ROAD TRIP A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Comedy is hard, which is why most scripts stick to gross-out jokes and easy slapstick. Every once and a while a truly gifted filmmaker comes up with just the right formula that takes the genre up a level with the brightness of a script that keeps hitting its comedic mark. ROAD TRIP's writer/director Todd Phillips does this with a movie that is at the level of ANIMAL HOUSE and THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. The good-spirited laughs come so hard and fast that you'll miss many of the lines as the audience's laughter will drown them out. Like these two classics, ROAD TRIP doesn't pull any punches. A tremendously energetic and fun film, it's a real crowd pleaser that is more than humorous. It's also erotic, smart and wild.
Josh (Breckin Meyer) and Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) have been together since they were toddlers, but, now off to separate colleges half the country apart, they've vowed not to cheat on each other. Through one indiscretion -- okay, it was three but over a single night -- Josh ended up having sex with fellow student Beth (Amy Smart). This would not have been so bad if the tape they made of their evening's sexual escapades hadn't been accidentally mailed to Tiffany. Lacking the funds for a plane ticket, Josh and his buddies leave the University of Ithaca to head for Tiffany's school in Austin. They want to intercept the tape before she opens it. This sets up the body of the movie, which concerns their road trip getting there. Needless to say, they'll hit a few speed bumps along the way.
The story is told in flashback by Josh's crazy friend Barry (Tom Green). Barry tells the story to a group of enthralled potential students and their parents, who are visiting Ithaca. This subplot alone is worth the price of admission. Once, when he has all of the girls in his story having a conversation topless, he is interrupted by a party pooper who points out that girls don't actually do this. Barry tells the complainer to shut up and that he will tell the story however he wants.
Along in the car with Josh are a Jim Belushi-type character, E.L. (Seann William Scott from AMERICAN PIE), a scrawny, nerdish virgin, Kyle (DJ Qualls), and a brainiac, Rubin (Paulo Costanzo). Deciding to go with their buddy is easy, except for Kyle who is scared of everything and everyone, especially his domineering father, played by veteran actor Fred Ward. As E.L. puts it, "What am I going to do, stay here and learn?"
E.L. and Rubin try to explain to Josh that he doesn't need to worry since he didn't really cheat on Tiffany in the first place. This is because of "The Rules." These include: "It's not cheating if you're in a different area code." and "It's not cheating if you're too wasted to remember it, because if you can't remember it, it never really took place." Others include the effect of having sex with two girls simultaneous since they cancel out each other.
Besides the hilarious dialog, the movie uses physical comedy to maximum effect. There is one sex scene that rivals the zipper and the hair gel incidents in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. Another one concerns some old-fashioned car hijinks, as the boys try to jump over this little 10 foot gap in the road with Kyle's father's car. Another one still has a plump woman offering to give a used vibrator to Beth, who has her own little road trip in yet another wonderful subplot. Even the predictable episodes, as when Kyle loses his virginity, are staged freshly and sweetly.
The movie flies by with such tremendous energy that it's over before you know it. Perhaps the highest compliment that I could pay it is to point out that it was one of the few pictures that I've seen in recent memory that I would have loved to have been a half hour longer.
I really enjoyed my road trip with these lovable kids, and I think you will, too. It makes you downright nostalgic for a time that never was. Now if I can just find out how to enroll in good old U of I. Or at least go to hear Barry's talk to prospective students and their parents. The closing credits claimed that the story was fictional, but I'm not buying it. They just want to save all the fun for themselves. Check it out: the director's entire career has been in making documentaries. This one was probably just another.
ROAD TRIP runs 1:31. It is rated R for strong sexual content, crude humor, language and drug use and would be acceptable for high school seniors and older.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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