Release Date: March 21, 2003
Starring: Cuba Gooding Jr., Horatio Sanz, Roselyn Sanchez, Vivica A. Fox, Roger Moore
Directed by: Mort Nathan
Written by: Mort Nathan, William Bigelow
Distributed by: Artisan Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R (strong sexual content, language, some drug material)
Boat Trip relies heavily on the hope that hilarity will ensue if you put two incredibly straight men on a gay cruise ship for a week. While this concept must’ve seemed funny as writer-director Mort Nathan and his co-writer William Bigelow were writing the script, the final cut definitely misses the boat.
In the movie, Nick (Horatio Sanz) gets the crazy idea to go on a cruise with his buddy Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr.), partially to get him over his breakup with his long-time girlfriend, Felicia (Vivica A. Fox). But Nick starts a fight with one of the travel agents, who has the last laugh after booking Nick and Jerry aboard an all-male cruise.
Meanwhile, Jerry finds it easier to get over Felicia after he is rescued by the only woman on the boat, a dance instructor named Gabriela (Roselyn Sanchez), but finds romance more difficult because he has to pretend he’s gay in order to hang out with her. Havoc and mayhem follow as Jerry tries to prove to Gabriela that he’s not what he seems to be and Nick tries to avoid the clutches of veteran cruise man Lloyd (Roger Moore).
This is the directorial debut for Nathan, and what better way to break into the biz than with a romantic comedy with a twist. Unfortunately, the story never really picks up anywhere. Nathan, along with his co-writer Bigelow, base most of their comedy around the gag of two straight men on a gay cruise. Aside from the fact that homosexuality is reduced to a cheap laugh, the idea in itself, as presented in Boat Trip, doesn’t fill more than a cocktail napkin’s worth of funny lines.
Unlike similar situational comedies of this persuasion, like The Birdcage and In & Out, Nathan and Bigelow failed to go beyond the typical gay hallmarks like characters dressing in drag and drinking fruity drinks with colorful accessories. Another typically familiar scene has a just out-of-the-closet Hector (Maurice Godin) showing Gooding how to act “gay” -- involving another stereotype, that all gay men sing “I Will Survive.”
Despite the proliferation of gay jokes, though, the film definitely caters to a heterosexual audience. Gay men are depicted as the film’s antagonists, and though Sanz’s character shows his “good” side by befriending a crowd of poker-playing homosexuals, in the end, his preference is for a team of female sunbathers who have snuck aboard the cruise ship as well. Witness the completely superfluous scene that has Sanz’s character gleefully rubbing oil on the Swedish sunbathers, and the subsequent catfight between them and the Hawaiian Tropic girls. But while these moments might help to sell a few more tickets among heterosexual moviegoers, they don’t add to the film’s limited humor.
It doesn’t help that Gooding hasn’t shown any signs of what it means to be a leading man, and his screen persona certainly isn’t that of a strong romantic who goes recklessly from one love to the next. His costar Sanz, as the other major player, doesn’t prove himself, either; if anything, he plays like the “Saturday Night Live” cast member trying to go solo that he is. But though Sanz seems to want to be the James Belushi or Chris Farley of today, those are high standards of comedy, and if Sanz has the talent to match them, he hasn’t shown it yet.
However, there is an enjoyable cameo from Will Farrell, and Roger Moore does his part with more than a bit of relish, making for some humorously awkward moments to prove that Nathan and Bigelow aren’t completely out of touch. And the generally suggestive and occasionally raunchy story and means the movie will be enjoyable for viewers who like to see love triumph over all in a generally senseless context. But these few bright spots aren’t enough to compensate for the lack of side-splitting comedy -- if it’s true laughs you’re in search of, it’s best to seek passage on a different ship.
-- Michael J. Eiff (eiff@email.arizona.edu)