Review: Sex Drive (2008) [Reviewed By Clifford Kiyabu]

Directed by: Sean Anders
Written by: Sean Anders (screenplay) & John Morris (screenplay) Andy Behrens (book "All the Way")
Genre: Comedy
MPAA: Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use - all involving teens.
Released: 17 October 2008 (USA)
Starring: Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, James Marsden, Seth Green, Katrina Bowden, Charlie McDermott, Mark L. Young,

Plot: A high school senior drives cross-country with his best friends to hook up with a babe he met online.

Review: 6/10

My Thoughts: Based on the 2006 novel “All the Way” written by Andy Behrens, Sex Drive is a comedy about one man’s pursuit of getting lead and finding true love in the process. The film is yet another notch in the bed post of the ever so growing raunchy genre.

Yet while this film may look like another typical comedy, it really isn’t quite like the rest of the flock. It has a fairly decent story about a 17 year old boy named Ian (Josh Zuckerman) that’s simply tired of people hassling him for being a virgin, so after sweet talking a hot girl he met online he finally convinces her to meet up and go all the way with him. Only one problem; she’s expecting a football jock who drives a 69 GTO Judge and can bench-press 300lb, and the problem here is he’s, well, the embodiment of every single person who lies on their online profiles. Still though, even if he decides to do it, the girl lives half way across the country. But after his good buddy/the resident sexpert, Lance (Clark Duke) convinces him that if they make the journey there he’ll help him close the deal with the girl, so he steals his brother’s car and set off to getting lead which seems all too much easy, until their other friend, Felicia (Amanda Crew) joins them in the cross-country journey, which sets off nonstop problems and side journeys for the three of them, they’ll come by rednecks, Amish folk, cops, and being car jacked. The film, has a decent enough pace to go on, not movithough very entertaining and hilarious at times has its high points and sadly some seriously low points which makes it more or less somewhat of a mix bag.

On the high points, the film is outrageously funny mostly throughout the film, and can be as crude as they come in the raunchy genre; and aside from the comedy it also has a little heart, that give the story a little meaning, because upon their journey they also find themselves in the process, you can’t help but enjoy the ride as theses young teens go through the motions of sex, it’s defiantly the new “Road Trip” in my opinion. However though, as much as I liked the high points of this film, the movie really does have some seriously bad low points that can’t go ignored, first off; the characters in this film are not really that loveable, the main character Ian comes off as a sad and pitiful boy who’s simply too afraid to do anything, and takes shit by anyone and everyone, he has no real self-worth to himself. His best bud Lance is very bad depiction of a ladies’ man, he’s too much of Nerd to be one simple as that (I should know, takes a nerd to know one, we can sense our own. [Laughs]) Felicia was a blend between the average rocker chick and you’re typical Emo, Ian’s brother Rex come off too stereotyped as a typical ass, and isn’t really coming off all that believable if you ask me, but the most worst of all would have had been the two annoying characters Andy and Randy, who I can’t stress enough pissed me off, it’s nothing against the actors, far from it, in fact the actors did a pretty good job for the most part, but the characters they played were very much buzz killers, just seeing them on screen made the moment just a little less funny for me and believe me I tried hard to see pass the annoyance but it just wasn’t happening. , on a good note though, despite my major dislike of the characters, I found the film to be very enjoyable and all that made me hate the film was overwhelmed by some pretty decent sex jokes and some unbelievably hilarious moments

The Story is about: Eighteen year old Ian finally gets the opportunity to lose his virginity when a woman he meets on-line offers to have sex with him if he drives to Knoxville to meet her. Accompanied by friends Lance and Felicia, whom Ian has a thing for, but she in turn has a thing for Lance, take off on a road trip in Ian's brother, Rex's beloved 1969 GTO -- without permission of course.

As for the acting: Josh Zuckerman did an okay performance, though I felt that during the film he lacked in many places and I feel he only did a performance that was deemed fair and not great. Amanda Crew gave a mild entertaining performance, she’s a cute girl there’s no doubt about it, but I felt that her performance could have been better than it was, but still she has a fairly decent talent within her that may still have a chance to shine. Clark Duke was horrible, he proved to be nothing more than a mere cheep carbon copy of all the slightly husky nerds you see in today’s films who just so happens to be a ladies’ man at that too, which was the most unoriginal thing I have seen yet. Charlie McDermott and Mark L. Young were… well, you ever say someone who was so mind numbingly stupid that it made your head hurt? Well that’s what I got from their performance as Andy and Randy, they did not seem to contribute anything to the film but dimwittedness which for the life of me was not needed in any way, and in fact every scene they appeared in was a total buzz kill for me. It’s disappointing for me to say this, but James Marsden was unforgivably bad, how does one go from being an up and rising star in the business to playing a second string act? He would have been smart if he left this role alone to someone else who’d have fit the role better. Seth Green was probably the only real talent in this film, but this is because he knows funny, and playing the part of Ezekiel, a wise ass Amish auto mechanic is hilarious as heck, the only problem was I wished they’d have used him more in the film, and maybe the movie would have been much better than it turned out to be.

Final Say: Sex Drive had the potential to be so much more than it was, and could have been truly a comedy to watch of this era, however this is not the case and instead it came out missing more than hitting, overall I’d still say it’s at least rental fair if you still want to check it out but defiantly not worthy of buying, so rent it, but don’t buy it.

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