Hot Rod | |
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Directed by | Akiva Schaffer |
Written by | Pam Brady |
Produced by | John Goldwyn Lorne Michaels |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Andrew Dunn |
Edited by | Malcolm Campbell |
Music by | Trevor Rabin |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $25 million [1] |
Box office | $14.4 million [1] |
Hot Rod is a 2007 American comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer (in his directorial debut) and written by Pam Brady. The film stars Andy Samberg as amateur accident-prone stuntman Rod Kimble, whose stepfather, Frank (Ian McShane), continuously mocks and disrespects him. When Frank becomes ill, Rod raises money for his heart operation by executing his largest stunt yet. The film also stars Jorma Taccone, Sissy Spacek, Will Arnett, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher and Bill Hader.
The film was initially drafted by Pam Brady (who retains full writing credit) as a vehicle for Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell, but the project never commenced. Lorne Michaels convinced Paramount to let The Lonely Island, which was gaining fame for its work on SNL, take over the film. The group subsequently rewrote the movie with a heavy emphasis on offbeat surreal humor. Seth Meyers contributed in this rewriting process. [2] It was shot in Vancouver in the summer of 2006. The score is by former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin, and the soundtrack features several songs by the Swedish rock band Europe.
Paramount Pictures released Hot Rod on August 3, 2007. It was a box-office failure, grossing only $14 million on a $25 million budget. As its producers predicted, [3] it received mixed reviews, with critics criticizing the film's script and humor. It has become a popular cult film on home video. [4]
Throughout his life, Rod Kimble has believed his dead father was a successful and respectable stuntman working for Evel Knievel. He aspires to follow in his father's footsteps and become a famous stuntman himself. Meanwhile, his stepfather, Frank, does not respect Rod as a man, often going out of his way to beat him in sparring sessions, mocking his stuntman dreams. Rod makes many attempts to land jumps with his Tomos moped, most of them unsuccessful. After another failed jump attempt at a public pool, he returns home and learns that Frank is in urgent need of a heart transplant that the family's health insurance will not cover. Angered at the thought of Frank dying without getting a chance to gain his respect, Rod runs into the woods to let out his fury and tumbles down a steep hill, where he sees an inspirational billboard and gets an idea. Rod quickly meets with his childhood friends Rico and Dave and his half-brother Kevin, and tells them he plans to jump over 15 school buses and use the proceeds to fund Frank's surgery. Later, Denise, his neighbor and love interest, joins his team.
To promote his stunt and raise funds, Rod works parties, corporate get-togethers, and other events, performing activities such as taping pillows to his body and having a washing machine suspended by a crane swing to hit him. One day, he gets curious about what Kevin is working on as he hears music coming from his computer. Kevin says he was experimenting with editing footage, and shows Rod the video. Impressed by Kevin's work, Rod gets the idea to release a stuntman film to raise money. Kevin releases the movie using his footage of Rod's stunts and sells several tickets to the screening, where the audience laughs at Rod as the film depicts his failed training attempts. Rod gets angry and throws the theater's projector out of a window, smashing the projectionist's car below. He gives the projectionist all the money he has raised to cover the damages and avoid arrest. Upset, he returns home, where his mother reveals that his biological father was not the stuntman he thought he was. Humiliated, Rod quits the team and his dream to beat Frank, despite his friends' objections, but is reinvigorated when Dave gives him advice that inspires him to apologize to Kevin. As Kevin accepts his apology, he reveals that Rod's stunt footage has grown popular online and that a show on a local AM radio station, hosted by Barry Pasternak, has offered to cover the planned jump's expenses.
Rod gets his friends back together, and they start setting up for the jump. On the day of the event, his friends give him a new suit, a rock representing Rico's extensive pyrotechnic work, and a motorbike. He also receives a kiss from Denise, who broke up with Jonathan, her insensitive and callous boyfriend. As Rod jumps off the ramp, his bike's speed enables him to jump over the buses, but the motorcycle smashes through a stage and goes flying. Rod lands squarely on the ground and has an unconscious out-of-body experience. When he wakes, Rod, with Kevin and Denise's help, triumphantly gets up to applause and sees that the donations have accumulated over $50,000. Six months later, Rod once again spars with Frank, finally gaining the upper hand and Frank's respect.
