|
...If you're looking
for a film that will have you cringing in embarrassment
early and often...
...Have I got a
Hot Chick
for you.
...Most bad movies
disguise, or at least delay, their dysfunction
for a reel or two.
...But The
Hot Chick wears its awfulness like
a new dress it's beamingly proud of and announces
its lowest-common-denominator intentions so
quickly, it seems like a drive-by confession.
...Rob Schneider
stars in this fantasy-comedy as a small-time,
thirty-year-old thief who--don't ask how--finds
himself having magically switched bodies with
a full-of-herself hottie of a high school cheerleader...
...Whereupon each
tries to get through the day--and their relationships--until
it's possible to return to a more agreeable
and appropriate host body.
...Hey, listen,
no one's saying that this farfetched a concept
can't work. Of course it can.
...But not via
writer-director Tom Brady's script and style,
or with a protagonist we couldn't possibly care
about or root for.
...The
Hot Chick starts in the sub-basement
and goes downhill from there.
...As for the reason
why a performer as talented, funny, and likable
as ex-Saturday Night Live character comic
Rob Schneider keeps fronting star-vehicle, leading-man
clunkers like Deuce
Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The
Animal, and now this--rather than
thriving as a sidekick or ensemble player--it
will have to remain an unsolved mystery.
...Meanwhile, we'll
cross-dress just 1/2-a-star
out of 4 for the slender pretender of a gender
bender, The Hot Chick.
...A lower-than-lowbrow
comedy that sinks to the bottom like no body's
business.
_____________________________________
GENDER BENDERS
...Don't let one
dreadful movie obscure the fact that this is
a reputable genre with its share of classics:
...Some
Like It Hot (1959), deemed the best
comedy of all time by the American Film Institute,
is Billy Wilder's comic masterpiece, starring
Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe--all
dressed as women.
...Tootsie
(1982), also a timeless classic, is Sydney Pollack's
gem, starring Dustin Hoffman, who turns in a
brilliant performance in each gender.
...Victor/
Victoria (1982) is Blake Edwards'
terrifically entertaining musical comedy, starring
Julie Andrews as a male impersonator opposite
James Garner and the wonderful Robert Preston.
...And Yentl
(1983) finds star/screenwriter Barbra Streisand
directing herself in a funny, warm, and moving
girl-dressed-as-a-boy musical adapted from the
story by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
|
