Sex Drive: Unrated

Sean Anders

BY Scott A. GrayPublished Mar 3, 2009

If you're drawn to perverse teen sex comedies like American Pie and Road Trip, there's no reason you shouldn't spew up a bellyful of laughs over Sex Drive, especially this ridiculously over-the-top two-disc unrated version. Sex Drive's premise is essentially a mash up of the aforementioned flicks. Josh Zuckerman plays the loveably pathetic virgin, Ian, with more endearing awkwardness than Jason Biggs invested as the pie-fucker. Ian seeks to cure his virginal status with a cross-country road trip to bang a hottie he met on the internet. His two buddies come along for the ride: Lance, the suave and confident relatable ladies' man, and Felicia, his life-long best friend and secret crush. The plot is pretty much a non-issue in the film; it's all about the relationships, filthy dialogue and shock gags. To its credit, Sex Drive has some of the funniest crudely sweet acting, scenarios and improvisation outside of an Apatow production. Clark Duke, the unlikely choice for Lance, completely subverts the "popular attractive friend" stereotype by being the most confident normal dude imaginable. He's like a Jonah Hill you could actually believe does well with the ladies. Many of the funniest lines in the film come courtesy of his and Seth Green's improvised lines. The piss-taking unrated cut goes so far over the line of appropriateness in every aspect of the production that twisted minds like Duke and Green's have a field day. Actors burst into laughter, run scenes into the filthy ground and the director allows continuity to be broken and scenes to roll after "cut" has been called if there are laughs to be mined. Sean Anders even goes so far as to insert random naked men and women running through frames, just to make fun of the concept of the expectations on unrated film cuts. The irreverence extends through every aspect of the special features as well. "Making A Masterpiece" is a complete farce, as are "The Marsden Dilemma" and "Clark: Duke of the Internet," focusing on James Marsden being an ego freak and terrible actor and Clark Duke being no-name dead weight with no future. It's hard to know what to take seriously even in the commentary track. "Killing Time" is the real gold mine though. During a day off from shooting, Clark Duke videotapes a Speedo-clad friend impersonating Macho Man Randy Savage, running through the cast's hotel, harassing Amanda Crew and James Marsden while dishing weird PSA-style rants on environmental responsibility until the camera's battery died.
(Seville)

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