Why I Saw It: Goodwill from Bad Teacher (same director and lead actors).
Cast: It goes without saying that Jason Segel is going to be funny in exactly the way that you expect and want him too be (he also shares credit in the writing of the movie). This is a much better showing for Cameron Diaz than The Other Woman earlier in the year, which had her playing a pretty unlikable character. Here, she's just a mom trying to reconnect with her husband. Both actors are asked to play big and broad and are completely game for it. Rob Coddry and Ellie Kemper show up as the best friend couple. Coddry is held back from his standard dickish persona, which was a smart move. I'm happy to see Ellie Kemper showing up and not playing Erin from The Office. Rob Lowe has a lot of fun playing against and into his Chris Traeger character from Parks & Rec.They are all having a lot of fun.
Plot: Let's get this out of the way. The story is shit. It very clearly started with the idea of "parents trying to erase a sex tape" and was constructed in a way to make that work. More than anything, who goes through iPads at the rate of Segel's character? But I digress. For those unfamiliar with it, the story is that Diaz and Segel are married and in a funk. One night, they decide to spice things up by recording them having sex and it gets sent out to their friends and family. They spend the rest of the night trying to get the copies back and deleted. It isn't the most comfortable story to make work, but the story really is secondary. The aim is to be funny and more of the humor lands than doesn't. The beats are a little messy, much like Bad Teacher although their heart is in the right place.
Elephant in the Room: Product placement? I hope they made some money from Apple because there's a healthy does of talking up how great the iPad is in this. They could've written the movie to involve a generic tablet of some sort, but they veer right into talking about it being an iPad and how great it's HD is and the convenient apps. It wasn't enough to turn me off. It did give me pause. There's also a scene about YouPorn that you get the feeling was a stipulation of the site's in order to include it in the movie. Again, not awful but certainly distracting.
To Sum Things Up:
It's a funny, albeit disposable movie. I laughed plenty while watching it. There's a lot of funny comedic performances and I'll be showing up for whatever Jake Kasdan directs next. I'm very glad I saw this movie with people rather than by myself because it is not funny enough to be watched alone. You have to make peace with the story being ridiculous and oddly dated. Given that the only other comedy options right now are Tammy (bleh) and 22 Jump Street (if you somehow have avoided seeing it), this is a solid option even if it isn't a movie I expect to ever revisit.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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