The Hot Chick is a 2002 American comedy film about a teenage girl whose mind is magically swapped with that of a 30-year-old criminal. It was directed by Tom Brady and produced by John Schneider and Carr D'Angelo for Happy Madison and Touchstone Pictures, and written by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider. The film stars Rob Schneider as the criminal, Rachel McAdams as Jessica, who, together with her cheerleader friends, search for Jessica's body while dealing with awkward social situations.
Adam Sandler served as executive producer and has a small role in the film as the Mambuza Bongo Player, a character based on one played by Schneider in a Saturday Night Live sketch. Sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry and singers Ashlee Simpson, Angie Stone, and Michelle Branch also had small roles. Parts of the film were shot at Redondo Union High School and El Segundo High School.
There is a Malayalam film called Ithihasa released in 2014 with a similar plot.[1][2]
Plot
In an Abyssinian castle in 50 BC, Princess Nawa (Shazia Ali) uses a pair of enchanted earrings to escape an arranged marriage by swapping bodies with a slave girl (Vivian Corado). When each woman wears one of the earrings, their bodies magically trade places while their minds remain where they were.
In the present day, Jessica Spencer (Rachel McAdams) is a popular high school girl in suburban California with her friends: April (Anna Faris), Keecia (Maritza Murray), and Lulu (Alexandra Holden). April is Jessica's best friend, and all four girls are cheerleaders. At school one day, Jessica makes fun of an overweight girl named Hildenburg (Megan Kuhlmann) and a wiccan girl named Eden (Sam Doumit). After that, Jessica and her friends visit the local mall, where Jessica frames her rival Bianca (Maria-Elena Laas) for shoplifting, and finds the earrings in an African-themed store. The earrings are not for sale, so Jessica steals them.
Shortly afterward, a small-time criminal named Clive Maxtone (Rob Schneider) robs a nearby gas station. When Jessica and her friends stop there and mistake him for an employee, he services their car to avoid raising suspicion. Jessica accidentally drops one of the earrings on the ground, and Clive picks it up after the girls drive away. That evening, Jessica and Clive put on their earrings. When they wake up the next morning, each of them is trapped in the other's body. This is especially difficult for Jessica, who has a cheerleading competition and the school prom coming up soon, and at first difficult, Jessica convinces April, Keecia, and Lulu of her true identity.
The girls write a list of suspects of who could be responsible. They first seek Hildenburg, where Jessica apologizes for humiliating her in front of the entire school during the basketball game earlier, and the two make amends. They soon seek Eden, where Jessica also apologizes for her jealousy of Eden getting the only "A" on a report of the Salem witch trials. Eden reveals an ancient Latin witchcraft called "Santeria", which originated in Africa, and found its way into Cuba and Brazil. Lulu ties this connection to Bianca, but Eden reveals that only a tattoo of a scorpion on her back could confirm this. While investigating at a dance club called 'Instant Tang', Bianca is proven innocent after Jessica rips her shirt to see if she has the tattoo, which she doesn't.
The girls then find a picture of the earrings on the internet, and the girls post fliers all over town. They also get help from Keecia's awkward mother (Jodi Long) and Venetia and Sissie (Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry), twin sisters, who are on Jessica's cheerleading squad. The girls tell this to Madame Mambuza (Angie Stone), the owner of the African store at the mall. Madame Mambuza tells the girls the story of Princess Nawa, who, after switching bodies, was unaware that she had to bring the earrings back together. Nawa lived the rest of her life in the slave's body. Jessica could suffer the same fate if she does not unite the earrings before the end of the Full moon.
Meanwhile, Jessica is hired for two jobs while secretly living with April. At her home, where she works as a gardener named Taquito, her parents tell her about their marital problems and she helps them rekindle their sex life. At school, while cleaning the boys' locker room as a janitor, she spies on her boyfriend, Billy (Matthew Lawrence), who truly loves her and April's boyfriend, Jake (Eric Christian Olsen), who secretly has another girlfriend named Monique (Ashlee Simpson). Faced with Jake's infidelity, April breaks up with him, and Jessica agrees to take her to the prom. At the cheerleading competition, Jessica signals romantically to Billy while disguised as the school mascot, but when the head of her suit falls off, he becomes confused and leaves with Bianca.
