Review of Teen Comedy "The Hot Chick"

The movie "Hot Chick" is a movie that uses a stereotypical view to tell a story about a cheer leading captain. Therefore it is obviously set in her everyday surroundings. However, the movie starts in a completely different setting. The story begins in what looks like an Egyptian temple. Here the director misleads the audience into believing that the plot might actually be something exciting and adventurous.

Throughout the story line the director is trying to teach the audience two things. The first is to not take anything for granted. For example, the cheerleader (Jessica) feels lucky when she gets her body back after living in a 30 year old man's. The second lesson learned was that everyone can learn to be a better person and lead a more fulfilling life. This is evident in that almost all of the characters at the end of the movie make a change in their life and live happily ever after.

The "Hot Chick" is on the verge of being tragicomedy and a comedy. There is only a little bit of resemblance to a tragicomedy that is that it tries to make you feel exhilarated about something profound truth that the character learns. But what it lacks is the seriousness. This movie is simply just comedic from that stand point. The comedic aspect isn't as sexually based humor wise as other "teen" movies in it's category. Except that plot was still predictable. The guy and girl loose each other however they get it back in the end , but not with out a fight.

Aristotle's six elements were present in the movie even though one would think that the movie didn't require that much thought. The plot was that through a magic set of earrings two opposite people,( a man that was robbing a store and of course the wealthy cheerleader) change places. Somehow the robber's spirit ends up in her body and she ends up in his. She of course is scared to death and can't decide how she is ever going to live again. The robber on the other hand makes good use of her body by robbing people and using it to earn money at a strip club. Eventually, like every movie of it's kind they figure out the source of the problem and after many obstacles in the road resolve it. During this time everyone ends learning something that makes their life better and more fulfilling, and that is the happy ending.

The lead character is Rob Schneider. His role for the majority of the movie is Jessica stuck in his body. This also appeared to be a middle aged, cross dressing man who is confused about his sexuality. Although Rob Schneider does do a verily good portrayal of a girl stuck in a man's body the character is really not complex enough to truly get the audience involved. The actress playing Jessica was not even shown as much throughout the movie as the girls that play her friends. In fact they found her role so unimportant that they forgot to put her name on the VHS box. Being what I consider a costar because her character is portrayed through the main actor throughout the whole movie I'm sure that she was pretty upset about not being recognized.

The message in this movie was very clichÉ. The audience learned from this movie that if you learn something about your life and change it you will effortlessly live happily ever after. Your family problems will dissipate and all of your friends will have also found themselves and be thankful for everything they have. And oh ya the girl gets the guy in the end.

Throughout this movie the diction is consistent. The popular girls talk like valley girls. Every other word is "like" and they don't use any words that exceeds a twelve year old's vocabulary. Rob Schneider acting like a girl also qualifies under this category. The parents who usually have half of a brain in most movies seem to be missing theirs. Maybe if we find theirs we can find who stole their children's. Just because this is a movie that is meant to attract teens is reason to not include at least a couple of words to expand their vocabulary so that they don't end up talking like the characters in the movie.

The most significant moments in this movie are marked by the music. The music in this movie includes almost all pop songs. The exception to the pop music theme is the instrumental music used to build suspense. For example, when they both have the earring and the spirits are getting ready to switch.

What the audience sees in this movie is a lot of familiar places. For instance, her bedroom and the school. The director didn't do anything to outrageous to visually please the audience. Although the scene at the very beginning of the movie had quite a different and a lot more visually exciting set than the rest of the movie. Spectacle also includes costuming.

In the "Hot Chick" their is use of modern day clothing. Jessica (whether she is a boy or a girl) and her friends are all wearing the modern day designer clothing that is rather skimpy to signify their status. The director also uses the costuming of other characters to show their "group". The parents are dressed like everyone sees wealthy parents and the unpopular girl at school is gothic, of course. Therefore, the costumes definitely reinforced the stereotypes which I'm sure the director was trying to do. It was noticeable who the main character was because most of the time they had less clothing on, that or it was louder in color or print than the more minor characters. This could be another reason for the parent's clothes being so bland.

Through talking to some other friends I found that some people truly enjoyed this movie. They found Rob to be very funny and the girls loved the thought of a guy having to deal with the everyday life of a girl. They also said that the movie overall didn't really have an affect on them other than it being entertaining.

So all in all I found the movie to have a lot of crude humor,a cast of predictable characters and a predictable plot. However I do feel that the director achieved the goal that I think he was going for. The diction, costume, thought, characters, and plot all came together to make a typical teen movie and for those who enjoy these movies , it was worth it.