Sometimes truth in advertising can inadvertently backfire. Which would seem to be the case with this screwball when not screwballing suburban sex spree, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy. That is, not much new to bring to the table, or rather waterbed.
The semi-smutty scenario concocted by first time filmmakers Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy is likely their first encounter with anything approaching your basic orgy experience too. Not that yours truly would know anything about such stuff, it’s just that there’s little in this feigned fantasy romp to convince that it’s anything more than the usual love at last sight coupling of horny geeks and hot women.
Jason Sudeikis is Eric in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, a perpetual thirtysomething thrill seeker who’s just lucky enough by chance to preside over a Hamptons, Long Island vacation home that he’s turned into a hedonistic headquarters for a posse of eager fellow revelers. The problem is that the house actually belongs to his shameless swinger dad Jerry (Don Johnson). Think Montauk rather than Miami Vice. And he’s already put the property up for sale, even as Eric has assorted inane festivities in place for partying hard right up until approaching Labor Day.
So with his carefree days of arrested development very likely about to come to a close for good, newly despondent Eric and paunchy pal Mike (Tyler Labine) strategize to go out with a final big blast, billed as an orgy among their underwhelmed if not initially revolted circle of friends. And which entails one of the funniest scenes in the film, a secret visit to a sex club hideaway in town to pick up a few pointers.
There’s also a flaky romance brewing for Eric, whether he knows it or not, with Dad’s skeptical real estate agent, Kelly (Leslie Bibb). And a lame, not so hot sidebar out of nowhere, featuring Lucy Punch as a new mom with baby in tow and nevertheless desperate to get in on the sordid action.
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy feels bad, beyond occasional moments of bizarre humor, mostly because mining sleaze for laughs tends to leave a sour aftertaste. Especially when the fix is already in, that family values are the must cure for whatever in those dirty minds happens to ail you.
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Rated R
2 stars