After the credits, Rod is seen bowing down to his moped with the sunset in the background.
Hot Rod was written by Pam Brady, a former South Park writer, as a project for Will Ferrell during his tenure at Saturday Night Live . [5] The project never commenced, and the script remained in limbo at Paramount Pictures for several years. In the meantime, The Lonely Island was hired at SNL in 2005, and by the end of the year, it had a breakthrough with its short "Lazy Sunday." The sketch, an "SNL Digital Short," received millions of views online (especially on the then-fledgling YouTube), making the trio, especially Samberg, stars. Lorne Michaels, SNL's creator, convinced Paramount to allow the troupe to direct and star in the film. [5] [4] The trio had no prior experience with feature-length films, but Michaels had confidence, envisioning the film as a "different generation's comedy." [5] The studio wanted the film to remain less coarse to obtain a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), like DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story (2004). [5]
Initially reluctant, as the script was designed for Ferrell and the summer filming schedule was less than ideal, [6] Paramount authorized a rewrite, allowing the writers to incorporate bizarre, offbeat humor and absurdist comedy. [7] The script had to "match their standards"—"another way of saying, 'just dumb it down'", said Schaffer. [3] This involved deleting comedy designed for Ferrell (which Samberg called "so well-written") and replacing it with their own. "We didn't want it to seem like I was doing a Ferrell impression," said Samberg. [8] The result was a balance between "weird" humor and what Paramount considered accessible. Samberg was inspired by Wet Hot American Summer , which was, according to him, "designed to fuck around with what's expected from a movie." [5] Many jokes from the film deemed "too weird" were cut, including a scene in which Rod "jokingly," asks his younger brother Kevin to pull out his genitalia. [5] Samberg aimed for a performance that was:
Bad, but you know it's bad... There's a lot said about how this is the nerdy generation, and it's Internet-driven. The comedy that's influenced me has always been that. From the Three Stooges through Steve Martin in The Jerk and Ace Ventura and Chris Farley and Billy Madison , they were village idiots. That's definitely the tradition we're trying to follow.
Hot Rod was largely filmed in Vancouver in the summer of 2006. [9] Shooting locations include Cloverdale, British Columbia, and under the Surrey end of the Pattullo Bridge southeast of Vancouver. Other locations in British Columbia include Coquitlam, North Vancouver, Burnaby and Downtown Vancouver. Samberg had a stunt double, but did as many of his own stunts as was allowed. [10]
The MPAA objected to using the word "semen" in a scene in which Chris Parnell reveals a profane tattoo on his stomach. It was changed to "residue." [5] Another scene that barely made it into the film involved Samberg and Taccone repeating the phrase "cool beans" until it evolves into a "bizarre pseudo-rap." Schaffer initially cut the scene, but Samberg and Taccone edited it themselves. Schaffer reinserted the scene in the film's last test screening, where it received high marks from audiences as one of their favorite bits. [5] The film's original poster featured a silhouetted Samberg atop a hill beside his motorbike in a martial-arts pose. Paramount changed the poster to a large close-up of Samberg's face. [5]
Before its release, the Lonely Island promoted the film with interstitials during Comedy Central movie marathons. In the promos, the trio attempt to convince viewers that Hot Rod is the story of a sex offender ("He does stunts to raise money to sex-offend") and spoof the quality of films run during daytime marathons ("Stay tuned for Teen Wolf Too !"). [5] The premiere was at the John Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. [5]
Samberg predicted the film would not do well, telling Entertainment Weekly , "It will get bad reviews. Comedy is traditionally not reviewed that well." He added that if future generations viewed Hot Rod with a similar reverence to films such as Billy Madison, he would consider it a success. [3]
The "punchdance" [11] term the film introduced was a reference to Footloose. [12] [13]
The film opened at #9 at the U.S. box office in 2007 and grossed $5.3 million in its opening weekend. Overall, it bombed in theaters, leaving after 68 days, grossing just under $14 million. [1]
Hot Rod received mixed reviews from film critics upon its initial release. On Metacritic, it has an average score of 43 out of 100, based on 27 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [14] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 39% from 119 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's consensus reads "Hot Rod has brazen silliness and a few humorous set pieces on its side, but it's far too inconsistent to satisfy all but the least demanding slapstick lovers." [15] After its release, Paper wrote, "Depending on whom you talk to, Hot Rod is either a terrible stinker or a really strange and wonderful movie that you can't believe they got away with making." [6] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B− on an A+ to F scale. [16]
