Oh sure, Mr. Studio Man. Hide things I actually want to see, like SHARK NIGHT 3D and APOLLO 18, from my prying eyes, but allow me to ingest garbage like A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY from first time feature writer-directors Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck. This long-on-the-shelf comedy starring a bunch of TV actors (I guess Jason Sudeikis could be considered a movie actor now, but not when he made this originally) playing vapid characters whose only point of intersect are blow-out parties thrown every few months at the Hamptons summer home of the dad of Eric (Sudeikis, with dad played by Don Johnson). Seriously, these idiots don't talk about anything but the next party, and who they're banging or not banging.
When Dad announces that he's selling the house, Eric and best buddy McCrudden (Tyler Labine) decide that instead of their typical themed parties with hundreds of guests, they would have an intimate gathering of their closest few friends to have an orgy. Some of these friends, whom they've known since high school, are in relationships but most aren't, so eventually the idea gets a little heat behind it, and everyone is game. Big shocker, since, you know, it's right there in the title.
Others in the group include Lake Bell, Michelle Borth, Nick Kroll, Angela Sarafyan, Martin Starr and Lindsay Sloane, and each of these actors basically plays a type rather than anything even close to a mildly developed character. One is bad at picking boyfriends, one has had a crush on Eric since school, one talks like a stud but hasn't had sex in over a year, and the list goes on.
And as if giving us eight or so characters not to care about in the main cast, A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY plugs the gaps with lame supporting cast members, including Leslie Bibb as the cute real estate agent assigned to sell the summer house and who Eric falls for, or Will Forte as a friend of the group who's angry he didn't get invited, even though he just got married, or Bell's asshole boyfriend (Rhys Coiro). I guess the filmmakers thought if they through enough people into the mix and had them do wacky things, the comedy would just write itself.
Not only is ORGY not funny, it's also not sexy in the slightest, despite every woman in it being varying degrees of attractive and a few actually showing some skin. But nudity doesn't equal sexy. In this film, it usually is met with awkwardness, like you're seeing your sister topless (or so I've heard). The film may not start out with many pairings, but it's pretty clear early on who's going to end up with whom after all the sexy time is over.
I think at least a couple of the folks responsible for A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY actually thought they were making something edgy and biting, when in fact they made an adult sex comedy with the emotional maturity of PORKY'S, with none of that film's sleaze or laughs. In case you need it spelled out, this edgiest thing about this movie is the title, and even that seems kind of dated and lame, much like the bulk of this film. Sudeikis has it within his acting ability to create funny characters that we care about, but he's not even trying here. Eric is a brainless hunk of meat, and the rest of the film follows suit. Avoid it.
