The Hot Chick - Review

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Rated: PG-13

Distributor: Touchstone Pictures

Release Date: 2002-12-13

Starring: Rob Schneider, Rachel McAdams, Ana Faris, Andrew Keegan, Matthew Lawrence, Sam Doumit, Adam Sandler

Directed by Tom Brady

Produced by Carr D'Angelo, John Schneider

Written by Tom Brady, Rob Schneider

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Reviewed by Joshua Tyler : 2004-04-14 00:00:00

There's nothing worse than laughing at Rob Schneider. He's not smart, he's not witty, he can barely walk erect, and personally I have a sneaking suspicion that he could suffer from hygiene issues. Once best known for being the guy on SNL who commented on people making copies, and flaunted himself as "The Sensitive Naked Man", how do you defend Rob Schneider? His movies aren't high concept and his humor usually revolves around phrases like "Man-Whore". Is there any way to make him sound appealing? I think not. We can only sit dumb-founded and laugh at a man who consistently drags hilarious material out of the crappiest, things imaginable.

This time, it's a twisted take on Freaky Friday in which the school's hottest chic find herself turned into a middle aged, slightly skanky looking man. From there we're treated to a delightful array of valley girl cliché's and penis jokes all of which ends up exactly where you'd expect. Unexpectedly it's also extremely funny.

The film has a fast-paced energetic sense of humor in which potentially poignant moments are presented as setups for left-field gags involving low-riders or homosexual bartenders. Part of The Hot Chick's formula is to get just sappy enough that you start to hate the movie, so that Schneider can pull the rug out from under you and channel your hatred towards the sickly sweet into laughter at an elaborately constructed joke. Who knew hatred could be so fun? When not sucking us in with faux morality lessons, The Hot Chick is simply flat out stupidity, filled with that special kind of awkward humor that makes you squirm and laugh all at the same time.

Better still, The Hot Chick knows when to stop! After it's gone through a nice run of gender jokes, migrant worker gags, and other fun with stereotypes, Schneider wraps things up at a strip club and goes home. I imagine that's not far from what Scheider's real life is actually like. Except at the end of the day he probably doesn't turn back into a woman.

Yes, the acting is predictably poor, and there's a nice grouping of obligatory Adam Sandler cameos (all stupid and funny), but The Hot Chick slips in just the right number of out there belly laughs to really kill. With all the supposedly deep, gut wrenching drama, and wand wielding wizards floating around this winter, it's nice to have something so outrageously silly to lighten things up. Give thanks for Rob Schneider, Hollywood's most unlikely success.