Customer Reviews

The Hot Chick [VHS]

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Jessica Spencer (Rachel McAdams) is her high school's most popular student, but also its meanest. Together with her friends (including Anna Faris), Jessica makes life miserable for most of the people around her. But her attitude changes when she comes into contact with mystical identity-swapping earrings, and her body is swapped with that of a grimy small-time crook named Clive (Rob Schneider). Stuck inside a shell she can't quite figure out, Jessica must make amends with those she's offended, before her new body threatens to ruin her relationship with her boyfriend (Matthew Lawrence), the big cheerleading contest, and, of course, prom.

I'll be honest, `The Hot Chick' is feebly directed, written with a distinct aim at crudity and dangerous stereotyping, drags on for over 100 minutes, and stars the less than appetizing Rob Schneider. Yet, with the help of producer Adam Sandler, and Schneider's developing writing talents, `The Hot Chick' overcomes its weak design, and turns out to be a completely agreeable, often very funny experience. While it doesn't share in Sandler's normally good natured method, it makes up in sharp targets for comedy, and a supporting cast that's is better then expected.

There is a lot of comedic road to cover with this plot, and Schneider (with director and co-writer Tom Brady) does his best to touch on every teenage girl cliché and absurd situation. Coming off his similarly silly `The Animal,' Schneider is growing more confident with each new film as the box office grows with them. `The Hot Chick' features Schneider's best performance to date, as he eats up the chance to turn his decidedly goofy 40 year-old male body and narrow personality into that of a sexually-charged 17 year-old girl. The results are quite funny, with Schneider finding time to lampoon other subjects like teen girl key chains, morning erections, pillow fights, the mystery of male genitalia and the men's room, strip club rules, and the giddy taboo of teenage drinking. It's all written in a extravagantly bizarre Sandleresque way (Mr. Sandler also cameos here), that merges the absurd with the deliriously funny, and I was surprised just how much Schneider connects with the funny in `The Hot Chick.'

Helping the film is the supporting cast, namely Anna Faris and Rachel McAdams. Faris is a veteran of satiric comedy with her stint in the Wayans Brother's `Scary Movie' films (I would even to so far as to say Faris is the only reason to watch those pictures), and she has a way of wringing a laugh out of anything. With her gigantic eyes and willingness to go very broad for a response, Faris is a pleasure in `The Hot Chick,' and steals the film away from Schneider when she can. A talented comedienne at 26, Faris has a long career ahead of her for audiences to look forward to. The same could be suggested of McAdams, who has the unenviable task of embodying the other side of this gender switching comedy. Like Farris, McAdams also lets herself look a little foolish to find the laugh, and she succeeds just as easily. A nice debut for this young actress.

Where `The Hot Chick' swerves into trouble isn't the jokes that don't work (and there are many), but the fact that every scene seems to be about 30 seconds longer than it should be. The pace often becomes sluggish, and for a comedy this silly, it's murder. The picture seems one editorial pass away from being truly great, with jokes run into the ground and performances carried on a little too long. Arguably, `The Hot Chick' may have other problems that some simple edits here and there won`t fix, but it's funny more often than not, and I don't ask much more than that from wacky undertakings like this.

YES, it's been done countless times before from BIG to FREAKY FRIDAY, but what really makes this such a fun movie is the cast. THE HOT CHICK is your standard role/body reversal flicks, this time it's Rob Schneider's petty thief with caustic teen beauty Rachel MacAdams. Schneider's impersonation of a teenager is hilarious and witty, and surprisingly very touching. His rapport with Jessica's best friend, Jessica's father and brother is priceless and engaging. Whether he's strutting around like a prissy drag queen, or trying to utilize his/her new peeing vessel, Schneider chews up the role and is gloriously funny. The fart/peeing gags work this time because they are part of the plot--imagine the difficulty a girl might have in using a urinal. Schneider as the gardener, the janitor, the cheerleader, he's a real hoot.
And once again we get the talented and underrated actress Anna Faris in the role of Jessica's friend, April. Faris has been the heart and soul of the SCARY MOVIE trilogies, a physical, sensual and sensitive performer who gives her all to any role she tackles. Here she's brilliant as the best friend who finds herself falling in love with the man Jessica's become. Other wonderful performances include: Michael O'Keefe as Jessica's jock father who wants to rekindle his marital passion; Matt Weinberg as Jessica's little brother, Boogar, who likes to dress up in his sister's clothes; Matthew Lawrence as Billy, Jessica's boyfriend who has a hard time believing Schneider is his girl. Add Adam Sandler's spacy bongo player in a few hilarious scenes, and you have a very funny, entertaining and surprisingly touching movie. I think it's Schneider's best so far. Remember, it is a comedy and you don't have to take it too seriously, but it's worth a look.

I enjoyed it; it's got great laffs. Adam Sandler's occasional appearances are fun. Director Tom Brady has made a film that has many levels of thought, a grotesque reimagining of Boys Don't Cry with a happy ending. Rob Schneider's energetic performance is to be commended; Anna Faris (Scream movies) has proven that she can handle fun comedy. This is not a film to be judged, but to be enjoyed. Those who take the time, will be rewarded. Some great messages for everyone.

