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What’s the Story?

Reviewed byS. Jhoanna Robledo
Ian (Josh Zuckerman) is a high school virgin in love with his best friend, Felicia (Amanda Crew). But she might have the hots for someone else. Besides, Ian's been keeping Internet company with a "sure thing." (No coincidence there; SEX DRIVE's basic plot has an awful lot in common with the John Cusack classic of the same name.) A girl he only knows by her Web name, Ms. Tasty, promises to have sex with him if he drives down from Chicago to Knoxville to meet her in his stylin' 1969 Pontiac GTO. Ian's womanizing friend, Lance (Clark Duke), thinks it's an offer he can't refuse. But here's the catch: It's not really Ian's car -- it belongs to his older brother, Rex (James Marsden), who's ferocious, fearsome, macho, and loves his car more than his family.

Is It Any Good?

2
This sometimes-hilarious but more often woefully unwitty comedy does have some appeal. Marsden, for starters. Who knew he had it in him to play comically deranged? His bearing, his cackle, his utter commitment to being totally, horrendously foul -- it's perfection. And then there's Zuckerman, who plays the awkward, self-conscious, sensitive teen to a T. In the end, viewers do actually care a little bit whether he ends up with the right girl. And, as a snarky Amish mechanic, Seth Green hits a home run every time he has a line (sadly, his appearance is much too brief).

But honestly, that's pretty much it. Because though director Sean Anders aspires to Judd Apatow-ian (is that a word?) greatness, he doesn't display Apatow's keen ability to separate the offensive from the outrageous. Instead, what we get is crass, gratuitous, gross-out humor flecked with too few moments of pure comedy.

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