Review of Hot Rod

While, this movie isn't a Saturday Night Life skit turn into a movie. It's feels like one that works. Hot Rod is a sports comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer, written by Pam Brady along with Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, who were uncredited. Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) is a man-child daredevil stunt man, who is aspire to follow in his father's footsteps and become a famous stuntman himself. Meanwhile, his stepfather Frank (Ian McShane) fails to respect Rod as a man, often going out of his way to beat him in sparring sessions and mocking his stuntman dream, but when Frank is in urgent need of a heart transplant. Rod find the strength and courage to win his heart, by raising the money by doing a jump over the length of fifteen school buses, and give the proceeds to his stepfather's surgery. The movie's jokes, both physical slapstick action humor & dialogue humor, at less for me, hit me like the hard ground after a fail stunt. It really broke my funny bone. It's weird that Rod, despite the many accidents he's involved in he never receives any long lasting injuries. Great use of a brick joke. Brick jokes are a joke that introduce in the beginning of a film that have no punch line, until late in the film. A good example of this is the Taco VS a Grill Cheese fight. Great use of retro humor, but it is 2007 when it was film, not 1980s here. So, some of the jokes, the audience might not get. Still, there is a lot of Youtube type jokes that younger audience might find interesting. I have to say, while some of the jokes seem old, stolen, or recycled. Hot Rod gives a new spin to it. A good example is the dancing out of rage, sequence which is loosely based on the movie Footloose. While other comedies like TV show's Family Guy spoof it already, this version end up being a lot funnier, because you don't what happen next, coming. Another joke, people think Family Guy or Hot Rod stole is the mispronouncing of words gag. According to the producers, this was inspired by a skit on Gang Starr's album Moment of Truth. I wouldn't say it was stolen as revamped. It seems like the humor, here is updated and adapted well to the surrounds. It knows that the movie is supposed to dumb, and they over top it everything to the extreme. It's aim for those with high toleration for idiocy humor. It goes without saying, that this isn't a sophisticated comedy movie, but somehow, it works as being funny to me. Andy Samberg works both in the charm of the man-child character, and making up new jokes at the spot. I can't see, the original actor, it was written for, Will Ferrell in this type of a role. Already, at the time, he seems a little bit too old to be playing this type of a character. The supporting cast is just as easily as funny as Andy Samberg. All his friends Rico (Danny McBride), Dave (Bill Hader) and his half-brother Kevin (Jorma Taccone) gives out some really funny scenes of their own. Even side characters like AM radio station host Barry Pasternak (Chris Parnell) and boyfriend of Rod's love interest, Jonathan (Will Arnett) nearly steals the movie from Rod. Will Arnett plays such an over the top over the top, jerk off guy, that it's serves a continuing inside gag of over acting. Indeed, he was more evil, than Evel Kenevel. Adding Denise (Isla Fisher) to the mix is great as Isla gives some really need, beauty to the group, even if she seems like a not- realist girl character in real life. It's still kinda weird to see, such serious actors like Sissy Spacek, and Ian McShane playing minor characters in here. They really get lost in the film as they don't bring that much humor to the mix. At less, Sissy's character, doesn't. I hardly remember, Sissy at all in the film. The music is great, and well-use in the film. I love Swedish rock band Europe. The band called Gown that plays at Rod's final jump is actually Queens of the Stone Age if you wondering. The best use of music for me, is 'You're the Voice" by John Farnam in the town scene. That scene alone, got me laughing my head off! Now, to the faults of the film. One thing, I wish wasn't there was the potty humor. It wasn't because it was gross, it's the fact that it wasn't funny. That whole tai chi Chekhov's Skill poop joke is stupid. The whole Acid trip scenes weren't that great. The whole scene with Rico going crazy on a guy was just pointless. Pointless violence play off like that as humor isn't my cup of tea. For a PG-13 film, there was a lot of raunchy jokes that clearly the movie got away with. Sexual dialogue is present, but it's nothing too explicit. There is very mild language in the film, and few crude humor. Overall: While the movie was a bomb at the box office, in the years following, it has gather up a number of cult fans due to its off-beat humor. If you go into this movie with an open mind, you should enjoy the heck out of it. It's really hard not to like this film.