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Massawyrm Takes A Spin With HOT ROD!!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
Another of this summer's surprises, Hot Rod comes out of the gate giving us something we haven 't really had a lot of this summer. Something new. At first glance this looks like a typical dumb guy sports comedy, something in the vein of a script that was written for Will Farrell or Ben Stiller if only they were young enough to pull it off. And don't get me wrong, there's plenty of that in there. But in an era when comedy seems dominated by Judd Apatow's throw it at the wall and see what sticks improv school and the Ricky Gervais mean spirited isn't uncomfortable real life funny, it is absolutely refreshing to see someone try something different.
First of all it's evident that Samberg and company (the infamous Lonely Island comedy team which includes the films director Akiva Schaffer) have borrowed liberally from both of these schools while simultaneously placing the film in the surreal sports comedy framework. But there's a new element here, a type of comedy that can only truly be described by the words What the fuck? Completely random elements that come entirely out of left field and are absolutely original set pieces. I'm not talking about the Will Farrell completely random exclamation machine "Great Caesar's marmot anus on a stick!" These are jokes that seem to completely alter reality itself, confuse the characters and then moves on while you are doubled over laughing…at the fact that you have no clue what the fuck just happened. This really is some experimental, cutting edge stuff worked into what should be run of the mill fare.
Compounding the humor of the film is its unbridled love affair with the films and music of the 80's. But not the 80's everyone jokes about. The other 80's. The 80's we would rather forget about. Shit like Strypper and Gymkata and music videos with guys hanging around in the fog with wild jungle cats. It feels like it was written and directed by someone who watched movies like that beautiful amalgam in Muse's Knights of Cydonia and believed every last bit of that universe. That's the universe this movie's characters wish they could live in. But the humor is tempered in a way in which we're shown that through subtlety, rather than having it hammered in with Hey dude, pass the Def Leppard cassette. These are just guys who wished as kids that they had been butt rock gods, and never let go of that dream.
And it's pretty fucking funny.
Not everything works - some of it got a bit too random for the audience - and really, the movie is downright fucking stupid at times. But the humor and the charisma of the cast carry it through time and again. Having Ian McShane and Sissy Spacek as a backbone to this film grounds it and allows the leads to just go nuts. But all the hype on Samberg is legit. Same with Akiva Schaffer. Together they take an idea that, lets face it – you've seen the trailer – should not work and made it solid. These two are a great team and I honestly believe Samberg has some serious comedy star potential.
Once again Bill Hader proves his comedic worth, and while this is the second funniest movie Hader appears in this month (the first is Superbad), that is no less an accomplishment. August is officially Get to know Bill Hader month. Prepare to laugh your ass off. This guy is gonna become one of those unsung comedy guys for the next few years, setting up everyone else until the rest of the world realizes just how funny he is. Like Steve Carrell. Keep an eye on Hader. And last but not least Danny McBride, most notably of next years big thing The Foot Fist Way, really takes what he did with his big breakout role and lets it move into the next level. While it was great to see these films in their proper order, I think this will be a nice introduction to McBride and ready folks for what to expect when The Foot Fist Way finally sees general release. I'm really beginning to get a handle on why he's gone from zero to sixty on the comedy circuit. The guys a solid character actor who holds this pack together.
But above all, this film succeeds because it's got heart. A holy shitton of heart. While Samberg is essentially that dumbshit douchebag that doesn’t quite realize that he's about to become the laughingstock of youtube every time he suits up, the movie lets you feel for him. There's nothing artificial about how he connects with the audience, unlike with most of these pseudo-sports comedies. And combined with the raw charisma of Samberg and company, you can't help but give into the cheesy goodness of it all.
While I can't call it the funniest movie of the summer, Hot Rod is certainly satisfying and easily one of the more original things you're going to see. Recommended for anyone looking for a laugh this weekend.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
STUNT RAWKER!!!!!!!!!!
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+ Expand All
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THE BALLS OF A YAK
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Count me in!!!!
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Can't wait.
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I don't see how the film could be good.
