Following the death of his mother, Fred P. Chaney (Bobcat Goldthwait) is willed a horse and half a brokerage firm with the other half controlled by Fred's unfaithful stepfather Walter Sawyer (Dabney Coleman). Kicked out of the house by Walter and his mistress, Fred heads to the stable to clear his head and discovers the horse willed to him, named Don (voiced by John Candy), can talk. Initially freaked out by this development, Fred reassess the situation when Don gives him a winning stock tip making Fred an overnight success. But as Fred's success grows, so too does Walter's desire to take down Fred.
Released in 1988, Hot to Trot credited to sitcom writer Stephen Neigher, one time writer Hugo Gilbert, and writer of mediocre comedies Charlie Peters of Paternity and Blame it on Rio, had been in stalled development at Warner Bros. Since at least the mid-80s. After his directorial success of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Warner Bros. Attempted to offer the film as a directing vehicle for Tim Burton who turned down the offer in favor of Beetlejuice. The movie was then rewritten as a vehicle for Joan Rivers as the lead before Rivers dropped out and the role was changed back to male with Bobcat Goldthwait taking the lead. The movie was beset by bad test screenings with Elliot Gould, the original voice of Don the Talking Horse, dropped from the movie and recast with John Candy and uncredited re-writes by future creator of TV series Monk Andy Breckman in the hopes the film could be made funnier, with Candy often ignoring the script and going for improvisation. The movie was released in the late August dumping ground of 1988 where it opened at number 10 and was pulled from theaters after a two week run making $6 million against its $9 million budget. While the movie was nominated for worst picture at the Golden Raspberry Awards it lost to Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail. While Cocktail may not be a good movie, Cocktail at least IS a movie unlike Hot to Trot which is 80 minutes of annoyance and stupidty that's held together with duct tape and hope.
Even if we were to pretend for a minute that the novelty of talking equine hadn't been long run into the ground with 6 seasons of Mr. Ed and 7 installments of the film series Francis the Talking Mule, the movie has the very obvious problem of positioning Bobcat Goldthwait as its lead. Just so there's no confusion, I think Goldthwait CAN be funny, his supporting work in Scrooged was quite good and he's shown himself to be a capable writer/director with works like World's Greatest Dad or God Bless America, but Golthwait works only in a supporting or creative capacity. Goldthwait is incredibly obnoxious in this anorexically thin movie and has been directed to yell and scream at the top of his lungs every other scene with overly zippy music often accompanied by "zany" cartoon sound effects. But it's not like Goldthwait is the only poor performer here, the usually reliable John Candy gives an incredibly obnoxious vocal performance as the voice of Don the Talking Horse and poor Dabney Coleman wears exaggerated glasses and a uncomfortable looking mouthpiece that's frankly embarrassing to look at. The script is absolutely abysmal with the joke's not even coming to the level of a TV sitcom let alone a movie and there's clear signs that the movie has been hacked to pieces in a vain attempt to salvage something from it, but this was a foregone conclusion that no amount of editing could save unless you chucked the whole thing in the trash and called it a day.
Hot to Trot is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's a movie that's equal parts stupid and obnoxious and only serves as an endurance test for how much you're able to tolerate brazen stupidity and contempt for the audience masquerading as entertainment. Why producers thought this would be a viable concept is baffling beyond belief.
