Hot Rod (2007) - Samberg and Schaffer arrive with amiable stunt comedy

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+ Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year

Andy Samberg strikes a fearless pose on this pretty rad poster for Akiva Schaffer's Hot Rod

Rod wants to earn the love of his stepfather - and then beat his ass - by jumping over 15 buses on his motorbike. - The ultimate jump!

Hot Rod is written by Pam Brady (Hamlet 2 (2008)) and directed by theatrically debuting Akiva Schaffer (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)).
Andy Samberg (Major Lazer (2015), TV-series) isn't as funny as the protagonist as Will Ferrell might have been, (the movie was written with him in mind originally), but he is many times easier on the eye, and he really works for his laughs here. He is teamed up with an enthusiastic cast that includes Bill Hader (The Angry Birds Movie (2016)), Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down (2009-13)), Sissy Spacek (Gray Matters (2006)) and Ian McShane (Columbo (1990), TV-series). They all help make Hot Rod a funny film. It features a lot of stunts and some hysterical comedy.

Related post:

2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25.3 mil. $
Box office: 14.3 mil. $
= Huge flop (0.56 times the cost)
[Hot Rod was released 3 August (USA) and runs 88 minutes. The film was in development for years at Paramount as a Ferrell vehicle, which never came to fruition. After Samberg's Lonely Island music-comedy group were hired to SNL in 2005, the film changed direction to suit them instead. Shooting took place in British Columbia, Canada, including Vancouver, from July - September 2006. The film opened and peaked #9 to a 5.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 13.9 mil. $ (97.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 163k $ (1.1 %) and United Arab Emirates with 84k $ (0.6 %). Roger Ebert agreed with this review in giving the film a 3/4 star review. Hot Rod sold in excess of 24 mil. $ worth of copies on the North American home video market, which, if added into its theatrical gross, would change its status to that of merely a 'big flop'. Schaffer returned with several episodes of SNL and Lonely Island video shorts en masse before he returned to cinemas with The Watch (2012). Samberg returned theatrically in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008). Hot Rod is rotten at 40 % with a 4.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hot Rod?

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) - Meyer's thrill-tastic outlaw masterpiece

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A racy, sensationalistic, screamingly naughty poster for Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Three go-go dancers race-drive in the desert, where they meet a young couple. The leader of the dancers, Varla murders the guy and kidnaps the girl. The group wind up at the home of some maniacs with money, and a true blood bath unfolds!

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is written by Jackie Moran (Wild Gals of the Naked West (1962)), with Californian master co-writer-director Russ Meyer (The Seven Minutes (1971)) contributing story elements. It was Meyer's 9th theatrical fiction feature.
This movie simply exceeds the usual bar of awesomeness by miles. It has to be experienced, and even then its wild, renegade thrills are stupefying.
The scruffy, dirty jazz and rock that fills out the film's soundscape fits perfectly with the insane, overstrung dialog and characters. Tura Satana (Irma la Douce (1963)) is mean and badass as Varla, and Meyer and Charles G. Schelling (The Black Cat (1966)) has cut the film to perfection.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is the epitome of a cult film and a subversive treat that continues to spread its wicked fun.

Related post:

Russ Meyer: Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979) - Late-late night sex-silliness from Russ Meyer

Watch Meyer speak shortly about his career in an interview here

Cost: 45k $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but appears to have been an initial-flop-later-hit
[Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was released 6 August (USA) and runs 83 minutes. The title was changed from The Leather Girls to The Mankillers to its final title, which sound editor Richard S. Brummer came up with. Meyer has stated that it signifies a film that has everything: Speed (faster), sex (pussycat) and violence (kill! kill!). The film was shot on B/W due to its low budget. Susan Bernard was just 16 at the time, couldn't drive and was afraid of Satana. Her mother was present during shooting, which took place in California. The fights include real hair-pulling and throwing sand in the face. The film was released on a double bill with Mudhoney (1965), also directed by Meyer, in North America, and the only other listed market is West Germany in 1967, prior to re-releases, beginning in the 90s. Reports on its performance differ; it seemed to have flopped initially, but become profitable over time, as it has become a cult item. It made 36k $ in its 1995 US re-release. Satana returned as an uncredited stripper in Our Man Flint (1966). Meyer returned with Motorpsycho! (1965). Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is fresh at 74 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!?

