![]() You know what else is apparently super-lame balls? Recording interstitial promos. “It was about one-armed boxers,” he says, then laughs. He’s more likely to string together words like super, lame, and balls, as when he describes to me a comedy video he made in junior high. So this would seem, for Samberg, to be an ideal synergistic marketing opportunity, were he the kind of person who’s prone to string together words like synergistic, marketing, and opportunity.Īndy Samberg is not that kind of person. The channel’s young-dude-sitting-around-on-Sunday-watching- Fletch demographic is exactly the kind of person who’s most likely to recognize Samberg from Saturday Night Live, or from the “Lazy Sunday” and “Dick in a Box” sketches that zipped from in-box to in-box last year like some viral-video superflu. ![]() He’s seated next to three of the co-stars from his new comedy movie, Hot Rod-Bill Hader, Danny McBride, and Samberg’s old high-school friend and collaborator, Jorma Taccone-all of whom have gathered to perform a relatively straightforward bit of movie marketing: record a bunch of interstitial interview clips to run on Comedy Central during an upcoming Sunday movie marathon. Just what Rod would like to do someday.Andy Samberg is sitting in a tall director’s chair on a soundstage in Hollywood, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, hair askew, smiling that Samberg smile. I have seen countless movie fights that stagger the imagination, but this one goes over the top and comes down on the other side. It's funny pretty much all the way through, even in the final showdown between Rod and his stepdad. All of these characters and some of the conflicts are familiar from other movies, but "Hot Rod" puts a nice spin on them. Rod's would-be girlfriend Denise ( Isla Fisher) is, of course, going with another guy, but Rod persists in the belief that his inevitable fame will win her over, as if girls are searching for guys with his job description (Knievel had to kidnap his own first wife, but to be fair, he wasn't yet a daredevil). ![]() That's the only right choice supporting characters are needed to reinforce Rod, not compete with him. In creating this aura of sincerity, "Hot Rod" benefits from Spacek's performance: She plays the mom absolutely straight, without inflection, as if she were not in a comedy. It doesn't portray him as a maniacal goofball, but as an ambitious kid who really thinks, every single time, that he will succeed. The movie is funny because it is sincere. To prepare for his jump, Rod begins a training regime, leading to a tumble down a hill that - well, see for yourself. His daredevil show involving the municipal swimming pool also turns out badly.Īll his publicity efforts add up to an attempt to jump over 15 buses (the real Evel Knievel once jumped 14 buses, although close study of his career indicates he crashed about as often as Rod Kimble). Some of his attempts at moneymaking are painful hired as an entertainer at a children's party, he is hung upside down and turned into a human pinata. Rod vows to raise the necessary $50,000, so that he can save his stepfather's life and then reduce him to a pulp. That means he loses any hope of defeating him in hand-to-hand combat. When his mom breaks the news that his stepdad needs a heart transplant they can't afford, Rod is devastated. This does not involve abuse, but a ferocious rivalry between the two. But he can't even outmaneuver his stepfather, who routinely defeats him in fights. He has been told of the daring heroism of his father, now deceased, and dreams of emulating him. Samberg is 27, but he looks about 17 in the film Rod lives at home with his mom ( Sissy Spacek) and stepdad ( Ian McShane). They're still together Schaffer is the director of "Hot Rod," and Taccone co-stars as Kevin, Rod's half-brother and half- willing sidekick for his stunts. With his Berkeley, Calif., buddies Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, he made short films that became enormously popular on the Net, and was signed by "SNL," which also took Taccone and Schaffer aboard as writers. Samberg is one of the first comedy stars spawned by the Internet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |