Acquired taste is a perfect term for this niche market film. As far as sex comedies go, this is one of the better ones of the last 15 years or so. It combines a little American Pie with John Hughes-like characters.
Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a nice boy who longs for a girl to like him. He finally finds one on the internet and travels halfway across the country with his best friends Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew) to meet up with her. Of course, along the way he rediscovers himself and comes to grips with his own identity. It's not the most original story, but what road movie is? It's all about the incidences that take place along the way.
James Marsden often steals the scenes with his hilarious antics and dead-on portrayal of Ian's bullying pseudo-redneck brother, Rex, whose prized 1969 GTO Ian steals for his trip.
As aware as the script and the direction is, it isn't perfect. Is Felicia really dumb enough to believe that Ian is really driving across the country just to see his grandma? If you intend to go on an 18 hour drive you don't just accept badly done lying. But it makes her presence on the road trip work and we ignore it.
It never crosses the line of being too offensive--like many sex comedies try to be these days in order to separate themselves from the pack. It's amazing how we've entered into a new era of teen comedies in the last 5 years where most of them try so hard to be original that it ruins its natural charm. This one was made right around those turning-point years, but manages to remain mostly unfazed.
I'm not usually a huge fan of this genre, but I enjoyed it's 80s/90s feel and great characters. I'd watch it again.
Twizard Rating: 82
No comments:
Post a Comment