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Sex Drive

Movie Grade:B

DVD Features Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B+

Losin It, The Last American Virgin, Porky's, The Sure Thing, American Pie: They may or may not be household names, but the share one thing in common: Comic adventures highlighting the human condition, or at least, the hornball antics of its protagonists and their desire to shed their virginities, and maybe their collective dignity. They may not be revelatory, but they all stand, generally speaking, on the side of championing their leads' self-aware cause of shedding the emotional weight of being the only virgins left on the planet.

With the passing of time, Sex Drive might eventually become a minor revelation, and I'm not talking about Citizen Kane levels of cultural or political intrigue. I'm talking about an honest-to-God well crafted and well conceived sex/gross-out/road-trip comedy that simultaneously memorializes and subverts all of that genre's conventions. Sex Drive arrives with little fanfare; it wasn't marketed heavily and its comparatively small budget is justified by character relations rather than flashy editing or set design. For a film of this ilk however, Sex Drive delivers the goods on an age old-premise: Over-sexed teenagers will go out of their way to "lose it".

Josh Zuckerman plays Ian, one of the more frustrated 18 year-old virgins in recent cinematic history. So unlucky is Ian that a girl he expresses interest in spites him by trying to partner up with his younger brother. His best friend and crush Felicia (Amanda Crew) is in love with Josh's friend/comic foil/sexual deviant Lance (the hilarious Clark Duke, Michael Cera's partner in Clark and Michael). At the same time that Ian is trying to forge an online relationship with a woman who goes by "Miss Tasty", he builds enough courage to inform Felicia of his lover for her, only to have her turn him down.

Ian meets his adolescent mid-life crisis head on: He decides that he will drive to Tennessee to meet with the hopeful love of his life Miss Tasty (30 Rock's Katrina Bowden). Clark, who is something of a mechanical, yet suave nymphomaniac, can only encourage his friend to take this cross-country journey. Ian ditches his job as a clerk at a Donut Shop, while Clark transient lifestyle seems perfectly suited to supporting his friend on his makeshift vision quest.

Rex, Ian's older brother and borderline Neanderthal (brilliantly played by James Marsden) has one joy in life: his 1969 GTO, and if it ever got stolen or if Ian"¦"¦"¦"¦.Ian and Clark run-off with Rex's prized possession and make way for Tennessee, but not before Ian is duped into brining on Felicia, and soon enough, the threesome's road-trip is on its way"¦.

This "epic quest" is highlighted by a trip to Amish Country, where we meet a sarcastic and BS-ing Ezekiel (Seth Green) who, after the GTO breaks down, offers to fix it

with both charity and acrimony. In Sex Drive's surreal universe, the Amish party and have copious amounts of sex.

Despite the obvious shortcomings, lack of cinematic flair, or dramatic tension, the road-trip serves as a reminder that despite the most self-reflexive and contemptible of purposes- namely, trying in vain to get laid "” these characters are in it together. Even Seth Green's Amish simpleton champions Ian's cause, possibly because he realizes that Clark and Felicia really do care about him. Though cloying and superficial, there's an element of compassion on behalf of the protagonists. Even Clark, who seems to want nothing more than to pass himself on to girl after girl, falls in love with one of the hard-partying Amish girls.

The three encounter a series of sex-comedy gags/scenarios like a trip to an Abstinence Extreme Convention, jail, and eventually Tennessee, where Rex is destined to meet up with his little brother. Miss Tasty, of course, is not what she seems. What this film presents, with limited intelligence and acuity, is a moment of brief intelligence on behalf of Clark; that is: "everybody wants a challenge". Sex Drive ultimately succumbs to some of the sappier trappings that afflict the films it borrows from, and it's possible that when "everybody want s a challenge", it could be equated into "Everybody needs to get laid". Nevertheless, what matters is that we respond to these characters with some degree of affection, and surprisingly, with solid dialogue and enough humanistic qualities, Sex Drive pulls it off.

Though clearly ridiculous, this film gains points for its unabashed, almost Dionysian levels of ineptitude. Rather than masking those imperfections inherent to sex/gross-out comedies, the makers celebrate the shortcomings and the absurdity is effective; everyone is having fun, including Ian, even as he tries to get closer and closer to his goal, no matter how empty it truly is. It's not high art, but this is a movie, even if it ends up in a few years as a cable-TV staple, that exudes enough charm and wit to be fun a little down the line.

For extra hilarity, check out the unrated version of the film. It adds another 30 minutes of run-time, but it also parodies the idea of most unrated films as cheap entertainment by adding an unreal amount of gags and goofs that take it to another level of insanity. The unrated edition serves as a reminder as well that everyone involved in the production is having fun, and it's one of the few unrated releases that actually translate well into multiple viewings.

Movie Grade:B

DVD Features Grade: A-

Overall Grade: B+