The Hollywood Reporter 's Frank Scheck criticized the film's "formulaic" script and humor, but commended Samberg's "reasonably engaging and sweet comedic screen presence." [17] "No one seems to have told the Lonely Island boys that the stakes are a little higher in features than they are in music videos and that underlighted shots and sloppy editing are more distracting on the big screen than on television," wrote Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle . [18] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe called the film "playfully dumb," commenting, "The filmmakers [...] have skipped right past the kitsch of tribute and gone straight for jokey delusion [...] And in that sense, Hot Rod is post-parody, taking nothing seriously, not even being a movie." [19] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "The film's low-key Wayne's World vibe takes it only so far. I laughed, then I wished it was funnier, then I just wished it would end. [20] Peter Debruge of Variety called the movie "yet another example of a comedy that refuses to be taken seriously—concept as clothesline for all manner of silliness." [21] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine noted that the trio "care far less about clever plotting than random ridiculousness," deeming the film "a tired rehash of every SNL alum's big-screen debut since Adam Sandler's Billy Madison." [22]
For their part, the film's producers remained optimistic about the movie in the press. "The movies I've always liked, comedy-wise—Billy Madison, The Jerk —always got terrible reviews. When our reviews came in, it was like, 'Oh, we're right on track,'" said Samberg. [6]
Lorne Michaels predicted it would find a different audience in the future:
I've lived through everything from Wayne's World with Mike [Myers] and Dana [Carvey] to Tommy Boy with Chris Farley, all the things I did with [Will] Ferrell, and even Three Amigos . Critics just don't like new comedians, and they certainly don't like them if they come from SNL or television. Later on, they revise their opinions and say that so-and-so's later films aren't as good as the first ones. I think the picture will be thought of differently in two years. [6]
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars:
The movie is funny because it is sincere. It likes Rod. It doesn't portray him as a maniacal goofball, but as an ambitious kid who really thinks, every single time, that he will succeed. In creating this aura of sincerity, Hot Rod benefits from Spacek's performance—she plays the mom absolutely straight, without inflection, as if she were not in a comedy. That's the only right choice—supporting characters are needed to reinforce Rod, not compete with him. [23]
The A.V. Club later wrote that the film differentiated itself from other Michaels comedies: "They may be just as poorly received, but their rhythms are unpredictable and exciting, shocked to life by moments of anti-comedy and wacky deconstruction. Hardcore comedy devotees pick up on them like a dog whistle." [24]
Hot Rod was released on DVD and HD DVD on November 27, 2007, and on Blu-ray on December 16, 2008. [25]
Hot Rod | |
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Soundtrack album by Various | |
Released | July 31, 2007 |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Label | Sony Legacy |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [26] |
The soundtrack was composed by ex-Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin. Several songs by the Swedish rock band Europe are in the movie, including "Cherokee" and "Rock the Night." The trailer contains three Swedish rock songs, Europe's "Cherokee" and "The Final Countdown", and The Hives' "See Through Head". It also includes the UK rock band Test Icicles' "Circle. Square. Triangle" as well as American Hi-Fi's "The Art of Losing." The band called Gown that plays at Rod's final jump is actually Queens of the Stone Age.
Track listing
The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio, formed by Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer in Berkeley, California, in 2001. They have written for and starred in the American TV program Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Andy Samberg is an American comedian, actor, rapper, singer and songwriter. He is a member of the comedy music group the Lonely Island with Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Samberg was also a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012, where he and his fellow group members are credited with popularizing the SNL Digital Shorts.
Incredibad is the debut studio album of the American comedy troupe The Lonely Island, released on February 10, 2009, through Universal Republic Records. Composed of writers and childhood best friends Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, the album consists of hip hop-inspired comedy songs and skits with a satirical slant on traditional hip hop culture.
Jorma Christopher Taccone is an American actor, writer, comedian, director, and musician. He is one of three members in the sketch comedy troupe The Lonely Island, with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer. In 2010, Taccone co-wrote and directed the SNL spinoff film MacGruber, which was his directorial debut. He directed his second feature alongside Schaffer, the musical comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which he also co-wrote and co-starred in with Schaffer and Samberg.
"Lazy Sunday" is a single and short film by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island. It was released on December 17, 2005, when it premiered on episode nine, season 31 of Saturday Night Live as the troupe's second Digital Short. Primarily performed by Andy Samberg and fellow cast member Chris Parnell, the song and accompanying music video follow the two comedians as they eat cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery, buy snacks at a convenience store, and smuggle the food into a Sunday afternoon matinee of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Akiva Daniel Shebar Schaffer is an American writer, director, actor, comedian, and musician. He is a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island along with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. Schaffer began his career with The Lonely Island making videos for Channel 101. In 2005, Saturday Night Live hired the trio, with Schaffer joining as a writer. In their time at SNL, The Lonely Island pioneered the digital short format, creating popular sketches such as "Lazy Sunday", "I Just Had Sex", "I'm on a Boat", and "Dick in a Box". After SNL, Schaffer went on to direct movies including Hot Rod, The Watch, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. The Lonely Island has made albums such as Incredibad, Turtleneck & Chain, and The Wack Album. Schaffer also produced a number of TV shows and movies, including MacGruber, PEN15, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, and Palm Springs.
An SNL Digital Short is one in a series of comedic and often musical video shorts created for NBC's Saturday Night Live. The origin of the Digital Short brand is credited to staff writer Adam McKay, who created content for the show in collaboration with SNL hosts, writers, and cast members. The popularity of these segments exploded following the addition of The Lonely Island to the show, and it is to them that credit is given for ushering SNL "into the age of digital online content in a time when it needed to tap into that relevance more than ever." The Lonely Island's digital shorts were originally recorded with consumer grade digital video cameras and edited on personal computers. It is typical for the show's hosts and musical guests to take part in that week's Digital Short, and several shorts have included appearances by celebrities who were not scheduled to appear in any of that episode's live sketches.
"Dick in a Box" is a song by the American comedy group The Lonely Island featuring American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake. The trio—Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—co-wrote the song with Timberlake, Katreese Barnes, and Asa Taccone. Barnes and Asa Taccone co-produced it with Jorma Taccone. Saturday Night Live (SNL) creator and producer Lorne Michaels asked Samberg to write a musical sketch for the 2006 Christmas episode with Timberlake, who was returning as both host and musical guest. Samberg developed the concept with other members of the group before working with Timberlake on December 14. They recorded the track around midnight and spent the next day and a half filming the corresponding music video.
The thirty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 1, 2005, and May 20, 2006. 19 episodes were produced due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and network budget cuts.
"Like a Boss" is a song written and recorded by comedy hip hop troupe the Lonely Island and released on their debut studio album Incredibad. The song is a parody of the song "Like a Boss" from Slim Thug's debut album Already Platinum. The parody is narrated by a businessman who describes his increasingly outlandish daily activities as "the boss".
"Jizz in My Pants" is a SNL Digital Short which aired on Saturday Night Live on December 6, 2008, and YouTube on the same day. It serves as the music video for the first single from the Lonely Island's debut album, Incredibad. The video stars the Lonely Island members Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and, briefly, Akiva Schaffer, and also features guest appearances by Justin Timberlake, Molly Sims and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. Portions of the video appear in the James Franco 2010 documentary, Saturday Night, which was filmed during the December 1-6, 2008 production week.
"I'm on a Boat" is a single from The Lonely Island's debut album Incredibad. It was also featured as a Saturday Night Live Digital Short. The song features R&B singer T-Pain. The song, produced by Wyshmaster, is a parody of many rap video clichés, especially the music video for the Jay-Z song "Big Pimpin'." The music video reached number one on YouTube in February 2009 and was number one on the US iTunes music video chart. The song was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 52nd Grammy Awards. The Lonely Island has also performed the song live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with Black Thought filling in for T-Pain. The trio also performed an altered clean version for a "Classroom Instruments" segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The song went platinum.
Asa Taccone is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and frontman of the band Electric Guest with whom he has released three albums since 2012. He is noted as a close collaborator of The Lonely Island and has contributed to their musical work on Saturday Night Live and a number of their films. He also has written music for other comedy film and television projects including American Dad! and Portlandia.
"Motherlover" is the first sequel to "Dick in a Box" by the Lonely Island, also featuring Justin Timberlake. It debuted on Saturday Night Live as an SNL Digital Short on May 9, 2009. The song finds the two ballad singers singing of their desire to have sex with each other's mothers as the ultimate tribute to Mother's Day. Set five months after the events of "Dick in a Box", the video opens with the balladeers being released from jail, only to be faced with the quandary of what to get their respective mothers for Mother's Day.
"I Just Had Sex" is a song by American comedy hip hop group The Lonely Island featuring American singer Akon and producer DJ Frank E. It was released as the first single from The Lonely Island's second album, Turtleneck & Chain, released in May 2011. The video, featured as a Saturday Night Live digital short, stars Akon and The Lonely Island members Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and briefly, Akiva Schaffer, with guest appearances by Jessica Alba, Blake Lively and John McEnroe.
"Jack Sparrow" is a song by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island featuring singer-songwriter Michael Bolton. The song and music video debuted on Saturday Night Live as an SNL Digital Short on May 7, 2011. The plot follows the troupe inviting Bolton to work on a new hip hop track, in which the members rap about meeting at a club and taking women home. Bolton ruins the group's song by instead singing choruses about the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and its primary protagonist Captain Jack Sparrow, but also with references to Forrest Gump, Erin Brockovich, Scarface and Jerry Maguire.
"3-Way " is a song recorded by American comedy music group the Lonely Island, featuring American singers Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. The R&B and new jack swing track was written by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Timberlake, while produced by the Futuristics with further production from Asa Taccone and Ryan & Smitty. It appeared as an SNL Digital Short on May 21, 2011, in the episode of the sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live, which saw Timberlake and Gaga as the host and musical guest, respectively. She commented that Samberg and Timberlake were nervous about presenting the idea to her. The song was released as a single on May 24, 2011, three days after the broadcast.
The Wack Album is the third studio album by American comedy hip hop group The Lonely Island. Recorded in Los Angeles and New York City with producers including TODAY, DJ Nu-Mark and Asa Taccone, it was released on June 7, 2013 by Republic Records. The album reached number ten on the US Billboard 200 and topped the Comedy Albums and Rap Albums charts. "3-Way ", "YOLO", "Spring Break Anthem", "I Fucked My Aunt", "Diaper Money", "Semicolon", "Go Kindergarten" and "Spell It Out" were released as singles.
"Spring Break Anthem" is a song written and recorded by American comedy hip hop group The Lonely Island for their third studio album The Wack Album. The song was released as the second single from the album on May 5, 2013. The song satirizes American spring break culture, which is illustrated as uproarious and irresponsible, juxtaposing it with the concept of same-sex marriage.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a 2016 American mockumentary musical comedy film directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone and written by and starring Andy Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer. The trio, collectively known as The Lonely Island, also co-produced the film with Judd Apatow and Rodney Rothman. Sarah Silverman, Tim Meadows, Imogen Poots, Joan Cusack, Maya Rudolph, and Chris Redd appear in supporting roles.
I needed to think last night. So I galloped into a wooded glen, and after punch dancing out my rage and suffering an extremely long and very painful fall, I realized what has to be done.
there is one track—central to the film—that doesn't appear on the soundtrack. That's the song Ren McCormack punch-dances to all by himself in an abandoned factory, in one of the great frustration-venting scenes in pop-cinema history. So what does Ren McCormack punch-dance to when he needs to left off some steam in the year 2011?
If you'd rather punch dance your anger out, stick with Footloose.
Skewing toward younger males, it earned an overall Cinemascore grade of B-minus.