How can a movie with a talking horse with the voice of John Candy, Bobcat Goldthwaite and Dabney Coleman not be good? When its this movie. I'll have to check it out again soon, but I remember being really let down by this movie as a kid and later as a college boy.
shareI just watched this. While I agree with you somewhat, I honestly think it deserves a better rating. I watched it expecting a barely watchable cheesefest. A cheesefest it was, but it definitely held my attention and had a ton of laughs. Candy is hilarious, the novelty of the talking horse does not wear off at all. In fact, it only got funnier as the movie progressed. The pacing is good, and the supporting cast is just fine. There's only a few problems that kept this from being a cult classic.
#1: Bobcat. I like him. He still does quality work today. But his voice was a novelty act at the time. And unfortunately the novelty wore off. To me he is 1/3 endearing, 1/3 funny, and 1/3 annoying. If he toned it down a bit to, say, Jim Carey in Ace Ventura, I think he would be much more watchable. Have a fairly normal voice in relaxed scenes (occasionally he did), and go full Bobcat at funny times. Like when he got nervous or excited. Show a little restraint, you know?
#2: Out of place slapstick. The movie is fairly adult and normally shot at most times. But there's 4 or 5 instances of slapstick that just do not fit, and are kind of cringe-inducing. For example, when the secretary lets him through the window, he spins a bunch of times like a kids movie and it just looks stupid. Or when he's singing at the piano and suddenly the whole band comes in. Kind of a funny idea, but poorly executed. There's a few others but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
#3: Developed the romantic plot a little bit more. I'm usually the last person to say this, but I think it really would have made this movie better. One common point of cult classic 80s comedies is the underdog getting the girl. Hot to Trot had this, but just needed to flesh it out a bit more.
Well that's probably the most anyone has written about this movie in the last 20 years, but I truly believe this is a decent movie for what it is (like a 5.7/10)