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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

64
Appaloosa
69
Ashes of Time Redux
68
August Evening
54
Battle in Seattle
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
xx
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Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
50
Breakfast with Scot
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Changeling
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Choke
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Christmas Tale, A
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Cthulhu
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
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Eden
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26
Filth and Wisdom
28
Fireproof
71
Frost/Nixon
82
Frozen River
43
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73
Girl Cut in Two, A
54
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30
Guitar, The
84
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31
Hounddog
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
47
How About You
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72
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70
I.O.U.S. A
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63
JCVD
27
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82
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xx
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xx
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89
Man on Wire
84
Momma's Man
51
Morning Light
34
My Name Is Bruce
xx
Nobel Son
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
75
Pool, The
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
82
Rachel Getting Married
56
Religulous
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
53
RocknRolla
57
Sixty Six
85
Slumdog Millionaire
57
Special
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
67
Synecdoche, New York
82
Tell No One
83
Trouble the Water
43
Tru Loved
83
U2 3D
59
We Are Wizards
55
What Just Happened?
89
Man on Wire
85
Slumdog Millionaire
84
Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
71
Frost/Nixon
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
68
Hunger
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Black Balloon, The
xx
Let Them Chirp Awhile
xx
Local Color
xx
Nobel Son
xx
Extreme Movie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Hot Rod
Paramount Pictures
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for crude humor, language, some comic drug-related and violent content
Starring
Andy Samberg,
Jorma Taccone,
Isla Fisher,
Bill Hader,
Chris Parnell,
Will Arnett,
Ian McShane,
and
Sissy Spacek
Amateur stuntman Rod Kimble has a problem--his step-father Frank is a jerk. Frank picks on Rod, tosses him around like a ragdoll in their weekly sparring sessions, and definitely doesn't respect him, much less his stunts. But when Frank falls ill, it's up to Rod to stage the jump of his life in order to save his step-father. The plan: jump 15 buses, raise the money for Frank's heart operation and then...kick his ass. (Paramount Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Comedy
|
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Pam Brady
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Akiva Schaffer
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 27, 2007
Theatrical: August 3, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
88 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Hot Rod is a cousin to the comedies of Will Ferrell (for whom it was developed) with a younger skew, a kooky '80s nostalgia (complete with a pitch-perfect synthesizer score by Trevor Rabin) and a low-key amiability that keeps you rooting for Rod and company to triumph.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Rod is played by Andy Samberg from "Saturday Night Live," who on the basis of this film, I think, could become a very big star.

75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
For connoisseurs of stupidity, Hot Rod is that perfect delicacy: A silly movie about ridiculous characters that's also actually funny. Hilarious, even.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
Just funny enough.

75
Premiere
Jonah Weiner
The fantasy here – dubious as life choices go, but great for a 90-minute comedy – is that you can stay 16 forever.

70
Los Angeles Times
Susan Carpenter
A cheekily fun sendup of Gen X iconography.

67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
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.

63
TV Guide
Ken Fox
A little like a leisurely surf through YouTube.

63
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
If the movie weren't so playfully dumb -- did you ever think you'd see Ian McShane throw Andy Samberg through a basement shelving unit? -- this would be exasperating.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Gregory Kirschling
Wait until the best parts pop up on YouTube.

50
Chicago Tribune
Jessica Reaves
Sure, it's funny, mainly because it's utterly absurd and meandering.

50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
Samberg can't carry this, though director Akiva Schaffer supplies some hilarious, "Jackass"-style wipeouts and there are nice supporting turns from Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) as Rod's love interest and Bill Hader as one of his goofball friends.

50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
In what universe would you expect to see Andy Samberg, Ian McShane and Sissy Spacek in the same movie? You have to give the makers of Hot Rod credit for creative and unlikely casting. But the credit pretty much ends there.

50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Stephen Cole
An inferior "Napoleon Dynamite." Call it Napoleon Firecracker. 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.

40
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Only fitfully amusing. More often, it feels like a mediocre attempt to reprise the central elements of the infinitely funnier "Napoleon Dynamite."

40
Variety
Peter Debruge
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.

40
Village Voice
Scott Foundas
Like so many movies from the SNL factory, there are perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of good, gag-worthy material here stretched out to interminable lengths. Or to put it another way: It's a very small dick in an oversized box.

40
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Hot Rod is a stupid movie about stupid people doing stupid things.

40
The Hollywood Reporter
Frank Scheck
Unfortunately, the gags start to wear thin shortly around the 15-minute mark, not to mention the fact that they pale in comparison to the real-life indignities endured by the members of the "Jackass" crew.

38
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
I laughed, then I wished it was funnier, then I just wished it would end.

38
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
In fairness, the new movie from the Lorne Michaels machine does have its amusing moments. It's just most of them can also be found in "Napoleon," "Talladega Nights," "Eagle vs. Shark," and any installment of "Jackass."

30
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Hot Rod might be called the poor man’s “Eagle vs. Shark” if “Eagle vs. Shark” were not already the poor man’s “Napoleon Dynamite.” It certainly lacks the conceptual purity and aesthetic integrity of the “Jackass” movies. In any case poor certainly describes the quality of the filmmaking.

30
Film Threat
Michael Ferraro
There are enough laughs here to fill a five-minute skit but sadly, the film lasts a lot longer than that.

25
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Hot Rod started to go wrong at about the time someone in casting said, "You know what? I'll bet America's just about ready for the comedy stylings of Sissy Spacek."

25
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Hot Rod never establishes its own personality.

25
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Once again, something that might have been a faintly amusing sketch on "Saturday Night Live" -- maybe even a tolerable 30-minute short, had the writing been more clever -- gets tortured into the shape of a feature film.

16
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The filmmakers lack any visual sense of humor and any talent for sustaining long-form comedy; the stunts have less wallop than a TV bloopers show and the Oedipal family slapstick goes around in circles, in more ways than one.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 67 User Votes
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