Ed Cole (Haley Joel Osmont) is a former student teacher who falls on hard times and finds himself working at a bagel shop. He decides it's time to kick start his career and get back into teaching. However, Ed is unable to find a position teaching in his specialist subjects and reluctantly takes on the role of taking an after school class of detention kids. Ed quickly learns that the kids aren't currently learning Sex Ed and takes it upon himself to start teaching a course on Sex Ed much to the dismay of Reverend Marcus Hamilton (Chris Williams) who happens to be the strict father of one of the children in Ed's class.

My first thoughts when watching this film is that it kind of reminded me of Dangerous Minds (albeit a watered down and much less gritty version of the same film). I haven't seen Dangerous Minds for quite some time, but I don't recall feeling that it wasn't gearing itself to the wrong audience and ultimately that is what the biggest problem is with Sex Ed.

For a start it makes teaching kids lessons in Sex Ed the focus of most of its plot; explaining to kids what all the various body parts are, how to put condoms on, what all the 'scientific' words are called etc - this is all fine and I can see that to older children or young teenagers that this may be of interest and educational. The problem is that the filmmakers then slap a 15 certificate on it and with the exception of the classroom scenes the film is then filled with bawdy sexual scenes, violence, picking up prostitutes. Whilst I have nothing against these things in a mainstream film it did seem strange to give the majority of the film a sordid feel to it when it quite clearly has a rather wholesome message at heart. I'm really not sure why the filmmakers chose this approach when it probably would have been funnier if it would have been a clean comedy focusing on a sexually inexperienced teacher struggling to teach children about Sex Ed (at least that way it might have been a film that a family could perhaps sit down and watch together and would have at least appealed more to its intended target audience). The problem is that it doesn't play out like this and to be honest I thought that Ed got the kids onside a little too easily - I felt there were way more opportunities available to make the classrooms scenes funnier.

Another problem for me is that even when I looked beyond the fact that as a man in my 30's I clearly wasn't the target audience the film just isn't that funny and just seemed full of clichés. Haley Joel Osmont's character is a pathetic guy, but he's like this all the way through the film and to be honest it's mildly depressing.

In all honesty, Sex Ed's confusing tone is its biggest enemy; it's central story is about Sex Ed and the film does a reasonable job of raising awareness of the importance of using condoms and in highlighting the possible consequences of not taking precautions whilst having sex (which is great). It's too bad that this message seems to be overshadowed by clichéd sub plots, pointless violence, bawdiness, and a distinct lack of humour. I can see what was trying to be achieved here, but it's been handled really badly here.

The film attempts to use humor to demonstrate the need for real sex education in the classroom especially in the day and age of the uncontrolled, uncensored Internet. (Enjoy it while you can.) Edward Cole (Haley Joel Osment) is trained as a math teacher and can't get a job in Florida as one, believe it or not in world that screams for math teachers. He leaves his dead end job at Bubby's Bagels to accept a job as a detention monitor which has the same kids everyday. He discovers there is a real need to teach the kids sex education, against the wishes of Rev. Hamilton (Chris Williams). Hamilton claims the kids should learn sex ed at home, although this is not getting done.

The film tries to be funny by creating quirky characters who give us advice like, "Never do two illegal things at one time." The dialogue left something to be desired. It attempted to be funny through shock value, but at may age there is no more shock, so the dialogue had no value. When Lorenza Izzo wants to jump into the sack with you, I don't care who you are, you don't say "no."

Unrealistic and Unfunny.

Guide: F-bomb, sex, brief nudity (Monika Casey)

This was a really awkward movie, but I liked it. I guess it's because it's a secular movie that strives away from the secular mentality. If that makes any sense. Sure some viewers might bash the heck out of this, pointing their fingers at how much of a loser the protagonist who is a sex ed teacher played by Haley Joel Osment is. But I was personally rooting for the underdog, because he is the few that had that sense of moral code that is actually quite rare now a days. We now live in a time where if you are a virgin you are labeled as a loser. But this movie tries to show that it's okay to wait for the right person. Even if it's done in a very awkward fashion. I am sure the viewers that were once a very very nice guy that wasn't getting any can relate to this movie to a degree (which is quite a lot). If that is your choice that is your choice. This movie didn't seem to have a clear cut message, but that was one of the points it was trying to make and I kinda respect that. Now I personally like Haley Joel Osment as an actor, he isn't the cute kid he was in his younger years but he knows how to utilize what he has now and I respect that as well. I personally watched this movie because of Haley Joel Osment and actually enjoyed it. It's not a hilarious in your face comedy but it was kind of endearing. Looking at the title and it being labeled as a comedy I thought it would be super crude it's actually not so much. And I liked how it didn't rely on a ton of crude stuff to get some laughs out of the audiences.

6.5/10