DVD Review: Sex Drive 2-Disc Special Edition
Latest Teen Comedy Goes for Raunch Factor, Succeeds
Sex Drive is a failed attempt at a modern teenage sex romp cum road movie comedy, however it tries very hard and barely manages to remain coherent.
Sex Drive Synopsis
Ian Lafferty (Josh Zuckerman) is a teen who works at the local mall, at a quiet donut outlet which he shamelessly promotes throughout the halls dressed up as their mascot, a giant Mexican Donut Man.
Having very few friends aside from his suave and self-assured friend Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew), life is going nowhere pretty fast for Ian, until the night he meets a promising girl online, who interests him in driving down to Knoxville Tennessee, where she'd gladly sleep with him.
Having nothing to lose save his virginity, Ian embark upon a journey to destiny, secretly borrowing his abusive jock brother's Pontiac GTO Judge muscle car. When Lance and Felicia join in on the fun by tagging along, the trio are in for a series of unexpected adventures, including some rednecks seeking revenge, some partying Amish engaging in Rumspringa (the ritual allowing them freedom amongst modern non-Amish, until they choose to accept Baptism within the community), as well as a mystery enemy on the road, daring him to a race at each encounter.
What Ian finds when he gets to his destination, teaches him about many valuable life lessons, especially that it's often pointless to seek happiness elsewhere, when it's usually right in front of you.
Sex Drive Overall Analysis
If any reader of this review recalls a movie with a similar theme, from the early 80's, rest easy, you're not crazy. It's true, this film's plot bears many similarities to the John Cusack / Daphne Zuniga romantic comedy The Sure Thing, where Cusack's Walter 'Gib' Gibson heads from East to West, in order to bed the perfect woman (in that case, a nubile Nicolette Sheridan).
Sadly, Sex Drive's Josh Zuckerman doesn't even have an ounce of Cusack's sex appeal, or charm, and so those attributes appear to be split somewhat evenly between himself and two friends. Clark Duke's Lance, a bespectacled, slightly overweight young philosopher, makes his way into many girls hearts (and pants), whereas Amanda Crew's Felicia embodies fearlessness and courage, as well as Zuniga's romantic aspirations.
The film boasts an interesting assortment of supporting actors: Seth Green plays a very talented Amish farmer, whose knowledge of car repair goes beyond the norm. His lines in the film are hilarious, and his sarcastic wit is the highlight of each scene he appears in. X-Men's James Marsden plays Ian's older brother Rex, a homophobic chauvinistic pig, who berates and beats up his kid brother, usually for kicks. Marsden lets loose for once, in a different role diametrically opposed from his goody two shoes roles of late.
Also look for comic talent David Koechner (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, The 40-Year Old Virgin), as a psychotic hitchhiker, who terrorizes the travelling trio as they head for Tennessee.
This film isn't exactly deep or thoughtful by any stretch of the imagination. Its goal was to provide as much crassness and pointless nudity as possible, simply to appeal to audiences of similar films of late. And so, viewers should see this film prepared for just that. What with the DVD's cover even promoting the film as "ruder, cruder, nuder", it's hard to expect Shakespearian drama.
Anyone seeking such lofty goals in their film experience will be spoiled. Anyone else would simply want to toss this one in the recycling bin, or use it as a coaster.
Sex Drive 2-Disc Special Features
Aside from the usual director's commentary and deleted scenes (usually deleted with good cause), the remainder of the extras are tongue-in-cheek, self deprecating faux features. Items offered are of the likes of "The Marsden Dilemma", where the director ponders over how to inform his star that he isn't a funny actor in the least; "Making a Masterpiece", an obvious in-joke to how uninteresting the behind the scenes perspective of such a project can be. More of the same appears throughout the rest of the features menu.
Note to collectors and nitpickers: the only difference between the two discs included here, is in terms of how much added nudity appears from one version to another. This is marginal; the filmmakers often go as far as simply replacing innocuous background extras from the rated version, with naked versions of the same, with no change to the story. Truly a waste of material. Somebody call Greenpeace.
4 out of 10 for being a lazy, shameless attempt to bank on previous genre films, and for over-expanding on the smallest of flimsy subplots. A few bonus points for clever one liners by Seth Green.
Sex Drive Two-Disc DVD Cover
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