Sex Drive 2008

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: The most notable thing about Sex Drive is that it reserves all its creativity for ways to revolt and ostensibly delight its target audience. Read more

Sara Cardace, New York Magazine/Vulture: The trip takes them to hysterical locales, and the cast is often hilarious in this low budget surprise. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The bar for teen-sex comedies has never been very high, but this one clears it and then some. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Above all, Marsden and Green are a genuine delight. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: Why in the world is this essentially sweet tale of two super shy teenagers who fall in love dressed up in utterly profane fancy dress? Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: A film destined for an undistinguished second life as a pay-cable plugger for decades to come, Sex Drive benefits from the low standards of the teen sex-comedy genre. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: If Judd Apatow revived the raunchy sex comedy with such films as Superbad and Knocked Up, Sean Anders happily advances the genre with Sex Drive. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie's a working definition of "safe sex." Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Occasionally sharp but never quite as smartly formed as it could be, this Sex Drive is only partly worth the trip. Read more

Tasha Robinson, Chicago Tribune: Sean Anders' derivative gross-out movie Sex Drive is easier to take if you accept that the answer to every baffling plot question is "because it's a teen sex comedy." Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Sex Drive twits its own lost innocence with a knowing backward glance (the winsome leads deserve a more humane movie), and Seth Green is uproarious as an Amish farmer who speaks in sentences so passive-aggressive, they're like tiny slaps. Read more

Eric D. Snider, Film.com: Not a terribly original movie, but it is often a very funny one. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: The first half is unfunny and desperately crass, the second is unfunny and genuine -- at least, as much as possible for a film that climaxes with a guy wearing a donut costume Read more

Sam Sweet, L.A. Weekly: Even as Ian's journey detours into National Lampoon-like farce, the movie remains faithful to a portrait of teens as they see themselves. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Sex Drive may slather on the gross-out humor, but underneath it has a heart. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Just slightly funnier than you'd expect, this dashed-off teen comedy cribs from a thousand other movies, without coming up with anything original of its own. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The title Sex Drive is a pun about a road trip in search of nooky, but it's also an apt image of what it's like to be a teen guy. You're the car. The stick shift is driving you. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Sex Drive is a Sure Thing for the Superbad generation. But if it lacks much of The Sure Thing's warmth and romance, Sex Drive makes up for that in goofy, no holds-barred raunch. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The comedy is uniformly crude and lewd, some of it works and some of it's lame. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sex Drive's first 30 minutes may lead one to suspect there's nothing new to be seen here, but it undergoes a transformation once the preliminaries have been dispensed with. John Hughes would be pleased -- and so also might Judd Apatow. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This movie doesn't contain 'offensive language'. The offensive language contains the movie. Read more

Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle: Some jokes work, some don't and, frankly, I can't remember either, but it leaves a sweet aftertaste. Slight, but sweet. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It brings a welcome intelligence and an ensemble of really cool, funny actors to the age-old subject manner. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Once you strip Sex Drive of its naughty bits, all the sex, swearing and loud, loud music, the film is as dull and safe as a 1960 high-school guidance counsellor's pamphlet on dating. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There should be some kind of law that if you're going to make an incredibly derivative, violent and vulgar teen comedy then it must also be funny. Read more

Steve Heisler, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: Little has changed since the heyday of John Hughes: nerdy hero on a mission to get laid, red sports car, bespectacled BFF- check, check, check. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While it elicits a few laughs, Sex Drive has little to ignite either the comic road-trip genre or the teen-sex romp. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Clumsily juggling gross-out gags, cartoonish physical humor and synthetic date-movie sentimentality, helmer Sean Anders offers a bumpy, boring journey in his strenuously unfunny road pic. Read more

Neely Tucker, Washington Post: Formulaic doesn't necessarily mean lifeless, and Sean Anders, who directs (and co-wrote the script), hits a number of bits just right. Read more