‘Sex’ Drives Comfortably Toward Familiar Destination

Sex Drive is made by and for people who grew up with and love raunchy teen sex movies like Porky’s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Road Trip, American Pie, Superbad, and of course any number of John Hughes’ 80s stalwarts of the genre. I didn’t grow up with those films and they don’t blow my skirt up, so I didn’t enjoy watching Sex Drive at all. However, having seen enough of those aforementioned films and knowing what the expectations of the genre are, I can say that Sex Drive is well-made and holds its own, and people who enjoy that particular kind of comedy will be satisfied here.

The plot…as if anyone goes to a movie like this for the plot…has to do with Ian, an average-looking 18-year-old Wisconsin virgin (the horror!) who has begun chatting up someone named Ms. Tasty online. He pretends to be a jock that can bench 300 lbs. so as to impress Ms. Tasty. Ian lives with his cartoonish family, including his obnoxious, dense older brother Rex (James Marsden from X-Men, a curious choice) who drives a perfectly restored 1969 GTO and thinks that Ian is gay because he’s never had a girlfriend. Enlightened stuff.

Ian’s best friend is Lance, who, though pudgy and plastered with zits, somehow has the pick of any woman on the planet. The movie makes no attempt to place this in an understandable context. I guess we’re just supposed to go with it. This also sets up the love triangle, for Ian is in love with his friend Felicia, but she—like every other woman alive—is in love with Lance.

Ian and Lance team up to steal Rex’s prized automobile and embark on a pilgrimage down to Tennessee, where supposedly Ms. Tasty waits patiently for Ian to devour her. Felicia tags along, I guess so the love triangle can function.

You know how it goes from there. Everything goes wrong and a series of raunchy shenanigans ensues, though I do believe this is the first movie I’ve seen to co-opt the Amish into said shenanigans. Seth Green plays an Amish guy named Ezekiel who comes to the rescue with horse and buggy. Seth Green…playing an Amish person…enough said.

The film is basic, entirely predictable from moment to moment, filled with flat archetypes and situations we’ve seen countless times; there are neither surprises nor even the possibility of surprises. But that’s what people seem to want from a film like this—the comfort of knowing everything that is going to happen and just being along for the ride—so I can’t really say those are criticisms. The filmmakers know what genre they’re working in and they know what the audience expectations are, and they’ve made a film that satisfies those expectations. Nothing more, nothing less. The film serves its purpose and is instantly forgettable. There’s something quasi-admirable about a film knowing not to aim too high or transcend its boundaries. The film meets a set of expectations and meets them well; they’re just not my set of expectations for having a good time at the movies. To each their own.