Hot Chick, The

The supposed novelty of seeing and hearing Rob Schneider play a girl trapped in a man's body couldn't even provide enough material for a 10-minute skit on "Saturday Night Live."

Yet the makers of "The Hot Chick" have taken the concept and stretched it out to feature length.

Let's re-emphasize that "stretched-out" part. At more than 100 minutes, this alleged comedy is easily the worst thing Schneider's done to date — much worse than either "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" and "The Animal."

But who knows? Maybe that was the goal here, trying to make a case that those two movies were underrated by showing what depths he can sink to with the right (or wrong) material.

The film's rather insensitive title evidently refers to Jessica Spencer (Rachel McAdams), a popular but self-absorbed California high-school student and cheerleader. What Jessica and her best friends (Anna Faris, Maritza Murray and Alexandra Holden) enjoy doing most is poking fun at other, less popular students. But at least one of this group is in for a rude awakening.

One morning, Jessica awakens to find herself in the body of a petty crook (Schneider, who co-wrote the screenplay), apparently the result of donning a magical earring. And Schneider finds himself in Jessica's body.

That leaves Jessica with a whole host of problems, not the least of which is explaining her predicament to her

friends, who don't believe it. Then she must find a way to get her real body back — and time is running out. So, while the crook is using her body to help pull off even more crimes, Jessica's boyfriend Billy (Matthew Lawrence) and her family are wondering what's happened to her.

Little of this is funny, especially not the urination and sex jokes or the supposedly comical physical shtick. And director/co-screenwriter Tom Brady pads out scenes with pointless subplots that go nowhere and make the film seem twice as long as it actually is.

Even Schneider seems to be phoning in his performance, while such talented actors as Robert Davi, Leila Kenzle and Michael O'Keefe are wasted in humiliating supporting turns. But worst of all may be the unbilled cameo by Schneider's former "SNL" cohort Adam Sandler, who pops up three times as a stoned mall-store clerk — a bit that actually gets less funny as it goes along.

"The Hot Chick" is rated PG-13 for nonstop crude humor (sight gags and jokes about sex and body functions, including flatulence), supposed slapstick violence (including a back-alley brawl and vehicular assault), scattered use of strong profanity, brief sexual contact, brief male nudity and brief drug content (references to marijuana use). Running time: 104 minutes.

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