Sean Anders
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Sex Drive has a plot that's similar to the one in The Sure Thing .
"Sex Drive," which follows the same road as Rob Reiner's far superior "The Sure Thing," is brought low by too much emphasis on crude humor.
It steals so shamelessly, from The Sure Thing to American Pie and everything in between, that at times it's almost like watching a teensploitation genre highlights reel.
Yes, “Sex Drive” uncomfortably mirrors the 1985 Rob Reiner film “The Sure Thing.”
But it's one of the best I have seen in a long time - perhaps since Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing (with which it shares a few traits).
The script, co-written by John Morris, is aware enough to have Wahlberg deliver a quip about James Cameron’s Avatar and the White Saviour Complex, and yet there are some loose ends and jagged edges around the appealing, if treacly central concept.
The film thinks it is attempting humour by pointing out the absurdity; complete with references to The Blind Side and Avatar .
And it takes a similarly head-on approach to the social concerns around adoption culture: for instance, the so-called “white savior” scenario that Wahlberg’s relative lunkhead Pete brings up via an “Avatar” movie reference.
When asked if they have any concerns about adopting children, Wahlberg’s character tries to explain his fear of being looked at as “white saviors” by describing the plot of the film Avatar .
And although the film acknowledges the white-savior cliché—which Wahlberg’s character goofily describes in terms of Avatar —it still subscribes to it, with rich suburban folks presented as the only hope these Hispanic kids have.
It’s a particularly dangerous landscape for non-white audiences, where movies like Avatar and The Blind Side have long laid the groundwork for an eye-rolling expectation of white savior films to unsettling results.
Though “Horrible Bosses” offered an inspired concept (in turn inspired by “Strangers on a Train,” which it acknowledged in character dialogue), its individual scenes lasted too long, with hit-and-miss jokes.
Just as there was a nod to “Strangers on a Train” and its murder-swap plot last time, there’s a shout-out to “9 to 5” here — less of a stretch, as far as creative sophistication goes.
Following the misadventures of Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), and Dale (Charlie Day) in the misanthropic Horrible Bosses—a film in which, Strangers on a Train-style, the protagonists decide to kill each other’s employers—Nick, Kurt, and Dale are now the bosses.
In the first film, Nick, Dale and Kurt (Sudeikis) teamed up to murder one another's abusive supervisors, Strangers on a Train-style.
This big-hearted but surprisingly nuanced comedy drama about a white couple adopting three Latino siblings has been compared to Parenthood, the Steve Martin movie of 1989, and it certainly has a similar balance between schmaltz, silliness and disarming insight.
Clearly indebted to the more serious efforts of John Hughes or Ron Howard’s Parenthood than most modern day family comedies, Instant Family is one of the most pleasant surprises of not just the holiday season, but of the year in general.
“Instant Family” may be our era’s equivalent of a movie like Ron Howard’s “Parenthood” (1989), which came on as a comedy of parental angst ripped from experience but was, in fact, a tasteful sitcom.
But Sean Anders’ film, based on his own experiences of fostering children, is closer to something like Parenthood than a broad knockabout comedy with a cloying message tacked on.
American Pie (1999)
Directed by Paul Weitz
influenced Sex Drive (2008), Instant Family (2018)
Plot Themes
The movie's first half-hour, in particular, spends an unseemly amount of time ripping off American Pie -- parents walking in on that, characters slipping and falling on this -- with a devotion that would seem more at home in an eleventh grade screenwriting class.
A thoroughly clichéd virginity-deadline teen comedy with none of American Pie's trangsressiveness (it's hard, these days) and little of Superbad's intelligence, it nonetheless manages enough moments of inspiration to be passable, and has some performances with enough charm to make it likable -- or at least not detestable.
Yet even though the film is clearly B level - it's an amalgamation of other teen comedies, with pieces of newer movies like "American Pie" and "Superbad" sprinkled on top of the age-old romantic farce formula - it's a sunny story.
The horndogs from Porky’s to American Pie to Harold and Kumar are nearly identical - they want to get laid and have a good time.
Certainly, there would have never been an "Animal House" or a "Porky's" or an "American Pie."
Pero resulta que el director del filme es ese mismo Sean Anders que firmó Sex Drive (ejemplo tardío de la plaga de satiriasis causada por American Pie) y creó al clan criminal de Somos los Miller, lo cual se nota, a veces, para bien: mientras que Familia al instante aspira a ser una película ‘para toda la familia’ con mensaje positivo, sus medios para transmitir dicho mensaje prescinden muchas veces de los paños calientes y la moralina.
Complete with funny voice (never a good sign in a Sandler performance), mullet haircut and love for hard rock classics played on tape cassette, Donnie is the type of character who could easily fit in a 1980s era Meatballs rip-off.
The film thinks it is attempting humour by pointing out the absurdity; complete with references to The Blind Side and Avatar .
We get to follow the parental journeys of some of the others in the support group as well, the best of which is a straight-laced, no-sense-of-humor-having blond woman (comedian Iliza Shlesinger), who, though she vehemently denies it and is probably in denial about it herself, is looking to re-create the storyline from Sandra Bullock’s movie, 2009’s “The Blind Side.”
Here, they meet a cross section of hopeful couples looking to complete their own families: the Christian couple, the gay couple, the couple struggling to conceive and the single mom who aspires to turn a disenfranchised African-American child into an athletic phenom (jokes about Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side” follow).
It’s so tragic, in fact, that’s often flippant in conflict and outcome, and from Annie to The Blind Side , it’s little more than a machine to wring out tears and self-righteousness.
Her whole bit about The Blind Side was freaking brilliant.
When asked what she hopes to gain from the adoption process, she describes the plot of the film The Blind Side .
