Parents' Guide to

Boat Trip

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Stereotyping, iffy humor in dated, unfunny comedy.

Movie R 2002 94 minutes
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Older generations watching this movie might ask themselves if the ghost of Paul Lynde returned to write the innuendo-heavy one-liners that never stop in this dated and cringeworthy comedy. Younger generations watching it might view the premise of Boat Trip (two randy straight dudes forced to spend four days on a gay cruise) with the same flabbergasted shock that just about everybody now experiences when seeing 1950s movies in which the woman of the nuclear family goes out and gets herself a job.

It's a lazy comedy that goes for the easiest jokes, often homophobic or sexist, and also not funny. Gay men are either prancing, lisping, and effeminate, or else they're only capable of speaking in sexual innuendo. Most of the women in the movie exist to be bubbly, curvaceous, and fond of gratuitous jumping jacks while topless in a bikini. The Swedish bikini team seem forced into the story because someone (or the "target demographic") needed the movie to be "less gay." Their existence is as forced as the attempt to mine a message out of the movie by giving one of the gay men actual depth when he talks of the father who rejected him until Dad realized on his death bed that it's OK that his son is gay because "we are all God's children." This epiphany occurs after over 60 minutes of nonstop jokes in which the stereotypical behaviors of gay men and Sanz's character's overblown overreactions to these behaviors is the punch line. The only moments of actual humor come from Roger Moore, who does, admittedly, say one or two laugh-out-loud bits of dialogue. Overall though, an offensive, obnoxious movie.

Movie Details

  • In theaters: July 17, 2002
  • On DVD or streaming: September 30, 2003
  • Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Horatio Sanz, Roselyn Sanchez
  • Director: Mort Nathan
  • Inclusion Information: Black actors, Latinx actors
  • Studio: Lions Gate
  • Genre: Comedy
  • Run time: 94 minutes
  • MPAA rating: R
  • MPAA explanation: Strong sexual content, language and some drug material.
  • Last updated: August 31, 2022

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