Directed by Sean Anders. I like a good teen sex comedy but there aren't a lot of them around and there are lots of shitty ones. They shouldn't be so disposable, but they are generational. They're aimed squarely at 17 year-olds, in ten years there will be a new crop of 17 year-olds, and this is why evolution of the genre can be minimal. Teen sex comedies can be about jobs, road trips, school, body-switching and maybe murder -- and that's about it. Re-hashing is not just excusable, it's expected.
"Sex Drive" is a road movie, and a very good one -- a re-hash of another good one, Rob Reiner's "The Sure Thing," from 1985. Not a re-make, a re-hash. Different story, different characters, just a bunch of the same things. It's a good thing. "Sex Drive" has the three essential elements of a good teen sex movie: a truly sympathetic main character (well played by Josh Zuckerman), some goal other than loss of virginity (this involves a vintage Pontiac GTO), and funny ideas for things to happen (my favorite involved a opossum).
"Sex Drive" has some other things that bring a movie like this to the cut above: when the best friend is genuinely funny and not just an asshole (a very difficult role well played by Clark Duke), good performances from the incidental characters (a brilliant role by Seth Green), and good payoff to a running gag that I shouldn't spoil here involving the main character's older brother.
Couldn't put this up there with "Risky Business" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" but "Sex Drive" ranks with the '90s' "Can't Hardly Wait" or the '80s' "Sixteen Candles."
Allow me to be the wise-ass who says that technically there's a new crop of 17-year-olds every day, not just every 10 years.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a new father with one eye on the clock.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one and a half eyes.
ReplyDelete