Hot Rod
Director: Akiva Schaffer
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 0.5
"The Lonely Island" guys - director Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone - get recognition from Saturday Night Live and the chance to make their very own Saturday Night Live movie, complete with lack of quality jokes and a PG-13 mentality. Failed stuntman Samberg seeks to prove himself to strong father figure Ian McShane and win babe-du-jour Isla Fisher, so he concocts some suicide mission to ride a motorcycle over fifteen school buses. Bill Hader and Danny McBride occasionally get to sneak in something slightly askew (McBride's character likes to beat up kids), but they're quickly suppressed before they can ramp up the hilarity: heaven forbid this thing be fun and clever. As for Schaffer, Samberg, et. al.: they appear to be best working in (at most) 3-4 minute music-video-type novelty clips (like their well-known love song to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and their ode to premature ejaculation).
