I saw the movie Hot Rod over the weekend. Short review: Thumbs up.
It's pretty simple, really. Take two parts Napoleon Dynamite, one part Lazy Sunday, and a dash of UHF, and viola! Despite the simple recipe, the results are delicious.
If you like Samberg, you'll like Hot Rod. If you're not acquinted with his work, he basically got started making dumb videos with his friends to post online. NBC noticed, and he landed a gig as a regular on SNL. I'd never seen him before Lazy Sunday, but was an instant fan when I saw it. Incidentally, I think that was the first time I'd seen a video hosting site called YouTube.
He now is famous for the SNL Digital Shorts. So far as I'm aware, they're the funniest things on SNL.
But I digress. Hot Rod is funny because it's just like Samberg's other stuff. His style is...well...whatever he wants. It's not Will Ferrell gross-you-out humor. It's Andy Samberg you're-such-a-dork humor, which I like a lot more. Kinda reminds me of...well...me and my friends.
Want to make a rap out of sound bytes from an incidental apology half-way through the movie? Okay. How about an absurdly over the top homage to 80's action comeback movies? Deal. You want to throw a joke in the middle of the movie, not because it makes sense, but just because it's really funny? Sure. He pretty much does whatever seems funny at the time. And it usually is.
So don't expect complex comedy. This isn't Woody Allen making jokes about Pollack, Sartre, or Mcluhan. This is Andy Samberg making jokes about Stacey Q., Yuppies, and Evel Knievel. And you know what? You don't even have to know who they are to enjoy the idiot antics of a dumb kid trying to prove something to his step-dad.
Oh, ya, that's kinda what the movie is about. Whatever. Samberg is funny. See it at the dollars like I did.
4 comments:
hmm... I'm almost sorry I didn't go. I went to bed early that night but couldn't sleep anyway. I guess I've learned my lesson!
What you talkin' 'bout, Mistah Craaaaig ? When Will Ferrell wakes up in the morning, he pisses excellence. When Andy Samberg wakes up in the morning...well, the crack of noon, he probably pours beer on his cereal. Ferrell did superior caricatures of Bush, Alex Trebek, James Lipton, Neil Diamond, and Janet Reno. Not only does Ferrel shine as a comedian, but as "Stranger Than Fiction" proved, he can also perform dramatically. Where Ferrell is diverse and can produce deep, belly laughs, Samberg is one note and obvious.
does anyone know who PC is?
I love Will Ferrell, but I most definitely loved Hot Rod as well. Different sort of funny. Every three minutes I was laughing and shaking my head, like "What...is going on right now?" But I loved every minute of it. It was kind of like watching a movie full of inside jokes you weren't in on, but that you didn't have to be in on because they were funny enough on their own. Long and short, I loved it. It will go in the Lance family video vault, for sure.
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