Hot Rod--Up and comer Danny McBride steals the show as Rico the ramp builder

Danny McBride

* * * (out of 5)

The book should have been titled, "Men Like Three Stooges, Women Can't Stand Them."

I told my friend Big Tom at work that if he wants to watch a really funny, but stupid movie he should get Hot Rod. Based on my recommendation he asked to borrow my copy before I sent it back to Netflix. What I failed to tell him was not to watch it with his wife. Not because of any porno, it's fine for any boy 8 and older to watch, it's just that it is filled with tons of funny, but stupid slapstick that women just don't generally care for.

Now maybe there are women who love Three Stooges out there, but I just haven't met one. I don't even love the Three Stooges. I like them, especially Curly and Larry Fine, but I couldn't watch them for more than an hour. Remember when they used to have marathons of them on Channel 11. That was too much for me. But for people like my wife, who has a great sense of humor, even 1 minute is too long.

That's how Hot Rod is. And the next day, Big Tom told me his wife said that I can keep my movies. Talk about being tarred with a wrong brush. I'm not the great defender of movies like Hot Rod, but when friends I trust tell me to check it out, I will. My boy Harry had me on the phone 20 minutes while I was in a Staples giving me highlights from this movie. He also has a great sense of humor, but he described it perfectly. Like a really dumb Will Ferrell movie. I'm sold.

Apparently it was written for Ferrell, but he turned it down and it went to the next generation of Saturday Night Live star, Andy Samburg. Samburg has been making some great SNL videos the last couple of years, like the rap video for the Chronic of Narnia Hulu - SNL Digital Short: Lazy Sunday: Saturday Night Live , Dick in a Box (with Justin Timberlake) Hulu - Dick in a Box (Uncensored): Saturday Night Live and this year's hysterical Andy's Dad Hulu - Digital Short: Andy's Dad: Saturday Night Live.

Samburg plays a wannabe stuntman, Rod Kimble, who looks to challenge the memory of the great Evel Knievel with his broken down moped. He attempts to jump an old mail truck before the credits roll and the hilarity takes off from there.

Based on commercials I didn't think Samburg was ready to jump to the big leagues. But I'm sort of wrong. He co-wrote this movie and it has some funny moments with him, but the best stuff is definitely when he's doing a stunt or getting into some physical altercation. Unfortunately, when he goes for more verbal funniness it can have the cringing effect of Chevy Chase. On the other hand, there are some unsung treasures here. His SNL co-star, Bill Hader, is emerging big time as a great sidekick. He was very funny as the nerdier cop in last year's Superbad and here he plays a white trash redneck with pizzazz. Deadwood's Swearingen, Ian McShane, plays Rod's stepfather, a miserable tyrant who deserves a good beating, but only after he gets his heart transplant. And finally, the newest face on the block. A true star about to burst on the scene, Danny McBride.

McBride plays Rico the ramp builder. He's one of Rod's "crew" and is all times funny. He has a pent-up good ol' boy anger in him that makes you laugh for little reason. At one point, while Rod is "training" he rolls down the hill on one of those street luge boards and crashes with deadly power into the side of a house trailer parked in a driveway. When the owner comes out to complain, Rico starts beating the man in a heartbeat, first with his feet and hands and then with a pole and then a trash bin all the while screaming things like, "unlucky for you, I went to church this Sunday so I've got the demons coming out of me!" You want Rico on your side. Can't wait to see him in a Triple Play this summer of Pineapple Express (2008); The Foot Fist Way (2006); and finally, Tropic Thunder (2008). He's supposed to be great in all of them.

Oh, and make sure you watch the entire fight scene at the end of this movie, it might be the funniest of its type I've ever seen. Like a John Wayne barroom brawl on crack.

The Freditor