I laugh at movies a lot.  I laugh hard and I laugh loud.  But rarely do I laugh as hard or as loud as I did when I saw Hot Rod…. but then again I am a fan.  The movie had a few *in* jokes and stylistic editing that we come to expect from The Lonely Island (read: dudes responsible for comedy on Saturday Night Live) and I got most of it because I’ve seen all of their videos and listened to all of their podcasts. 

I remember a couple weeks ago watching a trailer for the film on TV and saying to my wife “The movie can’t be that bad… it’s just a bad trailer… right?”  She just sat there quietly.  After the film came out and it was reviewed poorly (average rating of 4.7 on Rotten Tomatoes) and only made $5 Million dollars on opening weekend (a fraction of its staggering $25 to $30 million budget… I wonder where all that money went) I again turned to my wife and said “when the dudes when to SNL they were still funny, is feature film making their limit?” and she just sat quietly once more.

I finally got to put my worries aside on Sunday when I went to see the movie with a few friends (and my wife) in an almost empty theater.  Now I understand why people didn’t enjoy the film as much as I did, for instance the film critics (and most of America) have no idea who Chester Tam (Chez-dizzle) is or why he would be doing pelvic thrusts.  They don’t know why it’s super funny that Rod woke up with a start and said “Hoobastank”.  But those things are still funny, right?  Suffice it to say, Lindsay liked the movie and so did the other non-Lonely-Island-viewing-wife in the group.

Don’t let the critics fool you, the movie Hot Rod is hilarious for anyone with a good sense of humor.  And it’s twice as good for any fan.  And comedy aside, it’s a pretty well crafted movie.  A clear beginning, a middle with some conflict and an albeit predictable but very well crafted ending.

-Josh

Posted on August 15th, 2007 by schalicto
Filed under: Josh Rants