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I sent in one for this flick about 2 weeks ago. I wonder why they didn't put it up :(
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im interested in whatever the wtf moments are too.
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the trailer had me laughing for days, and this looks really funny, i'll be seeing it this weekend
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I read in Entertainment Weekly that the script has been lying around for years and it was meant to be a script for Ferrell. Then the Lonely Island guys got a hold of it.
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She's funnier than Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Will Ferrell combined.
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actually choked laughing on his popcorn during the trailer for this when I saw TRANSFORMERS. Weird. I spent the three minutes wondering if that was Jon Heder in the movie or not. Looks like a fictional JACKASS, and thus, about five years too late. Obviously, it'll take millions. Mind you, the Guy Behind Me cheered throughout TRANSFORMERS, so he might well have been on some trip out from the differently-abled school...
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Haven't we seen this movie before? Like a thousand times before! Rent some movies ASS!
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. . . I said the same thing about Supertrooers and I LOVE that movie. I'm intrigued enough to see Hot Rod at the Dollar Theater.
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An 80's Christian rock band named Stripper? That's a new one.
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I'm sooo sick of the 80's. I was done with it ever since Alex Owens danced in a Geisha outfit under a strobelight. And did any kids from the 80's REALLY listen to have the crap that's rehashed in films. I recall people hating half the stuff out there like Loverboy and Death Leopard. All I recall is Sex Pistols, The Cure, Suicidal Tendacies, Bruce Springstein, U2, Styx, Public Enemy, Devo, and The Cars oh and Sheena E. And I remember people rocking out to the Footloose Soundtrack and the one song I could do without till the day I die "You Lost That Loving Feeling".
That's what I remember from the eighties. That and gummy wrist bracelets.
This movie sounds okay. But don't shit on the House that Gervais and Apatow built. All hail Seth Rogan. -
...gets to hang out with a hottie as Isla Fisher. God, she's hot. Hot, hot, hot.
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And that's a good thing.
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Napoleon Dynamite.
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I only wanted to voice my approval for any mention of Gymkata, the Holy Grail of films.
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every other weekend on Comedy Central in two years. Stuck between Van Wilder and Sorority Boys. Do hope the Lonely Island guys pick up the baton from Broken Lizard. They had me at SuperTroopers, really lost me at Club Dread, and sorta lost me at Beerfest. Ian McShane kicking the ass of Samberg looks like gold though.
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Holy flaming goat anus! Fucking spellcheck. Changes it to Farrell everytime. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Ferrell.
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I think I was too hard on this. I saw it the day after I first saw Superbad and that film was too fresh in my head as one of the funniest comedies of the year, in years. So I took away a few too many points from Hot Rod for not being as good as Superbad. Massawyrm is right. It's not the funniest movie of the year, but it's above average and has a true sweetness to it. They screened this about 50 times this summer in New York and I kept passing it up after seeing it once. But now that all the time has passed, I gotta say that I kind of want to pay to see it again this weekend.
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"Harold Buttleman, Daredevil Stuntman". That little project by GOD INC inventor (francisstokes.com) francis stokes: http://tinyurl.com/2zu2nr
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My wife and I laugh at the trailer every time we see it. I'm normally not that huge of a fan of movies like this, btu the chemistry seems to be pretty good. We'll probably add it to our Blockbuster queue.
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early Sandler flicks had lots of WTF humor, even his newer watered down crap still has an occasional WTF joke thrown in
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Because, once mainstream America starts to take notice, this guy is going to be the next Adam Sandler. Sandler's movie career started with some great off-the-wall comedies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. Then came the success of The Wedding Singer and it was all downhill after that (on a comedy scale). I keep wishing we'd get the old Sandler back, but instead he keeps crapping out forgettable movies like Mr. Deeds, Click, and Now I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. So, before Sandberg gets noticed and begins making $150 million-grossing Hollywood watered-down crap, let's enjoy his work while it's still remotely unique and edgy.
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I don't care how "nice" he is, or how much of a "regular guy" he is, he's not fucking funny. His entire point on SNL is to make funny faces at the camera. He's Jimmy Fallon-awful.
