"All great men have mustaches!"

As the promotional machine worked up the release of Hot Rod I was a big naysayer. I took a look at the trailer, the commercials, the stills, the poster, and a few other clips that made their way out onto the 'net and made up my mind. There was no way this movie was going to be good, there was a good chance that it wasn't even going to be funny. It just smacked of low-brow idiocy that wanted to be funny, and just wasn't. The bits just didn't seem to work, and none of the stuff I saw made me want to laugh. As the release date drew closer, I saw a couple of reviews that were positive. Although I didn't read all of them completely, they made me actually want to see the film (though I was probably going to anyway), including a positive spin from Roger Ebert. Now, after seeing Hot Rod, I am ready to retract most of my negativity.

Hot Rod is not a terribly good movie, but it is by no means a bad one, as I had been so fully expecting it to be. The movie has a go for the gold gusto to it. It is sweetly innocent and wildly random in its execution. I found myself laughing through nearly the entire movie, sometimes in spite of myself. There is this infectious energy that envelopes the project, everyone involved fed off of this as they moved ahead. The actors threw themselves headlong into the story which actually treated its characters with respect. There is much foolishness to be had, but no one is treated as a fool; the script is not making fun of the characters so much as it is laughing along with them.

Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg stars as Rod Kimble, a character that seems tailor made for a younger Will Ferrell. Kimble fancies himself a stuntman, complete with dreams of jumping the public pool, and following in the footsteps of his hero, his father. His father died when Kimble was young, his mother (Sissy Spacek) spun stories of his working with Evel Knievel, and the glory of a stuntman. This has set young Rod's life on a course where he will become famous, win the girl, and make his father proud. Also on his to do list is to win the respect of his stepfather (Ian McShane), which can only be won in hand to hand combat. This leads to numerous fights between the two, always resulting in Rod being beaten into submission.