The story is pretty basic and really only acts as a way to string together the many stunts, and their blunders. Rod Kimble has always wanted to be a stunt man. He has been pulling off various jumps on his bike since he was a little kid... well, he has been trying to anyway. Most of his attempts have ended in a lot of pain. Then there is Rod's stepfather. Rod is constantly trying to earn the guy's respect, and he feels the only way he can accomplish this is to beat the guy up. So imagine Rod's disappointment when he finds out his stepfather, Frank (Ian McShane), is having heart issues and won't last much longer. So Rod plans to put on a spectacular jump so he can raise the $50,000 needed for the surgery, because then, he will get Frank better so he can beat him to death.
Most of the movie involves Rod and his "crew" trying to raise the money they will need so they can host this major fundraiser. Outside of the occasional story point, the movie is nothing but a series of bad stunts like Rod being blown out of a deer stand or being caught on fire. Then there are the just plain strange parts of the movie. There were several times when I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and truly felt like it was pointless. The main one that stands out at the moment is a five minute scene where Rod and his half-brother, Kevin, keep saying "cool beans" to each other over and over again, but in some strange mish-mash of takes. This scene was just odd and disturbing and brought absolutely nothing to the movie as far as I can tell.
As for special features, there are some deleted scenes and outtakes that are very much better left outside of the movie itself and a behind-the-scenes feature, but nothing that the DVD version doesn't have. In fact, I can't really see a whole lot that the HD DVD version has over the standard definition variety, besides the obvious increase in resolution. I think Psibabe said it best after we watched this movie. "If you loved Superbad, and you loved Napoleon Dynamite , then you might like Hot Rod."
