Hot Rod (2007, Akiva Schaffer) (Patreon)

55/100

Easy to see why this got mediocre reviews upon release, not hard to understand how it subsequently developed a cult following. Having read zilch in advance—didn't even know that Rod is the protagonist's name, had always assumed the plot involves auto racing (though I see now that there's a motorcycle right on the poster)—I spent much of Hot Rod wondering why the hell Andy Samberg tried to launch his movie career via what obviously should have been a Will Ferrell vehicle; learning that the project originally was intended for Ferrell, and got more or less donated to The Lonely Island when he bailed, made me laugh out loud. Certainly, that explains the movie's schizophrenic nature. Parts of it play as a loving parody of those comedies, though poking fun at a mini-genre that's already plenty self-aware is tricky business. I was unsure for quite a while whether gung-ho '80s blockbusters (Footloose, Flashdance, etc.) were the prevailing reference point or just one random element thrown into the mix—turned out to be the latter, ultimately. And then a lot of Hot Rod is pretty much indistinguishable from what we might have seen had the film gone forward with Ferrell as planned. I include in that last category most of the lazier humor, e.g. Danny McBride saying "Prepare to be dazzled!" as he lights the fuse on some fireworks, which don't go off and that's the entire joke, cut to next scene. (Get it? They weren't dazzled.) Also, who the hell, after seeing what Isla Fisher was capable of in Wedding Crashers, decided that she should be squandered as an utterly generic love interest? Actionable, frankly. 

Thankfully, it proved impossible for The Lonely Island not to impose their own sensibility onto the picture, if only in fits and starts. Almost all of the hilarity here arises out of nowhere, lacking any organic connection to the narrative. Rod's bizarre over-enunciation of first "whiskey" and then, when challenged, of all words beginning with 'w.' A flyer-distribution montage that gradually gets taken over by shots of a minor character (Chester Tam) doing cheerful pelvic thrusts at the camera wherever it turns. The spontaneous triumphant parade that abruptly metamorphoses into an ugly full-scale riot (admittedly hard to find funny at the moment that I happen to be writing this, but I admire the concept in theory). Any of these bits could be airlifted out of Hot Rod and turned into an SNL Digital Short virtually as is, and "cool beans"—the only substantive thing Jorma Taccone gets to do as Rod's younger brother—is so blatantly a Lonely Island sketch that it'd be hysterically disruptive in virtually any context. Tossed into a well-oiled sitcom machine like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, such shenanigans would likely fall flat, coming across as too arbitrarily weird; they're usually a breath of fresh air in Hot Rod, though, which otherwise relies more heavily on rote underdog-loser gags than one might prefer. (Okay, than I preferred.) Samberg's too genial a presence to make that sort of toxic egotist really sing, much less to pull off a vicious father-stepson rivalry (the most obvious skeletal remains of Ferrell's involvement) opposite Ian McShane. Also I forgot how shaggy Samberg's hair was back then. 2007 was longer ago than I think.