"The Hot Chick" is an American English-language film from 2002, so this one has its 15th anniversary this year already. The writer and director is Tom Brady (not the famous athlete obviously) and for him, it is definitely the most known work of his career so far. This may also be the case for lead actor Rob Schneider, who is also a co-writer here and it is not the only occasion he worked together with Brady. Schneider certainly was a bigger star back then than he is today, but I believe he did a good job overall and he is certainly not less talented than the blockbuster comedy lead actors of the 2010s. This does not refer to Adam Sandler who I liked as well and who has a small cameo in here in two scenes. He's a good friend of Schneider and executive producer of this 105-minute movie. This duration includes the credits though, so it is almost 10 minutes shorter in fact. The good news is that the script and Schneider's performance are good enough for the film to never drag despite the fairly long runtime for a comedy movie. The female lead is played by Rachel McAdams, but she is really only lead in terms of the plot as she almost disappears completely around the 20-minute mark. Maybe the young Anna Faris has even more screen time than McAdams here. But this is no surprise because McAdams was not famous back then yet. It's telling that the credits state that this film is introducing her to audiences and this was still before her roles in very famous films like "Mean Girls" and "The Notebook". But this one here is still her breakthrough movie somehow and I must say that when she was on screen she was perhaps the best aspect of the film, not just because the title fits her very well.
One of the biggest strengths of the film is that it basically never takes itself too seriously. Even in the more serious moments, it is all about character developments and they manage to make them look relatively light luckily. The film never tries to teach audiences something important and that's really perfect this way because otherwise the film could have gone wrong easily. But it succeeds. There are some pretty funny moments and the makers did a good job I believe in using the comedy to make people ignore some of the less realistic plot developments. Then again, it is all good as the core plot here about a crook changing bodies with a high school student is extremely absurd already. It is a parallel to a Lindsay Lohan movie, but not about mother and daughter this time and also not about lovers/spouses like in a recent German film where characters are switching bodies as well. So it is a bit of a new idea, especially for when the film was made. Of course, not all the comedy is working, but that is okay as it is no perfect film of course. Everybody will like or dislike certain scenes for subjective reasons. I personally disliked the fart humor scenes and I must say I was a bit disappointed Oscar nominee O'Keefe got such weak material here as his scenes are among the worst the film has to offer and he is a much better actor than he can show in here. But yeah, it's just subjective. Robert Davi (who plays one of my very favorite Bond villains) was wasted too unfortunately. But these are just minor letdowns. The biggest disappointment for me perhaps was that the focus after the body switch was 90% Schneider and 10% McAdams, maybe an even bigger gap and I would have loved to see a more balanced proportion. But like I said, McAdams wasn't a star yet back then, far away from the days of being the female lead on "True Detective" and an Oscar nominee, so it's not too uncommon. And storywise, it actually makes sense because the high school student's life is far more interesting and entertaining than the crook's probably relatively lonesome life that may have added too much seriousness to the film. So overall, they probably made the right decisions apart from wasting a couple really talented actors here. I recommend the watch and I believe this is one of the best comedies of 2002. Don't be fooled by the surprisingly low rating. It's a fun movie and has lots of guilty pleasure potential. Watch it!
One of the biggest strengths of the film is that it basically never takes itself too seriously. Even in the more serious moments, it is all about character developments and they manage to make them look relatively light luckily. The film never tries to teach audiences something important and that's really perfect this way because otherwise the film could have gone wrong easily. But it succeeds. There are some pretty funny moments and the makers did a good job I believe in using the comedy to make people ignore some of the less realistic plot developments. Then again, it is all good as the core plot here about a crook changing bodies with a high school student is extremely absurd already. It is a parallel to a Lindsay Lohan movie, but not about mother and daughter this time and also not about lovers/spouses like in a recent German film where characters are switching bodies as well. So it is a bit of a new idea, especially for when the film was made. Of course, not all the comedy is working, but that is okay as it is no perfect film of course. Everybody will like or dislike certain scenes for subjective reasons. I personally disliked the fart humor scenes and I must say I was a bit disappointed Oscar nominee O'Keefe got such weak material here as his scenes are among the worst the film has to offer and he is a much better actor than he can show in here. But yeah, it's just subjective. Robert Davi (who plays one of my very favorite Bond villains) was wasted too unfortunately. But these are just minor letdowns. The biggest disappointment for me perhaps was that the focus after the body switch was 90% Schneider and 10% McAdams, maybe an even bigger gap and I would have loved to see a more balanced proportion. But like I said, McAdams wasn't a star yet back then, far away from the days of being the female lead on "True Detective" and an Oscar nominee, so it's not too uncommon. And storywise, it actually makes sense because the high school student's life is far more interesting and entertaining than the crook's probably relatively lonesome life that may have added too much seriousness to the film. So overall, they probably made the right decisions apart from wasting a couple really talented actors here. I recommend the watch and I believe this is one of the best comedies of 2002. Don't be fooled by the surprisingly low rating. It's a fun movie and has lots of guilty pleasure potential. Watch it!