From this point, the American Pie resemblances must make room for an episodic, cartoony sketchiness owing a debt to Road Trip , Harold and Kumar , and Superbad , prudently covering almost the entire spectrum of modern sex comedies (and avoiding, then, the out-and-out eighties-style exploitation).
A thoroughly clichéd virginity-deadline teen comedy with none of American Pie's trangsressiveness (it's hard, these days) and little of Superbad's intelligence, it nonetheless manages enough moments of inspiration to be passable, and has some performances with enough charm to make it likable -- or at least not detestable.
A testosterone-fueled road movie that displays the same Apatow-ian obsessions, and raunch, as Pineapple Express, Superbad, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, this adolescent comedy tracks an 18-year-old virgin - nerdboy Ian (Josh Zuckerman) - who drives his brother's Pontiac GTO from Chicago to Knoxville, Tenn., for an assignation with "Ms.
It’s not just that Sex Drive picks the bones of sweeter, funnier teen movies like Say Anything… and Superbad for its soulless purposes; it’s that it shares with Juno , perhaps the most recent teen trendsetter, a callous and egotistical lack of interest in anyone outside its demographic.
Yet even though the film is clearly B level - it's an amalgamation of other teen comedies, with pieces of newer movies like "American Pie" and "Superbad" sprinkled on top of the age-old romantic farce formula - it's a sunny story.
What separates Superbad from National Lampoon's Dorm Daze?
Weird Science (1985)
Directed by John Hughes
influenced Sex Drive (2008), Instant Family (2018)
Characters
The movie is saved from complete disaster by Duke, Green, and Marsden (who is clearly having a blast improvising a riff on Sean William Scott's Stifler or, even more appropriately, Bill Paxton's Chet from Weird Science), but the awkward, poorly cast leads and the lackluster script cause this car to break down long before it reaches its destination.
Clark Duke basically steals the show on many occasions, but Marsden destroys his pretty boy humility with this spastic machismo fueled bully a la Bill Paxton in “Weird Science” who proves to be a constant obstacle in character Ian’s journey for self-discovery and coming of age.
And, yeah, there’s the entire conceit of Weird Science .
None of which makes those movies inherently bad, mind you; The Girl Next Door was terrific, and it was almost a carbon copy of Risky Business.
Add in a few F-bombs and improvised comedy bits repeating obscure pop-culture references ad nauseam and Instant Family could easily find a home in the Apatow canon alongside Knocked Up and This Is 40.
Add in a few F-bombs and improvised comedy bits repeating obscure pop-culture references ad nauseam and Instant Family could easily find a home in the Apatow canon alongside Knocked Up and This Is 40.
John Hughes' "Sixteen Candles" is to this movie's writer-director Sean Anders what John Woo movies are to Quentin Tarantino.
Spirited is ripe with contemporary references and smart-alecky lines, perfect for the screen persona of Reynolds, who knows how to deliver them, and for the Elf -like sweetness and confusion of Ferrell who is in his comfort zone here if not quite in the same classic mold of Buddy.
Featuring Christmas movie Easter Eggs, there’s even an “Elf” nod, of course.
The main selling point of Spirited is its cast (and the briefest of Elf references).
The exposition portion of “Spirited,” mostly consisting of banter between Ferrell and Reynolds, is pretty labored, not only because the latter’s characteristic rapid-fire smugness is getting old and Ferrell’s wide-eyed naiveté doesn’t work here as well as it did in “Elf,” but because the script is encumbered by a lot of contemporary references that aren’t terribly funny and are going to age quickly; there are also way too many wink-wink moments to signal to us that the makers are in on the joke (when one observer asks, “Why are they singing?” the answer is “Because it’s a musical”).
Will Ferrell is the star of one all-time classic Christmas movie, Elf, which remains a holiday staple to this day.
On one occasion, it even widens the scope for Ferrell to offer a very funny self-deprecating Elf gag.
That's right: The lame rapper is playing a fictionalized version of himself, but it doesn't exactly set off Being John Malkovich vibes.
Alas, it’s a minor offense in “That’s My Boy,” a no-holds-barred raunch-fest that combines bits of “Saturday Night Live” skits and “The Hangover” with every ugly Sandler laugher ever made.
Realizing that his brand of vulgar comedy has been surpassed by movies like “Bridesmaids” and “The Hangover,” he has gone all-out.
Just when you expect them to turn on Donny, they fall in behind him instead, and the result is a bachelor party that makes The Hangover look like a church social.
This is Sandler's attempt to crash "The Hangover" party, and it will be interesting to see how his audience responds.
It’s as if “The Bad News Bears” had replaced every child-rearing book on the market as the instruction manual for how to talk to your children.
Josh Zuckerman (2004's " Surviving Christmas ") is an inviting, adorable presence as Ian, a young man who isn't keen on his virginal status but comes to realize he would rather share the experience with someone he genuinely cares for.
Amanda Crew, the "annoying little sister" in "Final Destination 3," is amazingly daring as Ian's childhood friend Felicia, enduring all sorts of crazy things to get laughs, including getting hit in the face with a giant lollipop and peeing in a radiator.
As the feisty Felicia, Amanda Crew (2006's " Final Destination 3 ") has star charisma to spare and a winning personality that would make anyone fall for her.
Ian (Josh Zuckerman, "Austin Powers in Goldmember," "Feast") is an 18 year-old-virgin with an unrequited crush on his best friend Felicia (Amanda Crew, "Final Destination 3").
The basic plot formula—a shaggy-dog outsider lets some air into a stale bourgeois life—is a familiar staple from Jean Renoir’s Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) to Paul Mazursky’s yuppie Los Angelino remake Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), though the film that I thought of most during Ade’s was the (significantly funnier) 2012 Adam Sandler vehicle That’s My Boy.
That roughly describes the setup for the Sandler joint “That’s My Boy.”