Movie Review: Boat Trip

Boat Trip (2003) 

Directed by Mort Nathan

Written by Mort Nathan 

Starring Cuba Gooding Jr. Horatio Sanz, Roger Moore, Vivica A. Fox 

Release Date March 21st 2003 

Published March 20th, 2003 

It is a testament to just how good Cuba Gooding Jr. was in his Oscar winning role in Jerry Maguire that people like myself have so willingly ignored the number of awful films he's made. 

This is the guy who even after a breakout role in Boyz in The Hoodmade the decision to star opposite Paul Hogan in Lightning Jack as a mute sidekick. A man who since winning an Oscar has made the films Chill Factor, Instinct, Rat Race, and Snow Dogs and done so with a straight face. So I shouldn't be surprised when Gooding turns out another abysmal film with his new comedy Boat Trip. I once again walked in with my Jerry Maguire rose colored glasses on and once again left disappointed.

In Boat Trip, Gooding plays Jerry, recently dumped by his fiancée (Vivica A. Fox) and wallowing in self-pity. That is until his buddy Nick (Horatio Sanz) books them on a singles cruise. Unfortunately for Jerry and Nick, when they booked the cruise they ticked off the travel agent (Will Ferrell, in a cameo) that decides to book them on a gay cruise.

In a scene that defies believability and credibility to an astounding degree, Jerry and Nick manage to board the ship without noticing the number of men holding hands and the odd lack of women anywhere on the boat. It isn't until the boat has left and the two friends sit in the boat's bar with Roger Moore as a rich gay guy and he tells them they are on a gay cruise. Well needless to say this leads to a stream of homophobic ranting with Nick and Jerry screaming and yelling as if they were going down on the Titanic.

So of course the next logical step once they realize they are on a gay cruise, well of course you pretend to be a couple so that Jerry can seduce the ship’s lone female dance instructor, played by Roselyn Sanchez. Meanwhile Sanz's homophobic Nick comes to think he may be gay because he enjoys playing poker with gay guys.

If that doesn't illustrate the exquisite pain that is Boat Trip, try sprinkling in lame attempts at Farrelly Brothers style gross out humor. Writer/director Mort Nathan knows how to ape the histrionics of a Farrelly Brothers comedy but what he can't do is match the Farrelly's sweetness that tempers their worst gags. The Farrellys know that for the audience to tolerate the gross out stuff it has be in the service of characters we like. Boat Trip never for one moment establishes characters we like. Both Gooding and Sanz mug and preen and deliver dialogue in service of the plot but never for a moment act. They never connect with the audience and never rise above caricatures, while the supporting cast exist as plot points and sight gags.

I feel it necessary to hit the filmmakers for their use of Roselyn Sanchez in the film. True, she is a beautiful woman who I don't mind seeing in sexy, slinky outfits that barely cover her. However, the misogynistic attention paid to her and other female cast members is the kind of ancient, Neanderthal behavior relegated to the worst of Russ Meyer. But to Meyer's credit, he never attempted to hide his misogyny inside a mainstream feature.