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...job disguising that in the trailer. It makes this look like the most derivative, unoriginal thing ever.
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Remind me what Jimmy Fallon ever did that was that good? Hell, it's been downloaded an average of 1.4 times for every man, woman and child in the world. Go ahead and tell me you thought it "fucking sucked". Come on. I dare you.
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Dude, this is DIFFERENT. It's not like those moments you're thinking of. There's one seen in particular, the COOL BEANS sequence, that just comes out of nowhere - and it makes ZERO sense. But it made me laugh.
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spot on synopsis of him. The guy is the funniest thing SNL has going for it (Wiig being a close second).
He'll be huge in two years. I can see a Sandler-like movie career for him. -
...are the only two people who ARE doing original comedy these days. Hot Rod looks like a lame rip-off of Napolean Dynamite. Wow, 80s pop culture references and slapstick humor- GENIUS!! Sorry, but your review is shit.
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I said hi to her at a Bat for Lashes show last week in New York. You're more than welcome to be jealous of me.
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Masa.
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This is the only SNL skit I can really say reminds me of Samberg. It was the one with Jeremy Piven and Samberg played some Make a Wish Foundation kid.
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Apatow makes character-driven comedy, the farthest thing from shotgun-style comedy (UHF, Zucker/Abrams, Scary Movie).
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Yeah, Samberg played the kid with ADD - automatic death disease. (heh)
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I know people who say that, and I can't understand what in the hell it means.I'm going to research that and the phrase "Gotta Eat", in order to understand my fellow human beings.
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Apatow has taken the frat sex comedy and added an improv element - and Gervais has serialized what Christopher Guest has been doing for decades. Hardly cutting edge. But it is what all the hipsters are watching right now. So if you're gonna side with them, I guess Someone's bought into the hype. Oh, and yes. It DOES look like shit. I kind of said that in the review. But one of us has actually seen it.
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...are WORLDS apart. And you are perhaps the only person on planet Earth to deny the objective quality of the UK Office and Extras. And "WTF" elements to comedy are NOTHING new either: remember the trident in Anchorman? the cheetah in Harold and Kumar? the make-out session in talladega nights? It's incredibly easy (and popular) to throw in randomness and stupidity into a comedy these days. It's not as easy to use character sympathy and empathy as the driving force of the laughs.
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I haven't seen Dick In A Box. I've seen a handful of newer SNL episodes, and they've all been garbage. SNL has almost always been uneven, but it's unwatchable to me now. It's painfully unfunny, and Andy Samberg mugging for the camera making goofy faces doesn't do shit for me.
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Isla Fisher
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Oh, give me a fucking break. You sound like an angsty 18 year-old with that dismissive bullshit. "I don't like it, so therefor anyone who does just wants to be cool and is a sucker!" Wah wah wah. There's nothing wrong with liking "dumb" comedy, just have the balls to admit it, rather than trying to paint anyone who desires anything more than sight gags and "randomness" as some kind of hipster douchebag.
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It's a shame he's on SNL when the writing is at a near all-time low. I agree with whoever said he reminds them of Akroyd. I saw him on Conan a while back, and I remember thinking he was really funny.
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not saying you're right or wrong (probably wrong)...but don't you think you might want to wait til you've SEEN the movie, before you argue this specific point with someone who has?
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for those of you who have seen the trailer on tv and listen to AC/DC, what is the name of the song playing durning the trailers? it's been bugging the hell out of me, and i swear that song ends up on a lot of comdey movie trailers.
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The majority of my two posts were in defense of the works of Ricky Gervais and Judd Apatow. I make no claim about Hot Rod other than the fact that it looks like a shitty Napolean Dynamite rip-off (which it does). If the movie is good then hooray, but I found fault in the fact that Apatow's and Gervais' work were regarded as "unoriginal" whereas everything Massywyrm wrote about Hot Rod makes it seem inane and not nearly as well-crafted anything done by the two talented individuals Massywyrm ignorantly dissed.
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Sorry man. I was trollbaiting - but caught me a regular instead. Just enjoying watching this guy lose his shit. While many a hipster has annointed these two - the are an awful lot of people that find them funny.
