Sex Drive

BFF

Despite what I would deem as a glut as far as teenage sex comedies are concerned, it's easy to have seen one to have seen them all, but Sex Drive still managed to arrest some attention from start to end because the screenplay by John Morris and director Sean Anders, based on the book “All The Way” by Andy Behrens, has plenty of genuinely funny moments, delivered by an excellent fresh faced cast supported by unlikely veterans hamming it up.

Like all road trip related movies, from Harold and Kumar, to Road and Euro Trips, amongst a lot more others, there's allways your virginal protagonist who is luckless in getting laid, and the premise has it all set up for him to do so en route to his deflowering destination. And sticking to formula, it dictates that you must have a wise-cracking sidekick who knows all, and/or done it all. If American Pie has its Stifler, then Sex Drive's equivalent would be the unlikely and pudgy Lance (Clark Duke) as his trash-talking mad humping equivalent, goading his best friend virgin Ian (Josh Zukerman) on to make a half-cross country trip to meet the internet girl of his dreams Ms Tasty (mm mmm, Katrina Bowden), who offered to go all the way should he arrive in his (brother's actually) sweet GTO.

So on the guise of visiting his ailing grandmother, Ian brings along Lance (who's in on the plan), as well as best female friend Felicia (Amanda Crew) who along the way discovers that this road trip isn't exactly as innocent as it seems. And of course it plays to the usual notion that the one you seek is always forever just by your side and not halfway across the world. It's the same ol' message, but delivered in a totally hilarious package. The strength of the story doesn't like on any marquee name making facial fools of themselves, but having to inject some wonderfully (and sometimes obscene) moments that catch you offguard, sometimes like a frat boy joke, but definitely laugh out loud.

As you know with comedies these days, they usually taper off toward the end, or suddenly decide to go all mushy and dramatic. Here, the filmmakers saved the best bits for last, where everything converged together in one madcap finale, and doesn't fizzle out until the very last minute. And that means right up until the very last scene after the end credits roll. Two characters here stand out, and they're not leading roles though. The first would be a very buffed up James Marsden as Ian's brother Rex, who owns the GTO and exploits every opportunity to ridicule his kid brother. The second role, and a scene stealing one at that, belonged to Seth Green's Ezekiel, a sarcastic Amish fella who has the very best lines, and delivered so succinctly, if there was an award for best comedic performance, I'll give it to him in this role, hands down.

Political correctness gets thrown out the window, and there are plenty of gaudy jokes involving various body parts. So if this is not your cup of tea, the recommendation would be to skip it as you're likely to frown more often than laugh. Naturally there are some loopholes and continuity errors that were obvious, but don't let those get to you. If you're really up for some good dose of laughing medicine to chase those blues away, then Sex Drive would be that perfect silver bullet.