"Sex Tape" is, in many ways, the perfect movie to act as a representation of Cameron Diaz's career.
Diaz is arguably the preeminent movie star working today — the super-hot girl next door, glitzy and glamorous, but with a naughty side. A carefully orchestrated, strategically placed naughty side that stops just this short of being a real naughty side without ever really taking risks.
"Sex Tape" is one of those films, a comedy made for adults that substitutes subversion with false lewdness, one that thinks the difference between a family comedy and an adult one is a soccer mom saying the words "dick" or "fuck."
Diaz and Jason Segel star as Annie and Jay, a suburban married couple who have found their sex life lacking. Jay works in radio, and Annie is a blogger on the verge of selling her blog (and, in a sense, herself) to a family-friendly corporation who loves her work...except for the fact that she occasionally writes about such topics as her husband's erection.
To celebrate their pending good fortune, Annie and Jay have a sorely needed night alone, during which they record themselves having (tee-hee) sex. They agree to delete the video, but of course Jay forgets, and this special app he has uploads the video to the cloud —and, consequently, to the half-dozen or so iPads he has given to his friends and family over the past couple of years. (See, what happens is he gets a new iPad all the time, and because of his awesome playlists, he neglects to wipe them, meaning they all sync all the time).
Of course, the video auto-uploads to the cloud, which means potentially everyone who has gotten an iPad from them (and yes, it's several people) have access to their video.
There are laughs to be had, most of them coming early when Segel and Diaz can interact organically. Once the plot kicks in, they're forced into contrived situations and make ludicrous decisions, and the movie collapses under the weight of its inability to move forward by itself.
Segel and Diaz are both fine in the sense that they're playing versions of themselves who are married to each other. We've seen these characters before in several different movies. Neither are stretching, but that's OK. Their personae are likable enough. Most of the comedy revolves around Diaz saying something tawdry or Segel showing us his over-the-top O-face.
Rob Corddry and Ellie Kemper are the sidekick couple, who are in a similar situation to their friends and, in some ways, look to live vicariously through them. There's a better movie where the four of them spend the second and third acts running down the remaining iPads, but the screenplay jettisons the movie's plot for a subplot that allows for a select cameo or two. As they are wont to do, Corddry and Kemper elevate the movie, but director Jake Kasdan doesn't seem to recognize this fact.
Rob Lowe also appears as Diaz's potential boss, who is not exactly what he seems. He also leaves the movie with an unresolved plot thread.
"Sex Tape" can be easily compared to the Steve Carell/Tina Fey flick "Date Night," and I hope you realize I don't mean that as a compliment. They're essentially identical movies, each about 30-somethings afraid they're growing older and getting tired of their spouse.
"Sex Tape" never gets quite as ridiculous as "Date Night," but once you've seen one, you've seen 'em all.