Boat Trip (film)

Boat Trip is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Mort Nathan in his feature film directorial debut and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Horatio Sanz, Vivica A. Fox, Roselyn Sánchez and Roger Moore. The film was released in the United States on March 21, 2003.

Plot
Jerry (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Nick (Horatio Sanz) are two close friends whose love lives have hit rock bottom. Jerry's girlfriend Felicia (Vivcia A. Fox) has turned down his marriage proposal after vomiting all over her during a hot air balloon ride during the proposal. After Nick runs into a friend who is getting married to a beautiful, younger girl he met on a singles cruise, he decides to take a similar cruise with Jerry.

While on their way to the travel agency, they get into a verbal altercation with a gay man who works at the agency they plan to book the cruise through. The manager (Will Ferrell) attempts to patch things up by handling their booking personally. To Jerry and Nick, the situation appears to be handled well and they leave, not expecting anything to go wrong. After they leave, it is revealed that the agent and manager, both men, are actually gay lovers, and that they have been booked on a cruise for gay men.

During their trip, they come to learn that gay men are less objectionable than they first assumed. However, Jerry falls in love with the cruise's dance instructor Gabriella (Roselyn Sánchez) and in order to win her over, he pretends to be gay so he can get closer to her. Meanwhile, Nick blossoms a romance with a bikini model named Inga (Victoria Silvstedt). After an accidental affair with her mean, sex-obsessed coach Sonya (Lin Shaye), Nick must fend her off, after she has fallen in love with him as well.

In the end, Jerry wins Gabriella while Nick loses out on Inga but sees a potential relationship with her sister instead. However, he is then unwittingly (and unwillingly) reunited with Sonya; much to his disgust and her instant arousal upon seeing him.

Cast

 * Cuba Gooding Jr. as Jerry Robinson
 * Horatio Sanz as Nick Ragoni
 * Roselyn Sánchez as Gabriella
 * Vivica A. Fox as Felicia
 * Maurice Godin as Hector
 * Roger Moore as Lloyd Faversham
 * Lin Shaye as Coach Sonya
 * Victoria Silvstedt as Inga
 * Ken Campbell as Tom
 * Zen Gesner as Ron
 * William Bumiller as Steven
 * Noah York as Perry
 * Thomas Lennon as Pastor
 * Richard Roundtree as Felicia's Dad
 * Bob Gunton as Boat Captain
 * Jennifer Gareis as Sheri
 * Will Ferrell as Michael, Brian's boyfriend
 * Artie Lange as Brian
 * Jamie Ferrell as Bridget

Release
Boat Trip was released in the UK on October 4, 2002, and in the US and Canada on March 21, 2003, where the film opened at #10 and grossed $3,815,075 in 1715 theatres. In total, it had a worldwide gross of $15,020,293. It was released on DVD in the US on September 30, 2003.

Reception
This film was universally critically panned by the critics on its initial release and performed poorly in theatres. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 7% of 89 surveyed critics gave it a positive review; the average rating was 2.55/10. The site's consensus reads: "Boat Trip is a lame, juvenile farce that's heavy on stereotypes and desperate antics but short on brains and laughs." Metacritic rated it 18/100 based on 28 reviews, indicating overwhelming dislike by critics.

Chris Rock made jokes about Gooding during the 2005 Oscars telecast for starring in this movie after receiving an Academy Award. Many viewed the film as homophobic although a reviewer for The Advocate wrote that the film was too terrible to protest. On the show Ebert and Roeper, Roger Ebert said the film "was so bad in so many different ways, not only does it offend gays, it offends everyone else." His co-host Richard Roeper said, "If the ship hit an iceberg, I would have been rooting for the iceberg."

Overall, it was nominated for two Razzie Awards for Gooding as Worst Actor and for Mort Nathan as Worst Director, but "lost" both awards to Gigli. At the 2003 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received five nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Gooding, Worst Supporting Actor for Moore, Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy, and Worst On-Screen Couple for Gooding and anyone forced to co-star with him. Its only win was for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy.