The Hot Chick

Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, Matthew Lawrence. A sneaky mechanic tries on a piece of jewelry and instantly switches bodies with a snobby high school girl, who must now convince her friends she is who she says she is-despite what she looks like. 2002/color/104 min/PG-13/widescreen.

It's no surprise that The Hot Chick is stupid; what's remarkable is the ambition of its stupidity. After a hokey, Mummy-like prologue to establish the body-switching spell cast by an ancient pair of Abyssinian earrings, the low-concept lunacy begins when those earrings are divided, eons later, between a cruel-minded high school campus queen (Rachel McAdams) and a small-time crook (Rob Schneider), who switch bodies (externally he's the hot chick, and she's the vulgar sleazeball) and must cope with the consequences of their sudden gender crisis. This tired idea may seem fresh and funny to eight-year-olds and morons, but Schneider and first-time director Tom Brady (who wrote Schneider's The Animal) fail to fulfill the potential of their ripe comedic premise. McAdams plays a guy better than Schneider plays a girl (which explains her limited screen time), and the expected jokes (mostly involving urinals and awkward prom dates) are sluggishly uninspired. In a cameo role as a dreadlocked stoner, coproducer Adam Sandler offers only brief comedic respite. --Jeff Shannon