When I saw that Celebrity Sex Tape was released by The Asylum, and after reading the first few sentences of the plot synopsis, I became very curious to see just what was in store for me in this film.
A lot of reviews of this film that I've seen have offered critiques about the acting, saying that there is a lot of over acting in particular. For what I saw, I think the opposite is true. There is a lot of under acting in this film as, with a comedy film like this, over acting, for better or worse, is the feature, not the bug. As a result there are some unintentionally funny moments involving actors making some kind of exclamation but having no facial expression or body language to back it up, so it looks like something out of a satire. That said, I will say that there were parts of Ross' big monologue at the end which I found a bit funny as far as the performance goes and I think it captured the film's intent as an absurdist comedy the best.
This is not a very good film, of course, but before I got into explaining why, I do have to compliment the film on one aspect, at least. I could easily see a situation where a Hollywood production would produce a film with a similar premise and have similar marketing including the obnoxious promotional images, but when it comes to what the film actually shows, it would pull punches so it could get an R rating so it can be shown in as many theaters it can be. This film, could have easily done something like that, even if it wasn't rated, and yet it didn't and it doesn't pull punches and, coming from an American film production that isn't pornographic, I was genuinely surprised but also had to pay some respect to the film because of that.It doesn't make the film good, but it does, in fact, deliver what it promises and that has to count for something.
The film still isn't very good though. There are a lot of issues with it, especially when it comes to the style of humor it has. Maybe among high school boys back in 2012 it would have been funny, but its low bar shock humor has long since curdled like year old spoiled milk left out in the sun for a year. The really bad Asian portrayal, the fat jokes, the homophobic jokes, etc. are all products of a bygone age where it would have been considered acceptable and funny. I almost felt like there could have been some kind of commentary going on about sexism in nerd culture with the way the main characters obsess over losing their virginity before graduating college as if it's a necessity and how women are only portrayed as objects that can serve as a means to that end and that is where their value is derived from. But as I saw the film play this portrayal straight, where the moral ended up being the equivalent of "bros before hoes" in tone I realized that that was just what the film was - a nerd fantasy - if you will.
Celebrity Sex Tape is a shock comedy that is a rung trashier than the trashiest major production studios in Hollywood can put out. This film pulls out all the stops and takes no prisoners, for better or for worse, and while it does, indeed, flaunt its being unrated as its promotional images suggest, there is very little substance here that is really worth seeing unless you on't mind watching stupid, offensive-for-the-sake-of-it shock humor schlock. You aren't missing anything if you don't see this.
