The Massive Comedy Flop That Almost Ruined Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Career – Looper

Very few people can say that they’ve seen the 2002 movie “Boat Trip,” much less that they saw it and liked it, and that’s probably for the best. The comedy movie stars Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sanz as two men looking for love on a singles cruise. But after they piss off their gay travel agent, they are booked on a gay singles cruise without their knowledge and must work around the situation to date women.

As you might’ve guessed, the movie was blasted by critics for being extremely offensive and homophobic. The movie has a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Marrit Ingman wrote for the Austin Chronicle that “There are bad movies, and there’s ‘Boat Trip,’ a puerile comedy so appalling and unfunny, it’s like contracting the Norwalk virus at sea. Twice.” Even Chris Rock took a direct jab at Gooding Jr. at the 2005 Oscars, saying, “You ever see an actor in a movie that’s so bad, you question the actor’s finances? I saw this movie ‘Boat Trip’ and I immediately sent Cuba Gooding Jr. a check for $80” (USA Today). The movie also failed at the box office, making only $15 million (via Box Office Mojo).

After this, Gooding Jr. spent years doing mediocre films until he seemed to realize that he was great at playing real people in biopics, or at least that’s what the trend of his career shows. He starred in “Gifted: The Ben Carson Story” in 2009 and won an Image Award, later portraying civil rights attorney Fred Gray in “Selma” (IMDb). Luckily, Gooding Jr. seems to be back at the top of his game, and fans can’t wait to see what performances he has in store for the future.