glorifies immaturity and sexual satisfaction by any means necessary. If Sex Drive doesn't feel up to admitting what stock it comes from, why should we feel up to seeing it?