The story, such as it is, concerns Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg), a self-styled daredevil whose small potatoes stunts always end in disaster. Yearning for his step-father Frank's (Ian McShane) approval, Rod decides to raise $50,000 for the elder's urgently needed heart transplant operation by staging a stunt worthy of Evel Knievel: a jump over 15 school buses.

With the help of his nitwit crew - psychotic Rico (Danny R. McBride), space cadet Dave (Bill Hader), nerdy half-brother Kevin (Jorma Taccone), and pretty girl-next-door Denise (Isla Fisher) - Rod tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to raise money for the spectacular fundraiser.

Hot Rod was apparently intended for another SNL alum, Will Ferrell, and when he dropped out Samberg, Taccone, and director Akiva Schaffer took over the project, which according to the IMDb was shot over two summers, all signs of a troubled production. Nonetheless, Schaffer was quoted as saying, "We definitely put our own stamp on it. We had to make it feel like it was ours...so you assume a little bit of ownership." Like owning a Yugo, I guess.

In postmodern Hollywood moviemaking, earned sentiment is eschewed in favor of flip humor, thus Frank's dire health is treated for laughs. But, this being a post-postmodern film, the jokes get the same treatment. Rather than actually aim for honest laughs through clever, perceptive writing, the careful staging and nurturing of a few comic set pieces or even, as many '80s comedies did successfully, shoot for some outrageous gross-out gags, the filmmakers instead opt for an entirely different approach. Here, they toss a veritable salad of movie references (e.g., Footloose parody), bone-crunching pratfalls (Homer Simpson-esque fall down a mountain), and pointless comic digressions (nerdish, impromptu rap performance enhanced by editing room mischief) - not, apparently, to draw laughs from the material itself, but rather to elicit the same contemptuous laughter at the rampant idiocy onscreen that the filmmakers have for their audience. It's as if they don't expect the audience to laugh with them or even at the characters and situations (as in, say, Dumb & Dumber). Rather, the movie itself is the joke, a product so inane that the entire enterprise becomes funny.

All this is unfortunate given that early/mid-'80s comedies are ripe now for parody, and because there's a tiny glimmer of truth in the characterizations of these suburban losers. (I had my share down the street in suburban Detroit.) Conversely, it's disheartening to see actors the caliber of Ian McShane and especially Sissy Spacek (wasted, utterly, as Rod's loving mother) in such drivel.

Video & Audio

Filmed in Super 35, the 2.35:1 image is decent enough, not outstanding but crisp and clear with reasonable color and up to contemporary standards in 1080p. Peppered throughout the film, such as at the 39-minute mark (the Tai-Chi sequence), certain shots exhibited some sort of digital artifacting that had the effect of looking through a screen door. The audio, unimpressive except for the fullness of its '80s pop soundtrack, is in English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, and English, Spanish, and French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, with English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles.

Extra Features

Tragically, Hot Rod overflows with supplementary material. Schaffer, Samberg, and Taccone provide a jokey (natch) audio commentary, but I can't imagine more than five people not related to the cast and crew will ever bother to listen to it.

A short trailer is in high-def; everything else is 480i/p standard definition. Ancestors Protect Me is yet another frivolous featurette of no interest to anyone, except perhaps for Schaffer's on-par-with-the-film remark, "We took a really good script [by Pam Brady] and shat on it." There's a laundry list of deleted and extended scenes (dear God no), viewable with or without commentary; and an outtakes reel. Also included are Kevin's Videos (the film within the film), a strange Punch Dance segment that seems incorrectly transferred (everything is peculiarly jammed to the left side of the 16:9 image), and home video footage of the orchestra recording session.

Parting Thoughts

Producer Lorne Michaels deserves time in the Nobuo Nakagawa-imagined Hell of Jigoku for all these bad Saturday Night Live knock-offs that test the waters for the next John Belushi and Eddie Murphy. Hot Rod might be barely tolerable after a few six packs, but I haven't seen a comedy this bad in several years. Skip It.

　 Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel. His audio commentary for Invasion of Astro Monster is now available.