Hot Rod 2007

Tom Long, Detroit News: Consistently laugh-aloud funny, a guilty chucklefest of ridiculous stunts, gleeful pummelings and questionable jokes that looks as if it were made by high school buddies who had a few weeks to kill. Read more

Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune: Some hilarity does, in fact, ensue, but the laughs are interspersed with long stretches of dead air. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Samberg can't carry this, though director Akiva Schaffer supplies some hilarious, Jackass-style wipeouts. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A perfect storm of absurdist sight gags and sketch-comedy consciousness. Somewhere in there is the wobbly shape of a story, which Schaffer and company stretch to its limits without entirely losing the movie's cartoonish premise. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Still, Hot Rod keeps a sweet tone that's filled with affection for its characters, and enough laughs to become this summer's most mildly recommendable comedy. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: As a director, Schaffer has a cool, punchy style, but his full-length movie dead-ends. The flavor runs out. Read more

Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times: Chock-full of references to bad teen movies from the '80s and saturated with sarcasm, Hot Rod is a cheekily fun sendup of Gen X iconography. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: A lasting problem with so many SNL-populated movies is the ingrown clubbiness of its humor -- the suggestion, whether overt or implied, that comedy is nothing more than a funny idea flogged to death by a fraternity of late-night wags. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: Wait until the best parts pop up on YouTube. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Director Akiva Schaffer apparently thinks that by adding stupid stunts to the formula, Hot Rod also can attract the Jackass crowd. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: There are perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of good, gag-worthy material here stretched out to interminable lengths. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There is nothing remotely 'worthwhile' in this mix. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Most of the jokes either drag on endlessly or are cut short without a real punch line. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Started to go bad about the time someone in casting said, "You know what? I'll bet America is just about ready for the comedy stylings of Sissy Spacek." Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: What works, wonderfully, are the falls, the punch-outs (his brawls with Stepdad are brutal throw-downs) and waiting for that next accident to happen. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: A mashup of the random violence of Adam Sandler movies with the dimwittage of Will Ferrell's - and lacking the charms of both - Hot Rod never establishes its own personality. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It's funny pretty much all the way through, even in the final showdown between Rod and his stepdad. I have seen countless movie fights that stagger the imagination, but this one goes over the top and comes down on the other side. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: There's something that seems almost important about this picture. The creators have harnessed everything that's good about YouTube, and translated it into a big-screen movie. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: The film steals one of the best laughs of Jon Heder's surprise 2004 hit, the scene where Napoleon nosedives over a bicycle jump, and stretches the gag into an 86-minute movie. Read more

Tony Wong, Toronto Star: Imagine a Stand by Me on wheels, with dialogue spoken by 20-something actors instead of 12-year-olds, and you have the essence of the script. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Samberg's penchant for subversively silly asides certainly hints that he's capable of being more than a Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler clone. Now he just needs to find a film that won't fall apart around him. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: If you're looking for plausibility, this is not your movie. If you're looking for laughs, this is not your movie. If you like seeing delusional overgrown adolescents fall down a lot, then this one's for you. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Those hoping for feature-length doses of Samberg's Lazy Sunday wit will have to settle for just plain lazy, as Hot Rod aims low and still manages to miss its target. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: There's no question Samberg has a future in movie comedy, but this caper amounts to a false start. Read more