The Hot Chick

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.