Hot Rod
(HD-DVD + DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: C- Film: C-
Adam
Samberg has only been on Saturday Night Live
for a few years and already, they are trying to make him a movie star. It is not that he is not capable of being funny,
but does the process of presenting a star have to be so plastic, tired, forced
and dumb? Unfortunately the answer is
yes when the debut film is a one-joke, unfunny-joke project like Akiva Schaffer’s
Hot Rod, a silly and very long 87 minutes that feels more like the film is
stretching out a single joke from Napoleon
Dynamite than being a film, which is as bad as doing the same with an SNL skit.
Samberg
is would-be stunt man Rod Kimble, no relation to the doctor from The Fugitive, but he thinks he’s bad. Rod always falls and gets hurt no matter what
he tries, so any hope of being Evel Knievel is a long stretch, much like this
film. Sissy Spacek and Ian McShane turn
up as his parents in throwaway roles and all in all, this is as forgettable as
SNL since Tina Fey left. The film bombed
at the box office. We’ll see if it
becomes the cult hit the studio hopes for.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 image looks like it was shot in HD and suffers in detail and depth as
a result, looking color limited and not even one of the best HD features we
have seen in either HD format. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD version is even poorer, with Video Black issues and
detail limits typical of HD shoots now, though the limited motion blur indicates
newer HD equipment. The sound mix is
dialogue based, nothing to write home about and is on the flat side in the
Dolby True HD 5.1 mix exclusive to the HD, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 on the HD and
Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 on the DVD, getting poorer in that order. The combination is as flat as the film and
Trevor Rabin is left scoring nothing much.
Extras
include an audio commentary track by Samberg, Schaffer and actor Jorma Taccone,
Ancestors Protect Me: Behind the Scenes of Hot Rod, Home Video Footage of
Orchestra Recording Session, Punch – Dance, Kevin's Videos: Deleted and
Extended Scenes with optional commentary by Schaffer/Samberg/Taccone, outtakes reel,
theatrical trailer (in HD on the HD-DVD) and Easter Eggs. That is more than enough for this still
exercise, but Paramount hopes for a cult hit.
I would not hold my breath.
- Nicholas Sheffo
