Hot to Trot

A justifiably notorious bomb, Hot to Trot follows Bobcat Goldthwait’s Fred P. Chaney as he begins receiving valuable stock tips from a talking horse (voiced by John Candy) – much to the chagrin of Fred’s evil, duplicitous stepfather (Dabney Coleman’s Walter Sawyer). Hot to Trot is a high-concept comedy that never manages to live up to the potential of its broadly-conceived premise, as filmmaker Michael Dinner, for the most part, emphasizes eye-rolling instances of comedy over fairly important elements like character development and momentum – which ensures, naturally, that the whole thing remains unable to even fleetingly grab the viewer’s interest. It’s clear, too, that star Goldthwait’s high-pitched, screechy shtick absolutely does not work in the context of a leading man, as the actor, who can be extremely funny in small doses, delivers a performance that quickly becomes the cinematic equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. The rampant silliness of Stephen Neigher, Hugo Gilbert, and Charlie Peters’ screenplay ensures that Hot to Trot is ultimately likely to appeal solely to very small, very undemanding children, with the film, which has famously been disowned by Goldthwait himself, aimlessly stumbling about until it reaches its needlessly frenetic and thoroughly underwhelming conclusion.

1/2* out of ****