Road Trip
Stretching
the Gross-Out Envelope
Grade:
C
Warning: If you are easily offended, not only should you not see this movie, you should not read this review.
Aimed squarely at college-age males, Road Trip hits below the belt with a can-you-top-this barrage of raunchy, outrageous hijinks. 29-year-old director Todd Philips spurs a cast headed by rubber-faced MTV guerrilla comic Tom Green into antics that range from merely in bad taste to stomach-turning. Oh, and toss in a few topless coeds—that’s never in bad taste, is it?.
Green,
who combines the child-in-a-man’s-body shtick of David Arquette with a
maniacal bizarreness that’s all his own, plays Barry, a tour guide for
potential students at Ithaca College. The story unfolds in flashback, as Barry livens up a boring
tour with the story of Josh (Breckin Meyer, of Clueless and Go),
who parts ways with his sweetheart since childhood, Tiffany (Rachel
Blanchard); Josh comes to Ithaca, while Tiffany heads off to veterinary school
in Austin, Texas.
The
couple swear to be faithful to each other, but sweet seductress Beth (Amy
Smart, who played a more demure role in Outside Providence) has designs
on Josh. Unable to reach Tiffany
by phone, Josh figures she’s blowing him off and surrenders to Beth, who
uninhibitedly captures the action on videotape.
Director Philips says Amy’s bare-breasted turn is an homage to Phoebe
Cates’ swimming-pool exposure in the high-school classic Fast Times At
Ridgemont High. You wish Road
Trip was in that league, Todd. (Whatever
became of the beguiling Ms. Cates, anyway?)
Through a predictable mixup, the videotape is mailed to Tiffany in place of another tape on which Josh sings yearning folksongs and declares how much he misses her. Josh can’t afford a plane ticket, so he grabs some bud, some buddies--mischievious E.L. (Seann William Scott, of American Pie), philosophical pothead Rubin (Paulo Costanzo), and gawky nerd Kyle (D.J. Qualls)--and—road trip!
That’s the setup. Further explication of the plot would serve no purpose, as the ensuing events bear no cognizable relation to reality. Suffice to recount a few of the misadventures the characters encounter: a bridge-jumping episode that causes the group’s car to spontaneously explode; commandeering a bus from a school for blind students; a waiter who transports French toast by putting it down his pants; Kyle losing his virginity in an African-American frat house at the hands of an overweight sista; a priapic grandfather who’s overdosed on Viagra and walks around knocking things over; a stoned dog that talks, demanding blueberry pancakes; and the piece de resistance, a visit to a sperm bank, where a helpful nurse introduces E.L. to the joys of “milking the prostate gland”--an anally-stimulated orgasm. The smirking E.L. pronounces it “Awesome!” There must be Farrelly brother or two lurking somewhere behind this movie.
Ahem. Needless to say, Barry’s tour audience is won over by this tale; indeed, the mother of one potential matriculator ends up sprawled out with Barry on the lawn, where Barry appears to be trying swallow the woman whole. Earlier in the movie, Barry puts a live mouse in his mouth. What’s up with that?
Road Trip has its moments of guilty pleasure, but it’s also utterly nonsensical. Don’t believe the quote whores who called it this year’s There’s Something About Mary. It’s not even this year’s American Pie. Make your own choice about whether to see it or not. You’ve been warned.
Directed by Todd Philips. Written
by Philips and Scot Armstrong.
Rated R. Running time: 91minutes.