PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema"
DreamWorks' first foray into tasteless teen territory is a bawdy blend of American Pie's horny adolescence (minus the pastry porking) and There's Something About Mary's affinity toward semen-as-a-sight-gag. And in terms of overall entertainment, Road Trip ranks somewhere between its two predecessors – a rare film that is consistently funny with the majority of its jokes hitting the bulls-eye.
Trip is largely told via flashback by Barry (Tom Green, The Tom Green Show), an eighth-year student at the fictitious University of Ithaca. The tour guide for prospective students and their parents, Barry is pressed for details about exciting stories of campus life and eventually begins to tell the tale of one Josh Porter.
Josh (Breckin Meyer, Go) was, Barry explains, an IU student trying to survive a long-distance relationship with his lifelong girlfriend Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard, The Rage: Carrie 2), who is currently attending veterinary school at the University of Austin. Josh's nightmares of Tiffany's potential infidelities, coupled with the fact that she won't return his phone calls, leads the sophomore to a one-night fling with a hot blonde named Beth (Amy Smart, Felicity). A videotape is made and accidentally mailed to Tiffany, who it turns out, wasn't calling Josh back because of a death in the family.
Still wanting to maintain a romantic relationship with Tiffany, Josh decides to hit the road to intercept the tape before his girlfriend gets it. His friends E.L. (Seann William Scott, Final Destination) and Rubin (Paulo Costanzo, in his film debut) con Kyle (DJ Qualls, in his film debut), a nerdy compulsive masturbator with a credit card and a sky-blue Ford Taurus, to provide the wheels for the road trip to Austin.
The trip, of course, is full of wacky teen hijinks, like stealing from the blind, Evil Knievel-style jumps over washed-out bridges and, what is sure to be the equivalent of Pie's pie scene, sperm donation. There are two subplots, one involving Beth's ill-advised journey to Boston (and not Austin) to find Tiffany, and the other entails a jealous teacher's aide (Anthony Rapp, Man of the Century) hell-bent on making Josh miss his Ancient Philosophy midterm.
Oh, and here are some major plot holes – Beth knows Tiffany's last name from seeing it on the videotape's envelope, but doesn't remember that she doesn't go to school in Boston. And for some reason, Josh needs to pull a B-plus on his midterm to pass the class. I guess the final exam doesn't count. Despite it being midterm in upstate New York, there is no snow on the ground.
While some people will insist that Trip could be American Pie 2: The College Years, the film smacks more of a 1998 straight-to-video picture called Overnight Delivery (the only reason I know about Delivery is because Dogma's Kevin Smith was supposed to have done an un-credited rewrite of the script). Save the presence of the Josh and Beth's videotape, it's exactly the same film – very light on script, but full of gags.
Filmed in Georgia, using four different college campuses, Trip was directed, composed and co-written by Todd Phillips, who is probably best known for Frat House, a documentary that won the top prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and was purchased by HBO but never shown on television amid allegations that the antics of the fraternity members – especially regarding brutal pledge hazing – were all staged. Trip was executive-produced by Ivan Reitman and features great cameos by Andy Dick (Inspector Gadget), Horatio Sands (Saturday Night Live) and a very funny voice-over by The Man Show's Jimmy Kimmel.
1:35 - R for strong sexual content, crude humor, language and drug use
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