2014 Movie Preview: #26 - Sex Tape

Release date: July 25

Plot summary: The plot has a suburban married couple, Annie and Jay, accidentally losing a sex tape they made to reinvigorate their love life. Annie, a parenting blogger, leads the charge to recover it.

My take: Jason Segal teams up with his Bad Teacher co-star Cameron Diaz in an R-rated comedy that has a lot of potential. Segal does well with awkward comedy and had decent chemistry with Diaz. The added bonus for me with this film is that it is being direct by Jake Kasdan, who did Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which is one of the most underrated comedies to come out in the past 10 years. In an era where it seems like everyone is accidentally having "selfies" and personal tapes of themselves getting leaked to the public, this may be a very timely comedy.

Tub time

From EW.com:

The sequel to the 2010 comedy Hot Tub Time Machine is heating up. MGM and Paramount announced last night that the follow-up, which does not include John Cusack, will arrive sometime in 2014, with Paramount distributing in the U.S. and MGM handling the movie internationally. A press release confirms that the plot for the movie will emphasize the character played by Rob Corddry. “When Lou (Corddry) finds himself in trouble, Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke) fire up the hot tub time machine in an attempt to get back to the past. But they inadvertently land in the future. Now they have to alter the future in order to save the past… which is really the present.”

Replacing Cusack, if not in character than at least in stature, is Adam Scott.

Hell to pay

I know we've already seen a pair of horror comedies this year (A Haunted House, Scary Movie 5), so I can understand if there's some viewer fatigue for this genre. That said, I couldn't help but post the trailer for yet another movie that spoofs the horror genre. Hell Baby seems to have the edge over those previous films if for no other reason than it's been written and directed by the guys behind Reno: 911. I certainly laughed a lot watching the trailer, so I hope the true for the movie as a whole as well.

RBR: Butter

After waiting through several delays, I was dismayed when this small comedy about a butter carving competition came out only to be blasted by several critics. Many chastised it for its poor effort at political satire and lampooning of small town America. Though disappointed, I still decided to give it a try and found that I did not share a lot of the critics' complaints. If you look for it, there are some definite parallels between two of the competitions' contestants and Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. When I watched the film though, I didn't really focus on that comparison and found it much more palatable as a result. The film is far from perfect, however. There are subplots, like one involving Olivia Wilde as a stripper that really feel superfluous. It's hard to complain though about seeing her scantily clad for 90 minutes. There's also a little too much of Jennifer Garner, who plays the phony sweet ultra Conservative Palin-esque competitor. Those flaws aside, I will admit to laughing a lot, which is always an essential component to any comedy. I also found the butter carving concept fascinating and frankly wished there had been more of it. If you don't read too much into the film's message, this works as a quirky indie comedy. If you look for sharp satire, then you may want to save your cholesterol and just skip Butter. Rating: ****

Butter late than never

This film was filmed two years ago, screened at the Toronto Film Festival last year and now finally seems to be set for release to the public. Here's a trailer for the satirical film, Butter starring Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Wilde, and Rob Corddry.