Current Cinema; Road Trip

Directed by Todd Phillips; starring Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, D.J. Qualls and Tom Green. Directed by Todd Phillips, Road Trip has been touted as the gross-out film of the summer.Directed by Todd Phillips; starring Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, D.J. Qualls and Tom Green. Directed by Todd Phillips, Road Trip has been touted as the gross-out film of the summer. Unfortunately, unlike last year’s sleeper hit American Pie, Road Trip offers little more than your basic hard-on, mouse-eating, sex with a fat chick fare. Nonetheless, the movie is silly and funny and certainly better than its other precursors like Porky’s or Porky’s Revenge. Framed by the narration of MTV’s Canadian darling Tom Green, Road Trip begins when Josh (Breckin Meyer), a University of Ithaca student, hooks up with Beth, a sassy coed played by it girl Amy Smart. A videotape of their intimate encounter is mistakenly sent to Josh’s longtime, long-distance girlfriend Tiffany, who is a student at the University of Texas. Along with three friends – E.L. (Sean William Scott), Rubin (Paulo Costanzo) and Kyle (D.J. Qualls) – Josh travels to Austin to retrieve the tape. Needless to say, Road Trip chronicles their road trip and includes adventures like crashing a black fraternity party at the University of Tennessee, an evening spent in the company of an eccentric pot-smoking grandfather, and a brief stop at a sperm bank. Replete with standard gross-outs (don’t worry, I won’t give it away) there is nothing particularly original about Road Trip. In fact, true teen flick fans might even be reminded of Jason Bloom’s 1996 movie Overnight Delivery starring Paul Rudd and Reese Witherspoon. Like Road Trip, in Overnight Delivery Rudd mistakenly sends a revealing photograph of himself with Witherspoon to his longtime, long-distance girlfriend and then road trips to retrieve it. Fortunately for the makers of Road Trip, Overnight Delivery was a disaster and nobody, except for me, has seen it let alone heard of it. Despite the recycled plot, however, Road Trip is worth seeing. The gaggle of young actors delivers decent performances and the writing is fresh and snappy. Sean William Scott, who also appeared in American Pie, has clearly found his niche in summer gross-out movies, and Paulo Costanzo is perfect as the smarty-pants stoner. If they are anything like my friends, males between the ages of 15 and 35 will undoubtedly high five each other when Amy Smart removes her bra to reveal a stunning pair of pert and perky breasts. And even the elusive Tom Green is amusing, proving that his base brand of humor can succeed on the big screen. (The sophisticated side of me has struggled to resist Green’s humor – but the man is funny.) So if you don’t expect anything as original as Election or as witty as Clueless, you just might enjoy the 88-minute mindless movie that is Road Trip. – JoAnne Steglitz