Poor Cuba Gooding Jr. After his surprising and deserving Oscar win in JERRY MAGUIRE, his career has gone absolutely nowhere. There are plenty of really bad actors whom you might wish had his problems, but he is a likable and capable actor even if he doesn't perform at quite the same level as most other Academy Award winners.

In Mort Nathan's BOAT TRIP, Gooding plays Jerry, a straight guy stuck on a gay cruise. The boat also has a dozen Swedish blonde bombshells on board. Their purpose is solely for silly visuals and some cheesy moments, but the pathetic plot has them on their way to a suntanning competition in Hawaii.

Jerry has eyes for Gabriela (Roselyn Sanchez), the gay guys' dance instructor. She figures Jerry must be gay as well, so he acts as if his buddy Nick (Horatio Sanz) is his homosexual partner. Jerry sees this gay ruse as a way to hit it off with Gabriela. It is a complicated and clich‚d plot of mistaken identities that has been done a hundred times before and almost always better than BOAT TRIP.

About the only possible way to enjoy this comedy sans laughs is to think of it as a music video. Watching the Swedish women exercise is rather like watching an MTV spoof of a Playboy video moment.

"I'm desperate!" Gooding's character confesses to Nick. Actually it is Gooding who is desperate. He is desperate for a decent script and a shot at a real character again.

BOAT TRIP runs too long at 1:33. It is rated PG-13 for "strong sexual content, language and some drug material" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.