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Sex Tape | 2.5/5

SINGAPORE — For a film titled Sex Tape, I’m sorry to inform you that there wasn’t as much sex or even tape as one would expect. What’s on tap though are partial celebrity nudity, some formulaic wink-wink comedy and a lot of teasing without tantalising.

Sex Tape's Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz and roller skates.

Sex Tape's Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz and roller skates.

SINGAPORE — For a film titled Sex Tape, I’m sorry to inform you that there wasn’t as much sex or even tape as one would expect. What’s on tap though are partial celebrity nudity, some formulaic wink-wink comedy and a lot of teasing without tantalising.

Sex Tape reunites 2011’s Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan with the always endearing Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel. The two play Annie and Jay, a couple whose sex life was spectacular until marriage and two kids. So out comes the idea to rekindle their sex life by privately recording a marathon sex session on Jay’s iPad — only for it to become public when it gets leaked onto Jay’s Cloud network and numerous other iPads. Panic — and a madcap plan to right this very embarrassing wrong — ensues.

Diaz and Segel are the best actors for this kind of raunchy comedy: Solid comedic thesps with a knack for slapstick and with no qualms about showing derrieres. And why not, if you have Diaz’s hot body. At 42, she clearly shows why she’s still one of Hollywood’s sex symbols.

The pair tries very hard but even their sweet ditzy chemistry is not enough to hold together a ramshackle screenplay. Sex Tape really only has one joke and it wears thin pretty quickly. Director Kasdan has trouble finding the right tone, veering wildly between crude hard-R comedy and warm-hearted romcom-esque “teachable” moments.

Given the premise, it’s a shame the movie doesn’t push the envelope as much as it could and, perhaps, should. There are a handful of genuinely solid large laughs sprinkled throughout, including the in-jokey casting of a hilarious Rob Lowe (himself a survivor of a 1980s sex tape debacle) as Annie’s potential boss who likes Disney-inspired artwork, and an amusing uncredited cameo by a big name funnyman as a porn entrepreneur. But that only leaves you wishing and wanting more of the same, and less of a tired iPad commercial.

Dirty minded yet wholesomely executed, bawdy but bland, it feels like Sex Tape can’t seem to get out of neutral, even if it’s ready to rev up and go all night long.

(R21, 90 mins)

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