The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Cohen & Co.'s corny teen dream franchise opener

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This poster for Rob Cohen's The Fast and the Furious prominently, wisely, unimaginatively features its hot young stars over a racing car

The Fast and the Furious is the first film in the Fast and Furious franchise, which to date comprises 7 movies in total, with more on the way. It has loaned its titled from the 1955 AIP movie, but nothing else. It is based on the Vibe article Racer X by Ken Li, written by Gary Scott Thompson (Split Second (1992)), David Ayer (Sabotage (2014)) and Eric Bergquist and directed by Rob Cohen (xXx (2002)).

Brian is a new racer in the exciting LA racing scene, who tries to get closer to the group surrounding the respected Dominic Toretto, whose sister he falls for. And while the group gets into trouble with some Chinese goons, Brian's secret becomes pressing...

The film has a story that moves forward with development for especially the two main characters, which is satisfying, and it is also cast well: Paul Walker (Takers (2010)), Vin Diesel (Babylon A.D. (2008)), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar (2009)) and Jordana Brewster (Annapolis (2006)) are all game, fresh, sexy faces (and bodies...) who became stars on the back of this wildly successful ride. Rick Yune (The Fence (2001)) plays the Chinese hoodlum.

The concept is simple: Every dialog scene is written with bountiful sexual undertones, and the actors send each other raunchy looks again and again, which luckily don't all respect the overall heterosexual identity of the film. This makes it more exciting to watch. It is in many respects like a porn movie, only with the sex replaced by racing and other action scenes.
The film is aimed squarely at a very young teen audience, so the characters pretty much act like 13-15 year-olds, which is distracting and hard to believe for anyone above the target audience. This makes The Fast and the Furious even more corny than it needed to be, and hard to really fall for for someone like me.
Still it is an admirable vehicle, (excuse the pun): The action works, (although the continuity in the NOS-driving scenes are a little off), and the chemistry and pace is right. No wonder this seriously lit the lucrative youth demographic's underpants on fire.

Related review:

Fast & Furious franchise: Fast & Furious 5/Fast Five/Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist (2011) - Dwayne Johnson refuels the world's probably most ridiculous franchise

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 38 mil. $
Box office: 207.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[The Fast and the Furious was released June 22 and runs 106 minutes. Filming took place mainly on locations in LA and other parts of Southern California from July - October 2000. Both Rodriguez and Brewster had to learn how to drive to be in the film. The film opened #1 to a dreamy 40 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it was beaten off the place in its second week by A.I. Artificial Intelligence and grossed 144.5 mil. $ (69.7 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.2 mil. $ (4.4 %) and Germany with 7.6 mil. $ (3.7 %). The Fast and the Furious is rotten at 53 % with a 5.4 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fast and the Furious?

Days of Thunder (1990) or, Very Little Thunder

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The flashy poster for Tony Scott's Days of Thunder doesn't exactly sell its star Tom Cruise short

QUICK REVIEW:

The prince of racing and his ups and downs.

Thunder presents a thick story that's simultaneously a thin story, you might say. Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)) is terrific from first shot, while Randy Quaid (Not Another Teen Movie (2001)) and Robert Duvall (True Confessions (1981)) yell and scream, respectively, while trotting around in the background in this dull case, which is an obvious attempt to make a new Top Gun (1986), only in new surroundings.
Nicole Kidman (Eyes Wide Shut (1999)) has charm as Cruise's love interest, - the two got married off-camera in 1990, (and divorced 11 years later), - and the two, understandably, have good chemistry here, but Kidman's role in Thunder is far beneath her talent. And that is a general problem for this weak, only slightly interesting serving of sports nonsense.
It was written by Robert Towne (Shampoo (1975)), with Cruise supplying story elements, and directed by the late English master filmmaker Tony Scott (The Hunger (1983)).
- Not much thunder in this vehicle.

