In spite of its talents, the comedic tone of "Hot Rod" is all over the place

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2012)

Andy Samberg is a funny guy, but if he wants to be a funny guy who makes movies, he'll need to figure out exactly what kind of funny he wants to be.
"Hot Rod" is a mess of comedic styles, and though that falls a lot on writer Pam Brady, who has written many "South Park" episodes among other solid gigs, Samberg doesn't quite pull Rod Kimble together into a cohesive character.
The movie has its moments to be sure, but "Hot Rod" mixes together Adam Sandler humor and Will Ferrell/"Anchorman" humor into a neo-'80s movie parody. If director Akiva Schaffer tried to blend all this into its own tone, it didn't work. Every other scene feels as though its attempting to win laughs by another set of means.
At its core "Hot Rod" is a Saturday Night Live movie as it was produced by Lorne Michaels and the members of the Lonely Island group behind the show's popular digital shorts all have their hands on it: Samberg as the star, Schaffer the director and Jorma Taccone in a supporting role as Rod's half brother Kevin. Bill Hader, Chris Parnell and Will Arnett also have roles. Danny McBride is the lone black sheep as he has his own comedy nucleus.
Samberg's Rod is a stuntman, which you could say about his hobbies or his maturity. Of the two stunts we see him attempt early in the film, he fails both, but that's neither here nor there. At home, he wrestles literally and figuratively with his stepfather, Frank (Ian McShane), desperate for his approval having lost his father in a stunt accident when he was little. When Frank takes a turn for the worse, Rod vows to jump 15 school buses to raise enough money for Frank's heart transplant.
Rod rallies his stunt team, which includes Taccone, McBride and Hader, plus he recruits the girl next door (literally) who he hasn't seen since high school (Isla Fisher). Together they do all manner of strange things to both train and raise money.
It's tough to capture the wide range of ways this film fishes for laughs. The most hilarious scene involves one of the film's many '80s montages, in which Rod goes to blow off some steam by doing all kinds of gymnastics stuff in the woods but suddenly finds himself tumbling down a mountainside. That unpredictability serves the film well, but it doesn't stick close enough to the '80s stuff throughout to warrant being called a true '80s parody.
Most of the scenes are formulaic, but the humor is and isn't. When it goes for physical humor and gags you can see it coming, but when it goes for witty deadpan, it catches you off guard. Calling the jokes hit or miss would not be a generalization for this movie.
Rod falls victim to the scattershot approach as well. At one moment he's sympathetic, in another he's so needlessly angry at his stepfather; at one moment he's shy and socially awkward, in another he's brazen and foolish. Just when you think you know the guy, you don't, and treating a main character that way guarantees complete audience apathy, which is what happens in "Hot Rod."
If someone stepped into this project with the voice of reason to say let's go for this one specific overall tone, "Hot Rod" could've developed into a memorable comedy considering the talent involved. Instead it's a comedic style variety show packed into a single focused story arc. As such, this is one comedic stunt that doesn't quite get pulled off.
~Steven C
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