Take Me to Tarzana
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Take Me to Tarzana
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Take Me to Tarzana is a 2021 comedy in which a man working a dead-end job for a data mining company discovers that the company is using data for illicit purposes. The boss of the company is a sexist pig who frequently makes sexually-suggestive comments to female employees; he also has hidden cameras under their desks so he can look up their skirts on his computer screen. It's a crass comedy, and as such, there's constant profanity and sexual content. "F--k" is often used, among other words. In a montage, two characters are shown having sex in a variety of increasingly outlandish positions (no nudity). A man is found dead of an apparent suicide in his bed with his rear end sticking up in the air (clothed) and a sex toy at his side. Characters binge drink in a bar and get increasingly drunk. Marijuana smoking. Two characters snort copious amounts of a mysterious "designer drug" that makes them frenzied and animated. Some violence with guns, assault rifles. Character punched in throat, then punched in the face. A monkey attacks someone. While there's a timely message concerning individual privacy and the invasive nature of data mining on our lives, this message gets buried.
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What's the Story?
In TAKE ME TO TARZANA, Miles (Andrew Creer) works a dead-end job for a data collection company. His boss, Mr. Schmeltz, is an arrogant and sexist pig who frequently makes sexually-suggestive comments to female employees, particularly toward Miles' cubicle mate Jane. One day, while stuck in Schmeltz's office to get yelled at once again, Miles is left alone in the office long enough to see that on one of Schmeltz's computer screens there are several videos livestreaming upskirt shots of Miles' female coworkers, including Jane. When he tells Jane about this, she's livid, and they vow to get revenge. Enter Miles' neighbor Jameson (Jonathan Bennett), a free-spirited trust fund slacker who's working on a novel about the early days of breakdancing. They enlist Jameson's help to distract Schmeltz long enough for Miles to get all the files that will incriminate Schmeltz, but as Miles does this, he comes across privacy invasion on a grand scale. It seems the company has detailed information on millions of people, and they're selling this information to the governments of Russia and China. Now, Miles, Jane, and Jameson must find a way to expose the company's nefarious actions, but Schmeltz is immediately onto them, and now the three must not only prevent Schmeltz from getting the zip drive on which Miles has the incriminating evidence, but they must also confront the true head of the corporation, a Tarzan-obsessed eccentric who keeps jungle animals in his home and makes designer drugs.
Is It Any Good?
A timely message gets lost in a morass of overacting, crass comedy, and gratuitous language, sex, and drug use. That pretty much sums up Take Me to Tarzana, a movie that tries so hard to be funny, it just isn't funny. While the two lead characters, Miles and Jane, are likable enough twenty-somethings trying to survive from paycheck to paycheck at a horrible office job during late-stage capitalism, they're surrounded by so much hammy acting, it's headache inducing. Everyone is so exaggerated, you don't want to laugh so much as you want to say to each actor, "OK. Are you done yet?"
It's unfortunate, because the ramifications of trying to keep one's privacy in an era of deep data mining is a relevant concern, and in the right hands, this could have been a contemporary take on Office Space. Instead, it's just an obnoxious movie, where every secondary character drowns out any thoughtful messages by unchecked acting. The story itself gets lost with the romantic element to Miles and Jane's relationship and a love interest for the most obnoxious, insufferable, and unfunny character of them all, Jameson. Fifteen minutes of the movie is wasted on Jameson hooking up with a woman who works at the arcade where he blows off steam by beating little kids at air hockey. The whole movie feels like a missed opportunity; it's too bad there wasn't more time spent on the story and less on trying so hard to make every scene "funny."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about crass comedies. What's the appeal? Why do so many people like this type of humor?
How does this movie address topics such as internet privacy and sexual harassment? Do the messages come through, or do they get lost?
Does the movie glamorize drug use, or are these scenes so exaggerated that the audience knows they aren't realistic?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: February 22, 2021
- Cast: Andrew Creer, Samantha Robinson, Jonathan Bennett
- Director: Maceo Greenberg
- Studio: Gravitas Ventures
- Genre: Comedy
- Run time: 106 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: May 13, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
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Funny but dark '90s comedy has lots of cursing, some sex.
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Super bawdy, super profane -- and super funny.
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