Related reviews:
 
Tony Scott: Stoker (2013) - Chan-wook Park's over-styled American debut revolts and bores in turns (producer)  
Déjà Vu (2006) - T. Scott cuts a helluva suspense-cake!
Domino (2005) - T. Scott's bounty-hunter biopic a complete misfire, mega-flop

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 157.9 mil. $
= Box office success
[Days of Thunder was released June 27 and runs 108 minutes. It was shot in Daytona and Charlotte, North Carolina from January - May 1990, going no less than 3 months over schedule. The shoot was fraught with problems and a team of producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, writer Towne and director Scott, who argued a lot and, reportedly especially the former three, increased the spendings drastically with outrageous production decisions like building a private gym for themselves, giving away designer dresses to woo women, building sets multiple times, throwing expensive parties and pressing cast and crew members to work (expensive) overtime. The result was a nearly doubled budget that could have posed a serious problem for them all. But the film opened #1 to 15.4 mil. $ in North America, where it grossed 82.6 mil. $ (52.3 % of the total gross). The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Sound, losing to Dances with Wolves (1990). It was also successful on video, making at least an additional 40 mil. $ there. - But the bloated budget and diminished quality of the film still makes its success much smaller than Top Gun's, which made back its budget almost 24 times, (Thunder only did so 2.6 times.) Days of Thunder is rotten at 38 % with a 4.8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Days of Thunder?

Cars (2006) - Idiotic, loud sports drama animation

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+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

Powerful visuals on this poster for John Lasseter and Joe Ranft's Cars

QUICK REVIEW:

Lightning McQueen is a solo-driving race car star, who falls off the transportation truck and ends up in an abandoned small town, where he learns something about friendship and teamwork, before SPOILER he triumphs completely at the mega-race.

Cars is an almost unendurable movie; intolerably loud and overwrought, and seemingly based on the dubious core value that everyone wants to be famous and # 1.
This rather flat and illusory representation of people and the world is then exposed to a carpet-bombing of mostly American accents, whereof especially the stereotypical Southern ones are gratingly awful.
The story is wildly predictable and sentimental. It doesn't lift the task of getting us to feel any empathy for cars. The idea is in some way just too ridiculous... - What was Paul Newman (Torn Curtain (1966)) doing lending his voice to this film, which became the last of his career?
The one thing that can't be taken away from Cars is its animation, which is incredibly handsome. - But that is, of course, not enough, seeing as Cars is the last exclusive Pixar film (before their merger with Disney), the animation studio that brought us Toy Story (1995) and many other endearing classics.
It is directed by John Lasseter (Toy Story), with (according to IMDb) co-director Joe Ranft (Finding Nemo (2003), voice actor). Lasseter is busy with Cars 3 right now ...

Related reviews:

John Lasseter: Bolt (2008) - Hollywood dog road adventure fun for the whole family! (executive producer)

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Incredibles (2004) - Unwanted animated action slam-dunk (executive producer)

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 120 mil. $
Box office: 461.9 mil. $
= Big hit
[Cars made 60.1 mil. $ in its opening weekend in the US, where its run landed on 244 mil. $ (53 % of the total gross). It was # 1 for two weeks before Click and then Superman Returns overtook the spot. It was even beloved by US critics and twice Oscar-nominated, (Best Animation and Best Song.) Cars was the biggest animated hit of 2006 in the States and the second biggest worldwide, behind Ice Age: The Meltdown. The spin-off merchandise has grossed a stunning 10 Bil. $ in the first 5 years since the release of the film, which has spun a sequel, a spin-off and soon a second sequel.]

What do you think of this huge, glistening money machine?