Amazing Stunt: Hot Rod Jumps The Shark

Rating: 3/10 (8 August 2007)

Firstly I want to say that I'm a fan of the Lonely Island, these guys' website. I've seen a lot of their videos and I really like their humor. And their stuff on SNL is great. Having read a few reviews, I can't say I had high hopes for Hot Rod, but clung to the chance it would be good. Nonetheless, I was incredibly disappointed. It was, as the Lonely Island guys would say, not-Kablamo.
Hot Rod never quite found it's feet, switching tone every couple of minutes. They would set up sentimental moments and then undercut them with a joke, which is often great comedy, but these jokes always fell flat, so the reversals never worked, nor did the sentimentality, missing the opportunity to make the audience feel something or laugh, a double strike-out. At times it seemed like a Napoleon Dynamite rip-off - the dance sequence, the non-jump over the curb, a guy named "Rico". I'm surprised there wasn't a llama that Rod had to jump over.
I truly felt sorry for the lead girl, Isla, if you could call it a lead. She had no jokes, no character, no depth. The love story wasn't there. No one cared. She was infinitely more utilized in Wedding Crashers in a smaller role. Andy Samberg was a little scattered. To make a movie like this work, you need someone like Will Ferrell, who makes you laugh at every scene and puts so much conviction into the role. I couldn't tell if Samberg had a lack of conviction or was just an actor struggling with continuity in his character. Granted, there wasn't a character formed through the writing, an added challenge. Honestly, I think what it is is he's good on the SNL sketches and Lonely Island sketches, but can't carry a movie. I'd be interested to see what happens with him in a good script.
In the best of my estimation, here's what I think happened: you take three kids who are amazing at short format sketches, you hand them a script, they chop it into short sketches that they think are funny, the story is sacrificed, and the audience gets 90 minutes of an unrefined collage.
The theater I sat in had 10 people who groaned through some parts, laughed at a few, and mainly sat in silence. I wanted to like it so badly. I think these guys are talented. Perhaps movies are not their right medium. I'd give them another shot. But land the jump next time.