Boat Trip

Critics also are asking what drove Cuba Gooding to take the lead in Boat Trip. This latest 'get Cuba Gooding Jr. career counseling fast' project is a misfire from beginning to end, writes the New York Times' Elvis Mitchell. Similarly Megan Lehmann comments in the New York Post: The likable Cuba Gooding Jr. really needs to have a quiet word to his agent for letting him go anywhere near this sketchy, thankless role. Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun says that the movie marks yet another sad chapter in the puzzling career decline of Cuba Gooding J., who ... has seemed bent on appearing in as many bad comedies as he can squeeze into his schedule. Jami Bernard in the New York Daily News demands: Cuba Gooding Jr. can just return his Jerry Maguire Oscar right now. He has no excuse for making Boat Trip, a perniciously unfunny comedy. But Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal reserves most of his rancor for the film itself, calling it stupid, strident, witless, pitifully inept and bad for what ails you. The film has been the subject of much debate on gay-oriented Internet discussion groups, leading Wesley Morris to write in the Boston Globe: There has been some concern that Boat Trip ... might be harmful to gay men. This is not entirely true. Boat Trip is bad for everybody. However, once again swimming against the tide, Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times gives the film a positive review, concluding: In its frenetic, good-natured way, Boat Trip is indeed a trip. And Ray Conlogue in the Toronto Globe & Mail maintains that the film is very well done, and the dialogue is steadily witty. In fact, he says, it belongs to the genre of stylish comedies.