The Hot Chick Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)December 16th, 2002
THE HOT CHICK
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
THE HOT CHICK is easily Rob Schneider's best movie. This, of course, is less than a rousing endorsement of the star of such previous turkeys as THE ANIMAL and DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO. THE HOT CHICK does have its cute moments, but all of its best material is shown in the trailers, including one joke that appears only in the trailers. On the downside, it contains the most insufferably lame outtakes of any movie that I can ever remember, so as soon as the credits begin to roll, you want to head for the exits. Heading out even earlier might be preferable.
The movie, set in a California high school, starts in ancient Egypt, where, with the help of magic earrings, a princess and her lady-in-waiting swap identities.
Rob Schneider plays a convenience store robber, who is insulted by Jessica Spencer (Rachel McAdams) and her friends, including April (Anna Faris, SCARY MOVIE), her very best friend. Earlier that day, Jessica had obtained the aforementioned earrings at a mall store. That night Jessica puts on one and the robber puts on the other that she had dropped. When Jessica wakes up the next morning, she is now a he and is played by Schneider. The rest of the movie features lots of Schneider and little of McAdams, which is a shame since she is the more interesting of the two. Actually, the best performance in the movie is given by Adam Sandler who has a cameo as a soft-spoken Rastafarian pot smoker who works in the shop where the earrings were purchased.
Schneider does lots of pratfalls and prissy walking to generate laughs. As Jessica, he wins one fight with a bar bully by literally fighting like a girl. He also develops superhuman strength in his pillow fights with the other girls.
The movie tries, sometimes almost successfully, to say something meaningful about male-female relations. More often, however, it resorts to crude humor -- Jessica's girlfriends all want to see her new male member -- and gay jokes. When Jessica's boyfriend, Billy (Matthew Lawrence), tells his best buddy that Jessica won't go all the way with him and that he's okay with that, his friend laughs and tells Billy, "Wow, that is the gayest thing I've ever heard."
When the day for the big cheer competition finally arrives, the movie tries its best to morph into a cross-dressing BRING IT ON. I tell you this because I suspect many of you won't be staying until the end. You certainly don't need to.
THE HOT CHICK runs 1:41. It is rated PG-13 for "crude and sexual humor, language and drug references" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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