Baked to a similar recipe as American Pie, Sex Drive is a filthy-minded, teen comedy about a pair of best friends and their unexpected romantic detours during a road trip in search of physical satisfaction.

One half of the central double-act is a reluctant virgin determined to pop his cherry before starting college, the other half a carefree purveyor of chat-up lines, who is so laidback, he is positively horizontal.

Or at least, that’s how he ends up with the ladies.

The central odyssey of randy indiscretions and male bonding takes all of the usual twists and turns, right down to the inclusion of the virgin’s longtime female best friend, who turns out to be his perfect match.

Writer-director Sean Anders spikes the tried and tested formula with a homophobic older brother, helpful members of the Amish community and some trigger-happy cops.

There’s no obvious method to his madness but he conjures some decent if obvious laughs.

Frustrated that his 14-year-old younger brother has more success with girls, Ian Lafferty (Josh Zuckerman) despairs that he will start college without ever having enjoyed the sins of the flesh.

Ignoring the taunts of his numbskull older brother, Rex (James Marsden) – ‘You’re 18 and you’ve never had a girlfriend.

That’s how you get gay!’ – Ian joins forces with buddy Lance (Clark Duke) to drive the 500 miles separating Chicago from Knoxville, home to internet fantasy, Ms Tasty (Katrina Bowden).

Best friend Felicia (Amanda Crew) tags along for the exhausting eight-hour ride, which turns into three hellish days as the trio falls victim to outrageous misfortune and the ire of a jealous husband.

With Rex on their trail, who intends to take back his ‘borrowed’ Pontiac GTO, Ian, Lance and Felicia race against the clock to find Ms Tasty, with assistance from Amish mechanic Ezekiel (Seth Green).

Meanwhile, clueless high school students Andy (Charles McDermott) and Randy (Mark L Young) embark on a similar trek, in search of breast nirvana.

Sex Drive is a lively jaunt through the back roads of the Midwest, engineering numerous scrapes for the three youngsters as they chart a haphazard course to adulthood via run-ins with a gypsy (Brian Posehn) and a manic hitchhiker (David Koechner).

Zuckerman and Duke are appealing accomplices in mayhem, the former playing the exasperated straight man, who thinks he has struck lucky with a blonde cheerleader (Caley Hayes), only to realise she is a poster girl for abstinence.

The latter smarms and charms as the libidinous wingman, who eventually loses his heart to an Amish lovely (Alice Greczyn).

Marsden overacts wildly as the bully, who doth protest too much.

Gags hit as frequently as they miss and despite Ian’s pursuit of thrills, the film ultimately hammers home a message about meaningful relationships to the target teen audience: ‘I’m proud of you.

You held out for a good one – the one you wanted!’

• Release Date: Friday 9 January 2009
• Certificate: 15
• Runtime: 109mins

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