I have to admit that I off-and-on enjoyed this more than many a movie that deserves a higher rating. Adam Sandler is a comic genius when he succeeds. But let him be involved in a movie, and there's always a major risk of a certain kind of failure. And that is that one or more "hero(es)" will dig themselves so deep a hole of mean, jerky, or sadistic behavior that they have an impossible task of digging themselves out to rise to real believable heroism. Often it is Sandler's own characters who are bit by that bug, but not this time. He's involved in this movie as an executive producer, and, as acting goes, only in a cameo. His cameo character is just a doofus going along for the ride, no more or less. It's Rob Schneider who has the lead role here, and, while his acting has been criticized, I can only find it to be among this film's less problematical aspects. He starts off playing a small time robber named Clive, first seen robbing a service station. He's not a particularly brutal robber there. Later we'll see him trapped in a young woman's body (yes this is a body-switching flick, like a throwback to the late 1980s in THAT regard!), and finding motivation in that morph to become a more brutal robber. But in the opening scene, he doesn't go ballistic or brutalize the service station attendant on finding there's only 15 dollars or so to take from the cash register. On his getaway we see him treated more cruelly than he treated his victim. There he runs into a gang of four high school girls - snobby prom queen candidate types. They are stock characters of teen comedies. They play cruel pranks as often as they can on anyone less popular than themselves. They're the kind you would expect, in any ordinary good or bad teen comedy, to end up falling into a pile of manure or something like that, with everyonne else cheerily seeing them as deserving it. They mistake Clive for a service station attendant and expect him to check under the hood. Too bad any resemblance to 80s or earlier retro themes ends with body switching and full service gas stations. These girls are full-blown contemporary cruel high-school vixens. The driver and ring leader among them, Jessica, beeps the horn several times and the four all giggle with sadistic glee as it makes Clive bump his head hard against the hood. Turns out Jessica has just stolen an enchanted (unbeknownst to her) pair of ancient African earrings. She drops one of them on the pavement as the four make their getaway from Clive and his dazed aching head. He sees the earring and picks it up, thinking it something perhaps valuable to add to his meager loot from the robbery. There the terror begins. Turns out, as long as the two enchanted earrings are separated, they cause a body switch between the two possessors. So Clive and Jessica will be stuck in each other's bodies for a while. The movie gives surprisingly little attention to Clive in Jessica's body. Jessica in Clive's body, on the other hand, manages to convince her(?) three friends that she really is Jessica, despite looking like Rob Schneider. The four set out to reunite the earring pair and get everyone back in the flesh they belong in. Yes, I warned, you, this foursome will come out being heroic! I could buy into their heroism only to the extent that I could pretend their original cruelty was never part of the movie. Meanwhile, the seldom on-screen Clive in Jessica's body fares less well in convincing any friends to accept him as he is, yet he achieves no forgiveness through his ordeal; he'll still be seen as a villain in the end. Jessica, and especially her three friends not dragged through any awkward metamorphosis, have a relatively easy path of pennance for their past sins, but get forgiven and allowed to be heroic. Mean girls get to redeem themselves, but bad guys are bad forever. No wonder one review I saw interpreted this as a "chick flick". But it gets to be one dishonestly, letting the "chicks" off easy.

It doesn't matter how many of these "Body-change" movies you have seen - You can always be amazed at the 'uncovered' areas the new ones seem to find..

The Hot Chick has an awesome cast that have amazing talent within this genre.. Rob Schneider - an expert at putting himself in the most uncomfortable positions (Animal, Deuce Bigalow; Male Gigolo) - Anna Feris the queen of satire herself(Scary Movie 1, 2 & 3) - and lastly Rachel McAdams who puts herself into a different role everytime you see her (The Notebook, Wedding Crashers, Red Eye)..

Take a beautiful - rich & popular girl & switch her with a lowlife 30 year old dead beat - and what do you get? ".. this has to be the worst day of my life"..

Want to laugh - want to experience the opposite sex to the very extreme - Then The Hot Chick is for you..

5 Stars!

A brilliant updating of Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. Almost every possible combination of what it means to be a man or a woman is explored. And the ulitmate question of the movie: how do you know if it is love? Is put to the test by numerous situations. Of course, even if it is true love, are there limits to what a person is willing to do for the one they love?

Going into The Hot Chick, I prepared myself for a relatively bad movie, but was pleasantly surprised by a very funny movie. Rob Schneider has done a few different movies that seem like they may be the same idea with a different twist, but non the less, The Hot Chick is down right good. The plot is cheesy, a dirty dude swaps bodies with a high school hottie and you go through the movie with Rob Schneider experiencing what it is like to be a guy.

This is a great rental video on a rainy day and not a bad movie to own either. My parents liked it, my little cousins like it, most of my friends thought it was great so it isn't going to be a waste of your time.

...otherwise, you might want to catch some other flick.

The hot chick is an unpretentious little comedy about body switching, starring SNL alum Rob Schneider. The basic story is that a bitchy, head cheerleader type has her body changed with that of a 30'ish down on his luck burglar and all around loser (Schneider)...after that, hilarity (mostly) ensues.

It's your typical fish out of water comedy (or should I say fish in someone else's body comedy). We see Schneider as he tries to find a way to revert things, while hiding from her boyfriend, friends, family and school authorities, with the help of a few of her girlfriends (including Anna Faris in a hilarious role as a not so bright cheerleader).

While it'll never be in any AFI comedy lists, you get to spend some good times with this film. Just plain comedy, á la Rob Schneider.

I must say that the acting in this movie was superb. Rob Schneider plays both roles rather well. The story line was also well crafted. Overall, this movie was funny from beginning to the end. Please don't eat popcorn while watching this movie, you just might choke yourself laughing.

Sometimes you want to just sit and see a movie, just for fun.
This is how I viewed, "The Hot Chick." This movie revolves around the story of body switching, yes between a teenage girl and a man definitely below her standards. The teenage girl in this story has everything, hates everyone except herself and really was in a need of an attitude adjustment. She certainly received it in this story.
Walking up, after having a curse put on her through an ancient pair of earrings, she is now in the body of a man. I giggled through this movie because I was not expecting anything more than that. The acting was good, the storyline lively, and yes it was silly, but sometimes silly is what we all need in a world that if filled with so many trials. Thanks for the smiles!