"Road Trip" - Let's Go! by Homer Yen (c) 2000
"Road Trip," a tale about four underachieving college students who embark on a hastily planned journey, is a 4-lane highway of laughter and is one of the funniest movies in recent memory. Convince your friend to drive you, steal a bus from a school for the blind, or walk through the backwoods as fast as you can. Whatever mode of transportation you choose, make your final destination this hilarious new comedy.
The tone is effectively set up within the first five minutes of the film as we join up with Barry (Tom Green), a career Senior at Ithaca University, who is in the midst of giving a tour to a group of prospective incoming freshman. Barry is a bag of mixed emotions composed of 3 parts lethargy and 1 part morbid curiosity. During the tour, he rambles about Ithaca's history and points out, for example, that its library was built in the 1600s. A flustered tour participant points to an ornamental plaque by the library's entrance and retorts that the building was actually built in 1951. "No," he says after some self-deliberation. "That's the address."
As part of the tour, he relays the story of long-distance couple Josh (Breckin Meyer) and Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard). He attends Ithaca while she attends a university in Austin ("That's in Massachusetts," says the likable but dimwitted Barry).
Josh worries about the pact that they made to stay close. To show his commitment, he prepares a videotaped message professing his undying love. His sexually adventurous friend, E.L. (Sean William Scott) tries to explain to him that holding out for a long-distance love could be the greatest folly of his life. He imparts, "the window of opportunity to drink, do drugs and get with girls is getting smaller with each passing day. Before you know it, you'll be 40 and you'll have to pay for these kinds of girls."
Josh is unfazed, but after a wild party hosted by E.L., he winds up with college hottie Beth (Amy Smart) and subsequently videotapes his act of infidelity. Guess which videotape gets mistakenly sent to girlfriend Beth? Aghast, Josh has only a matter of days to travel to Austin to intercept the tape and then to get back in order to take a critical final test. In a matter of days, he could lose his girlfriend AND get expelled from school.
E.L. exuberantly yells, "all right, road trip!" Along for the ride is levelheaded, pot smoking Rubin(Paulo Costanzo) and the meek and thin-as-a-pin Kyle (DJ Qualls) who is invited because he's the only one with a car and a credit card. Without giving notice, the four hurriedly leave. This infuriates Beth who, thanks to Barry's command of American geography, boards a bus to the University of Massachusetts to find Josh. Barry, meanwhile, uses their absence to fulfill his dream of feeding Rubin's pet boa constrictor. And Kyle's ill-tempered father (Fred Ward), who could easily make the National Rifle Association jittery, thinks that his son has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, the four Austin-bound students experience their own share of setbacks and bizarre encounters. In its funniest segment, the group tries to pass themselves off as brothers of an all-black fraternity. A great road trip isn't about where you wind up, but what happens on the way there. These guys will experience the trip of their lives.
"Road Trip" is this summer's most refreshing alternative. But it will appeal most to the under 35 crowd. It's a crisp, straightforward comedy. It's not ribald (i.e. "There's Something About Mary") nor is it a lampoon ("Naked Gun"). It's more like 'guerilla comedy' where the jokes just seem to come out of nowhere and then latch onto you until you laugh. The humor is relentless, the pace is lively, and you'll come out of it grinning from ear to ear.
Grade: A-
S: 2 out of 3 L: 2 out of 3 V: 1 out of 3
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