Sex Tape is a 2014 American comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Kate Angelo, Jason Segel, and Nicholas Stoller. Starring Segel, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry, Ellie Kemper, and Rob Lowe, the film was released on July 18, 2014, by Columbia Pictures.
Plot
Jay and Annie are a couple who have sex at every chance they can get. After having two children, they have fewer opportunities to have sex. While the children are away one night, they try to reignite their sex life. After Jay struggles to get an erection, Annie suggests making a sex tape. They film themselves having sex in every position listed in The Joy of Sex. After Annie asks Jay to delete the tape, he ends up instead inadvertently synchronizing the video to several iPads the couple had given away over time. After failing to get it out of the cloud, they set out to get back all of the gifted iPads, leading to a series of awkward encounters and close calls.
After collecting the iPads and deleting the videos, their friend's son threatens to upload their sex tape to YouPorn unless they give him $25,000. After failing to get the money, they break into the YouPorn headquarters and begin to destroy their servers. Their plan is quickly thwarted when an alarm sounds. The owner and his cronies confront them and threaten to call the police, but agree not to do so in exchange for $15,000 to cover the damage. He also removes their video and explains that all they had to do to have a video removed was send him an e-mail request for such removal. After they have deleted all but one copy of the video, Jay and Annie decide to watch the video once themselves. Afterwards, they take the USB flash drive containing the video and go outside to smash it with a hammer, blend it, burn it with fire, and bury the pieces.
Cast
- Cameron Diaz as Annie
- Jason Segel as Jay
- Rob Corddry as Robbie
- Ellie Kemper as Tess
- Rob Lowe as Hank Rosenbaum
- Nat Faxon as Max
- Nancy Lenehan as Linda
- Randall Park as Edward
- Dave "Gruber" Allen as Mailman
- Jack Black (uncredited) as the owner of YouPorn
Production
Development
Sony Pictures acquired the script in June 2011. In late October 2011, Nicholas Stoller was in discussions to direct the film, beating out Mark Waters.
Casting
Jason Segel was considered for the male lead while Reese Witherspoon, Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Rose Byrne, and Jennifer Garner were all considered for the female lead. In March 2012, Jake Kasdan was announced as the director for the film. At the time, Cameron Diaz had been named as a possibility for the role of Segel's wife, but she entered negotiations only in April 2013.
Filming
Principal photography began on September 12, 2013 in Newton, Massachusetts. Hank's house is situated in the western suburb of Weston, Massachusetts.
Release
On March 17, 2014, the first poster and some photos from the film were released, followed by a red band trailer on April 2, 2014 and a green band trailer on April 24, 2014. On June 5, Sony UK released an international trailer of the film.
On May 30, 2014, the film's release date was pushed up from July 25, 2014 to July 18.
On June 19, a final red band trailer was released, which was attached theatrically with the Melissa McCarthy comedy Tammy.
Indian censorship
The Examining Committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in India rejected its first version of the film. After some changes, they accepted the film and it was released in the country on August 29, 2014.
Box office
At the end of its box office run, Sex Tape earned a gross of $38,543,473 in North America and $87,526,036 in other territories for a worldwide total of $126,069,509 on a budget of $40 million.
The film was released in 2,457 theaters in North America and earned $1.1 million in its opening Thursday evening showings. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $16.4 million, finishing in 4th behind Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($36.2 million), as well as fellow newcomers The Purge: Anarchy ($29.8 million) and Planes: Fire & Rescue ($17.5 million).
The film topped the UK box office in its opening weekend with a gross of £1.43 million. It dropped to number 4 in its second week grossing £673,478. The film opened at #1 in markets like Bulgaria, Netherlands, Slovenia in their respective opening weekend. The biggest market in other territories being Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, where the film earned a gross of $12.14 million, $7.14 million and $6.9 million respectively.
Critical response
Sex Tape received generally negative reviews from critics. It holds a 17% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 138 reviews with a rating average of 4.1/10. The consensus states: "With neither the conviction to embrace its smutty premise nor enough laughs to function as a worthwhile rom-com, the flaccid Sex Tape suffers from cinematic impotence." On Metacritic, based on 36 critics, the film has a 36 out of 100 rating, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Accolades
References
External links
- Sex Tape at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Tape at Box Office Mojo
- Sex Tape at Rotten Tomatoes
- Sex Tape at Metacritic
