'Hot Rod': Stupid, silly, cheap and hilarious

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2007)

This silly, pointless and almost plot less production  sort of a cross between "Napoleon Dynamite" and an episode of "Super Dave Osborn" (despite the ultra cheap production values and ham-fisted acting)  is nonetheless one of the funniest films of the summer.
Story basically has self-proclaimed stuntman, Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg, "Saturday Night Live") attempting to better Evil Kenevil by jumping over 15 school buses. He is doing this to raise $50,000 for a heart transplant operation for his violent stepfather, Frank Powell (Ian McShane, "Lovejoy," "Deadwood").
This would be all well and good, however, if Rod were a legitimate daredevil. Instead, he can only afford a moped while his other jumps (over a mail truck and a local swimming pool) end in complete failure. It seems he was led to believe his real father was a real stuntman who died while testing a jump for Kenevil.
It turns out, though, that his dad choked to death on a piece of pie. Thus the movie's silliness is established.
As in all films like this  which blend lowbrow comedy with the raw isolation and humiliation of its protagonist  a group of goof-ball buddies revolves about for any number of reasons.
In "Hot Rod," the doofus friends include the quasi-gay stepbrother, Kevin Powell (Sandberg's high school bud, Jorme Taconne); the semi-retarded Dave (Bill Hader, "Superbad"); and the psychotic Rico (Danny McBride, "The Heartbreak Kid").
There's also an unrealistic love interest, Denise (Ilsa Fisher, "Wedding Crashers," "The Lookout"), who leaves her rich, handsome, successful, jerk of a boyfriend, Jonathan (Will Arnett, "Blades of Glory," "Grindhouse"), for the shaggy-haired nerd.
This, of course, only happens in "reel" life. In real life, girls stay with guys like Jonathan forever and losers like Rod end up eating alone at Denny's at 2 a.m.
Meanwhile, despite his attempts to earn money and save his step-dad's life, Rod is constantly berated and beaten up by McShane (who gives a hilarious, deadpan comic performance), while his mother, Marie (Oscar winner Sissy Spacek, "Coal Miner's Daughter")  a bizarro twist on June Cleaver  makes token efforts to stop the abuse.
Rod wears ridiculous 1980s retro clothes, sports a tacky fake mustache and listens to songs from the hair band Europe ("Carrie," "The Final Countdown"); he is also dopey and lovable, representing all of use poor saps who can never reach even our most attainable goals.
As Rod goes through various efforts to raise funds (he performs "stunts" for local birthday parties and corporate functions, rents himself out as a piñata and produces an ill-fated documentary on his training techniques), he finds himself woefully short (about $50,000) of his goal.
That is until he convinces a local AM radio station, run by the delusional Barry Pasternak ("SNL"'s Chris Parnell) of the worthiness and stupidity of the endeavor.
With laughs coming from the lowest common denominator and silly pratfall gags, Hot Rod delivers the goods. This isn't Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder, but it's funny in its own stupid, pathetic way.
And after a summer of sex, violence and explosions, that's not half bad at all.