Road Trip
rated R 91 minutes Dreamworks Distribution starring Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, DJ Qualls, Paulo Costanzo, and Tom Green written by Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong directed by Todd Phillips
A Review by Frankie Paiva
In some of my recent reviews I have talked about the expected audiences for movies. If examples like this would happen more often, I would easily be able to write an essay on the subject, my thesis would be that the movie is the audience. Likewise, the audience is the movie. During the press screening of Road Trip that I attended, a local radio station had also given away several tickets to that show. DJs from the station proceeded to throw everything from gum, Frisbees, Cds, posters, keychains, and yes, even condoms at us from the front and the back of the theater, before and after the movie. This gave me a strong impression of the movie before it even began. The sexually charged film is a masterpiece for its frat boy audience. The audience indeed laughed their heads off. I admit that most of the time I was laughing along with them. The talking dog, the grandpa who uses Viagra, and the talking penis. All at the time were very funny. However, Road Trip is one of those comedies that, in retrospect, you can't think of why you laughed it at all. It does a great job of keeping us interested in the rebellious actions and anarchism happening on screen; but just hours later, all I had left was an empty feeling. Maybe it's because it isn't really summer yet. Perhaps I'm still expecting some artistic value in a movie. However, it could be that the characters are just as hollow as my feeling of the movie was.
Josh Porter (Meyer, who starred in the excellent teen movie Dancer, Texas Pop. 81) is in a long distance relationship with Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard). He goes to Ithaca in New York and she does to the University of Austin. One night, Josh has sex with Beth (Amy Smart) who insists on filming themselves while they make love. Somehow, the tape of the two's rendezvous gets mailed to Tiffany, so Josh and three of his buddies must drive to Austin and intercept the tape before it reaches Tiffany’s eyes. This is a setup for the usual R-rated teenage movie fodder that includes the essential elements like drug use, explosions, and virginity shattering sex. Each of the four main characters is supposedly different, we get traits to associate them with, but they are really just the same horny college guy. Thus, we get left with the female characters to watch. One of which is an idiot (Tiffany), while the other (Beth), begins to doubt her expectations of a relationship from her night of sexual passion. On a bus, she asks the woman next to her if there is any hope for a solid relationship in the world. Yes, the woman replies. She also adds that it comes with batteries.
With so many indistinguishable characters, where does the film find it's real comedy? The answer is also the casting director's greatest triumph; the triumph is Tom Green. Green, who has become well known as the gross-out king on his show that currently airs on MTV, breathes some much needed life into this movie. He does not participate in the road trip, but does have some fun with a friend's snake whom he tries, unsuccessfully, to force feed a mouse. He tells the snake to, "Unleash the fury" with no avail and his unpredictable and annoying actions (the reasons I never watch his show) are right at home in this movie. Seann William Scott (who also starred in the similarly themed, but far superior American Pie) proves once again (as if Final Destination wasn't enough) that there isn't a good acting bone in his body. Meyer and Smart have both been in better movies, and the rest of the cast is relatively unknown. The thing I found most disappointing about Road Trip though, was its conclusion. There wasn't really a climax to any of the events of the previous 85 minutes. The only climaxes occurring in this movie came from the genitalia of the characters. At least five different female’s breasts and a scene of brief full frontal nudity later, I could tell the film succeeded with its intended crowd. The shopping complex I attended the screening at was closed that evening because they were hosting the after movie party for the opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival. Something interesting happened while I was paying for parking. A young couple, both wearing a wardrobe consisting of entirely genuine, all black leather, were talking about the artistic meaning of the movie they just attended in front of me. In the line next to me, a fortyish man with a large beer gut was partying with teenagers half his age as they passed around the condoms, Road Trip posters, and radio station bumper stickers distributed earlier. I was in no way drawn to this movie, but as I looked at the couple in front of me again, and then back to the adolescents, I couldn't help but smile.
C
Frankie Paiva SwpStke@aol.com http://www.homestead.com/cinemaparadise/mainpage.html
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