Boat Trip (film)

Boat Trip is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Mort Nathan in his feature film directorial debut and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Horatio Sanz, Vivica A. Fox, Roselyn Sánchez, and Roger Moore. The film was released in the United States on March 21, 2003, and was a critical and commercial failure.

Boat Trip
Film poster
Directed byMort Nathan
Written byMort Nathan
William Bigelow
Produced bySabine Müller
Frank Hübner
Brad Krevoy
Gerhard Schmidt
Andrew Sugerman
Starring
CinematographyShawn Maurer
Edited byJohn Axness
Music byRobert Folk
Distributed byArtisan Entertainment
Nordisk Film
Motion Picture Corporation of America
Release dates
  • October 4, 2002 (2002-10-04) (United Kingdom)
  • March 21, 2003 (2003-03-21) (United States)
Running time
94 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Germany
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15-20 million[1][2]
Box office$15 million[2]

Plot

Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Nick (Horatio Sanz) are two close friends whose love lives have hit rock bottom. Jerry's girlfriend Felicia (Vivica A. Fox) has turned down his marriage proposal after vomiting all over her during a hot air balloon ride during the proposal. After Nick runs into a friend who is marrying a beautiful, younger girl he met on a singles cruise, he decides to take a similar cruise with Jerry.

While on their way to the travel agency, they get into a verbal altercation with a gay man who works at the agency they plan to book the cruise through. The manager (Will Ferrell) attempts to patch things up by handling their booking personally. To Jerry and Nick, the situation appears to be handled well and they leave, not expecting anything to go wrong. After they leave, it is revealed that the agent and manager, both men, are actually gay lovers, and that they have been booked on a cruise for gay men.

During their trip, they come to learn that gay men are less objectionable than they first assumed. However, Jerry falls in love with the cruise's dance instructor Gabriella (Roselyn Sánchez) and in order to win her over, he pretends to be gay so he can get closer to her. Meanwhile, Nick blossoms a romance with a bikini model named Inga (Victoria Silvstedt). After an accidental affair with her mean, sex-obsessed coach Sonya (Lin Shaye), Nick must fend her off, after she has fallen in love with him as well.

In the end, Jerry wins Gabriella while Nick loses out on Inga but sees a potential relationship with her sister instead. However, he is then unwittingly (and unwillingly) reunited with Sonya; much to his disgust and her instant arousal upon seeing him.

Cast

Production

In October 2002, Artisan Pictures acquired the North American distribution rights to Boat Trip.[3]

Reception

Box office

Boat Trip was released in the UK on October 4, 2002,[4] and in the US and Canada on March 21, 2003, where the film opened at #10 and grossed $3,815,075 in 1715 theatres. In total, it had a worldwide gross of $15,020,293.[2] It was released on DVD in the US on September 30, 2003.[5]

Critical response

This film was panned by critics on its initial release.[6] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 7%, based on reviews from 90 critics, with an average rating of 3.10/10. The site's consensus reads: "Boat Trip is a lame, juvenile farce that's heavy on stereotypes and desperate antics but short on brains and laughs."[7] On Metacritic, it has a score of 18 out of 100, based on 28 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike" by critics.[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times panned the film and wrote: "This is a movie made for nobody, about nothing." He continued: "Not that the film is outrageous. That would be asking too much. It is dim-witted, unfunny, too shallow to be offensive."[9] Ebert included it at #3 on his list of the 10 worst films of 2003.[10] Variety called it a "Washout. Lacking the mojo even to be offensive".[11]

Many viewed the film as homophobic, although a reviewer for The Advocate wrote that the film was too terrible to protest.[12] On the show Ebert & Roeper, Roger Ebert said the film "was so bad in so many different ways, not only does it offend gays, it offends everyone else." His co-host Richard Roeper said, "If the ship hit an iceberg, I would have been rooting for the iceberg." Chris Rock mentioned Gooding during the 2005 Oscars telecast for starring in this movie after receiving an Academy Award, joking that Gooding must have had serious financial problems to need star in such a bad film.[13]

Accolades

The film was nominated for two Razzie Awards for Gooding as Worst Actor and for Mort Nathan as Worst Director, but "lost" both awards to Gigli.[14] At the 2003 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received five nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Gooding, Worst Supporting Actor for Moore, Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy, and Worst On-Screen Couple for Gooding and anyone forced to co-star with him. Its only win was for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy.[15]

References
  1. "Boat Trip (2003) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 2021-10-08. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  2. "Boat Trip". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 2012-08-28. Retrieved 2009-02-19.
  3. "Artisan books distrib rights for 'Boat Trip'". Palo Alto Online. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
  4. "Boat Trip". Total Film. 2002-10-04. Archived from the original on 2023-03-21. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  5. Nutt, Shannon (2003-09-25). "Boat Trip". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  6. DiOrio, Carl (2003-03-23). "'House' hold word at the B.O." Variety. Archived from the original on 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  7. "Boat Trip (2003)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  8. "Boat Trip". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  9. Ebert, Roger (March 22, 2003). "Boat Trip". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  10. Ebert, Roger (October 15, 2019). 10 worst movies of (2003) (video). At The Movies. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13 – via YouTube.
  11. Rooney, David (21 March 2003). "Boat Trip". Variety. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  12. "And the Gay Razzie Goes To..." The Advocate. 2011-02-25. Retrieved 2014-09-18.
  13. Hanashiro, Robert (February 28, 2005). "Host Chris Rock comes out firing". USA Today. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
  14. Wilson, John (2007). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywoods Worst. Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 978-0-446-51008-0.
  15. "Past Winners Database". The Envelope. Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2007-08-15. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
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