During this time, Clive has been using Jessica's body to make money from men, including Billy, who gives him his money and car, believing he is Jessica. On the evening of the prom, Hildenburg sees a video of Clive robbing a man on the television news and goes to the scene of the crime. After finding a business card for the club where Clive works as a pole dancer, she informs Jessica at the prom, and the girls go to the club. When they find Clive, Jessica steals his earring and puts it on herself along with the other one. With the two earrings now on the same person, Jessica's and Clive's bodies return to their original owners.
After Jessica makes up with Billy, the film ends with the school's graduation ceremony, where Keecia and her mother reconcile. The previous night, Clive, running from the law and still dressed in lingerie, jumps into the car of the same bartender (Scott Dolezal) Jessica encountered in the body of Clive. The bartender, who was led to believe from previous encounters that Clive is homosexual smiles and locks the car door. The movie ends with the car speeding away, and Clive turning around and screaming.
Cast
- Rob Schneider as Clive Maxtone/Jessica Spencer
- Anna Faris as April
- Rachel McAdams as Jessica Spencer/Clive Maxtone
- Matthew Lawrence as Billy
- Eric Christian Olsen as Jake
- Michael O'Keefe as Mr. Richard Spencer
- Melora Hardin as Mrs. Carol Spencer
- Alexandra Holden as Lulu
- Maritza Murray as Keecia "Ling-Ling" Jackson
- Tamera Mowry as Sissie
- Tia Mowry as Venetia
- Sam Doumit as Eden
- Megan Kuhlmann as Hildenburg
- Angie Stone as Madame Mambuza
- Matt Weinberg as Booger Spencer
- Jodi Long as Keecia's mother
- Maria-Elena Laas as Bianca
- Lee Garlington as Vice Principal Marjorie Bernard
- Robert Davi as April's father
- Leila Kenzle as April's mother
- Dick Gregory as Bathroom attendant
- Ashlee Simpson as Monique
- Michelle Branch as Club DJ
- Scott Dolezal as Night Club bartender
- Adam Sandler as Mambuza Bongo Guy (uncredited)
- Shazia Ali as Princess Nawa
- Vivian Corado as Slave Girl
- Jenna Dewan as Bianca Salsa Girl
Casting
Singers Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Branch each make their feature film debut with cameo roles.
Schneider's mother Pilar appears as a judge of the cheerleading contest.
Release
The Hot Chick was originally rated R, but several scenes were edited out in order to receive the broader PG-13 rating. The R version was classified 12A in Britain, maintaining the same rating given to the PG-13 theatrical version.[citation needed]
Before the film was released theatrically, previews indicated the title would be Miss Popularity.[citation needed]
Reception
Box office
The film opened at #5 at the U.S. box office on the weekend of December 13–15, 2002, taking in $7,401,146 USD, averaging $3,338 across the 2,217 theatres where it was shown. It went on to earn a total worldwide gross of $54,639,553.
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 22% based on 81 reviews.[3]
Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film two thumbs way down. Ebert gave the film half a star (out of a possible four), declaring, "The MPAA rates this PG-13. It is too vulgar for anyone under 13, and too dumb for anyone over 13." Roeper panned the film with faint praise saying "it's in color. And, it was mostly in focus."[4]
Accolades
Rob Schneider was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor of the Decade for his performance in the film.
Home media
The Hot Chick was released May 13, 2003 on VHS and DVD. The DVD featured the deleted scenes that would have made the film an R, including an alternate ending.[5]
References
- ↑ "Anusree has enacted me well in Ithihasa: Shine Tom Chacko".
- ↑ "Ithihasa Movie Review".
- ↑ "The Hot Chick" (13 December 2002).
- ↑ Ebert, Roger (December 13, 2002). The Hot Chick. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ↑ "Amazon.com: The Hot Chick".
