Boat Trip (2002)

Director:

Mort Nathan

Writers (WGA):

Mort Nathan (written by) &
William Bigelow (written by)

Release Date:

21 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Singles Cruise. Double Trouble.

Plot:

Two straight men mistakenly end up on a "gays only" cruise.

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Travel Agent | Hot Air Balloon | Banana | Gay Stereotype

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Jerry Robinson
Horatio Sanz	...	Nick Ragoni
Roselyn Sanchez	...	Gabriella
Vivica A. Fox	...	Felicia
Maurice Godin	...	Hector
Roger Moore	...	Lloyd Faversham
Lin Shaye	...	Sonya the Coach
Victoria Silvstedt	...	Inga
Ken Hudson Campbell	...	Tom (as Ken Campbell)
Zen Gesner	...	Ron
William Bumiller	...	Steven
Noah York	...	Perry
Richard Roundtree	...	Felicia's Dad
Bob Gunton	...	Boat Captain
Jennifer Gareis	...	Sheri

Also Known As:

Boat Trip (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content, language and some drug material.

Runtime:

94 min | USA:97 min (unrated version)

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English | Swedish | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Argentina:13 | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | Germany:12 | Netherlands:AL | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38760) | USA:Unrated (unrated DVD version)

Filming Locations:

Bonn, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

ApolloMedia

Trivia:

Production Designer Charles Breen built the staterooms, hallways and bridge for the cruise ship on a sound stage in Cologne, Germany.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In the end of the movie when character Nick travels to Sweden looking for Inga, the location he travels to is meant to be Sweden but is in fact Switzerland. The outdoor shot are the Swiss alps and Inga's family is wearing traditional Swiss/German clothes, for example her father wears lederhosen.

Quotes:

Nick Ragoni: How gay can a breakfast buffet be?

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Chariots of Fire (1981)

Soundtrack:

Kissing You

Might entertain the teenage boys it is aimed at but really nobody else

When Jerry vomits onto his girlfriend when trying to be romantic, he finds himself dumped and depressed. Weeks turn into months and his best friend Nick decides to help him out of his funk by getting them onto a cruise together. However a fight in the travel agents see them being "accidentally" booked onto a gay cruise. Unfortunately for them they only realise this after they have set sail. With no land in immediate sight, things look bleak but both Jerry and Nick find more opportunities than they had expected.

If there is a warning noise in comedies (ie a cinematic fire alarm) then surely it must be any film that has the main character dancing alone in their flat to a James Brown song. So when this film opened with that I immediately got on edge – a feeling that didn't change for the rest of the film. With a foundation of homophobia, bikini wearing models and loud humour this is very much a comedy that aims at a teenage market and probably does enough to satisfy them if not anyone else. The gags are obvious and simplistic and are unlikely to appeal to anyone who doesn't think that cum jokes are the height of humour, homosexual men are 99% clichés and that large breasts are the most important thing in a woman. I don't really think these things so I only laughed once the whole time – and even that was cut short as a good joke immediately turned into crudity. Without laughs the story is exposed for the predictable, puerile mess that it is.

The cast don't help the material and seem to just accept the level that it is at. Goding Jr mostly mugs his way through it and to his credit at least puts his all into it – a "lesser" actor would have shied away from some of his scenes but Cuba seemingly has no shame. The one good thing to say about him is that he does have an easy chemistry with Sanchez, although that may be more to do with the fact that she is sexy and natural and is easily the best thing in the whole film. Sanz is a typical "fat funny guy" but I use the word "funny" with reservations as he is nothing special. Fox may get a hard time from Boondocks but films like this hardly help her case – she is poor in a small role. Moore puts his heart into his role but at times he does himself no favours and pushed it too far. Why people like Gunton, Silvstedt and Roundtree bothered is beyond me.

Overall a very basic comedy that has very, very few laughs and will probably only appeal to the male teenage market that it is squarely aimed at. The stereotypes are flying, the crudity and homophobia is rampant and the only thing missing is entertainment value. Sanchez dominates with a sexy and natural performance but that is mainly down to just how very average everyone else is.