“Hot Dog… The Movie” is a sports comedy and pretty much the skiing equivalent of “Caddyshack”. It’s full of clichés, nudity and is very much in the same style as films such as “Animal House”, “Teen Wolf” and “Police Academy”.

In this highly goofy comedy, a young skier by the name of Harkin (Patrick Houser) is off to compete at the international level where he’s greeted by party animals and incredibly aggressive German skier, who currently holds the title. In-between the alcohol and sex-fuelled parties, Harkin must master his skiing skills to win the day and wipe the smile off the face of the arrogant competition.

The acting is pretty terrible here. There are no big stars in “Hot Dog… The Movie” so where comedies of a similar brand of humour such as “Stripes” and “Caddyshack” could rely on strong performances from famous faces, this film cannot. It’s not essential for the acting to be good in a film like this but the characters should at least be funny but unfortunately they’re not. I can’t really think of any that made me laugh; maybe that’s because they don’t really do a lot that would make you laugh. At least the rival skier makes for the sort-of rival you always get in sports films.

The film has some terrific skiing sequences and while it manages to avoid becoming as painful as the “Police Academy” films, it fails to capture what made films such as “Animal House” and “Caddyshack” so darn amusing. Also, I was a little disappointed that there was no montage, all the big sports movies such as “Rocky” and “The Karate Kid” have montages but “Hot Dog… The Movie” misses its chance to tick off arguably the most famous of clichés from its checklist. If you like skiing or really like comedies like the ones I’ve mentioned, you should check this picture out but otherwise I’d just stick with something else.