![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/b/boattrip.jpg)
Boat Trip
Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr.) wants to marry Felicia (Vivaca A. Fox), but when he proposes (in a hot-air balloon, even) she rejects him, and the two part ways. Six months later, he's still depressed about it, but his best friend Nick (Horatio Sanz) comes up with a scheme to cheer him up — a week's vacation on a pleasure cruise surrounded by single women. Unfortunately, when the boys go to sign up they piss off their travel agent and get stuck on a gay cruise with only one woman, a dance instructor named Gabrielle (Roselyn Sanchez) who also just happens to be unbelievably hot. Complications ensue as they must when Nick begins to question his sexuality (even when a tanning team takes refuge on their boat), and Jerry falls for Gabrielle but doesn't let her know that he's straight. Boat Trip (2003) feels like a throwback — outside of the overt homosexuality and some Farelly-esque gags, this kind of sexual-discomfort comedy was popular in the '60s (perfected by Billy Wilder), and the movie tries to offer the same sort of appeal. Instead, it has Cuba Gooding Jr. mugging to no comic effect and a rancid script that wants to have it both ways with its gay characters by using them as props for bad gay jokes and then turn them noble by the conclusion — but not before Cuba does a big drag number to Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out." Though there are some comic ringers (like Thomas Lennon, Artie Lang, and in a cameo Will Ferrell), they can do little to save the material. In fact, the most memorable thing about the picture is a scene where Sanchez graphically fellates a banana. Artisan has sunk to new heights of depravity with their DVD release — topping the graphic menus for National Lampoon's Van Wilder, they've hired five playmates to appear in the screens, three topless; it's the first thing one is confronted with when the menu starts up. It has scant connection with the movie proper (well, there is a boat setting), but the five offer tanning advice in a featurette entitled "Tanning Tips" (6 min.), while most are featured in the numerous Easter eggs easily found throughout the menus. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), with DD 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Surround audio. Perhaps the best supplement is the Trivia Track, which makes fun of the movie throughout while peppering its jokes with occasionally useful information about the cast and settings. Extras include a "making-of" spot (15 min.), deleted scenes, outtakes, and sneak peaks at other Artisan titties — er, titles. Keep-case.
—DSH
