This movie is cool beans! It tells the story of a young man still heartbroken over the loss of his father and literally fighting with his stepfather to gain his approval. Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) is an aspiring stuntman who does small events around town with his crew: his stepbrother, Kevin (Jorma Taccone); Rico (Danny McBride), who builds the ramps; and Dave (Bill Hader), the mechanic. When Rod’s stepdad needs a heart transplant, he and the crew put together an idea to use his stuntman skills to raise the $50,000 needed for his “conveniently priced surgery.” In the end, it’ll come down to “one big jump” for Rod to raise the money to save his stepdad—so that once his stepdad recovers, he can kick his ass and prove himself a man.
What I really love about this film is that it is a really funny, ridiculous, stupid comedy. I personally love that genre and unfortunately it’s a dying one. It feels like it’s homemade. They didn’t shoot at any fancy locations and the stunts were kept to a scale that felt believable. It also used some effects that felt really old school in the most delightful way! It really shows that the film was made by a group of friends who all seemed to have a lot of fun working on it. It’s wall-to-wall jokes, a lot of which are physical, and they all work well! Helping the style is the perfect cast for this style of comedy. Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone (both from The Lonely Island) star in this and their awkward chemistry makes them great to play stepbrothers. Bill Hader is basically the king of awkward comedy and Danny McBride plays the lovable dickhead that he does so well. Be it Rod’s training, which includes almost drowning; the fundraising, including being set on fire and used as a human piñata; or the actual stunts, which rarely go as planned, the cast works so well to keep the film funny and fresh.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the plot that doesn’t involve giving away all the jokes, but I will say, it feels much more coherent than other comedies of this style (basically all Will Ferrell films). I really appreciate that there seemed to be a lot of thought put into the script.
I really love Hot Rod. It might be dumb jokes but it’s very smart comedy in the sense that it all works together to both be essential to the plot and be funny. There are a lot of other failed films where they try to put jokes into it to make it funnier but they just feel out of place and fall flat whereas here they feel organic. The cast, with smaller roles by Will Arnet and Chris Parnell, was almost perfectly put together and it is what pushes this film to a higher level. This genre could be easily underappreciated because there are so many films that trying to exploit it; but when done right, as it is here, it’s one of my favorite things to watch.
Rating: A
Length: 88 minutes
There’s not a whole lot to say about the plot that doesn’t involve giving away all the jokes, but I will say, it feels much more coherent than other comedies of this style (basically all Will Ferrell films). I really appreciate that there seemed to be a lot of thought put into the script.
I really love Hot Rod. It might be dumb jokes but it’s very smart comedy in the sense that it all works together to both be essential to the plot and be funny. There are a lot of other failed films where they try to put jokes into it to make it funnier but they just feel out of place and fall flat whereas here they feel organic. The cast, with smaller roles by Will Arnet and Chris Parnell, was almost perfectly put together and it is what pushes this film to a higher level. This genre could be easily underappreciated because there are so many films that trying to exploit it; but when done right, as it is here, it’s one of my favorite things to watch.
Rating: A
Length: 88 minutes
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