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Her scene early in the film with Alan Tudyck was the best part of the movie. "We want you to be healthy by eating less."
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I am jealous. But don't tell Isla that I love Kristen too.
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I am always up for a good WTF moment in a film. As teens my buddy and I also referred to them as Smoker moments - they would be enhanced my some maryjane
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I love Judd Apatow's films, for the most part...but "throw it at the wall and see what sticks improv school", while not sounding particularly complimentary, is right on the money. ditto for Ricky Gervais, The Office and Extras are both hilarious to me, but "isn't uncomfortable real life funny", well, perfectly describes it. I admit, it might have come off as a little dismissive, but it's not off the mark.and I don't think Massa was trying to diss these guys as much as he was trying to say, "in case you're thinking this is more of the same, which it might seem from the previews, it's not. it's something completely different."and that's good, because although I like the lonely island guys, and Samberg is great, I really didn't expect much from this, after seeing the preview.so let's just wait to see the film when it comes out, and then we'll all meet up in whatever Batman stroke-fest talkback closely follows it, and discuss our findings.
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Despite the fact that I don't find Andy Samberg funny, it did make me laugh. It reminded me a little bit of the Three Times One Minus One sketch from Mr. Show.
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I just went and saw the beggining of Uwe Bolls Postal movie, and thought it was kinda funny...Humor is a very subjective thing.
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Oh, like every episode of Family Guy
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Aug 01, 2007 9:40:05 PM CDT
'random' jokes, fake mustaches, making fun of the 80s
by larrythecableguy
seem like cheap laughs to me these days. i havent seen this movie yet and like these guys on snl, but i dunno if this movie deserves a review at all.
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I like some of Samberg's SNL digital shorts (Lettuce, Narnia, Dickbox), but I just watched 8 scenes from this film at commingsoon.net and each one was laughless and downright embarrassing.
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First, You cut a hole in the box.
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Is this not all about Gymkata. I mean what the fuck is Hot Rodney?
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Love him so much. He's doing consistently funny work, and just seems like an all around nice guy. Apparently he was so absent from SNL last year due to the various movies he was in. Let's hope he's used plentifully this year.
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Aug 02, 2007 1:12:03 AM CDT
Got Three Toes, but I'll Down Three Thousand Bud Lights
by george newman
SLOTHS! SLOTHS! SLOTHS!
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but The Devil Dared Me To looks like exactly the same film, only actually funny...
http://tinyurl.com/2tgpn7 -
Give me jokes that make sense and characters that actually are consistent characters with motivation.I hate this Family Guy, Will Ferrell crap where a bunch of people say and do and say totally unpredictable things and none of the other characters react with anything but their own random wacky behaviour. Maybe it's funny in real life when somebody just says the wierdest/grossest thing possible, but in movies it feels cheap and becomes boring damn fast.If I wanted absurdism I'd call Jorodowsky.
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thank you very much, i appreciate your help. you have made my day. thanks again.
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Manatees gotta eat!
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I'm sick as fuck of these reviews where something comes out, and suddenly everything else in that same genre is stupid, outdated and irrelevant. Now, I think this movie looks awful. But that's my opinion. What I don't get is the slamming of Gervais and Apatow. Let's say Hot Rod is the funniest comedy ever made... why does that suddenly make Gervais and Apatow irrelevant? Time and time again, reviewers want to show off how hip they think they are. Big deal - you saw "Hot Rod" a week before everyone else. Awesome. But let's leave others who are quite successfully doing comedy alone. Mkay?
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When you trash Ricky Gervais, Judd Apatow, and Will Ferrell in the beginning of a review about a comedy, your opinion becomes meaningless. Like that guy who slept through Halloween.
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he will suggest that Andy Samberg writes funnier and more biting satire than Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
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right on. totally random but inspired humor.
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that show actually tries too hard to say, this is random humor. Let's throw in a directly introduced comparison between the Kool-aid man and Ex-Justice Sandra Day O'conner (having SEX)!! Why is that funny? Oh yeah, it's not.
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