Road Trip

Written by: Phillips & Scot Armstrong Starring: Tom Green, Seann William Scott, Breckin Meyer, DJ Qualls, Amy Smart, Rachel Blanchard, Fred Ward, Andy Dick

Lest anyone worry that the puerile teen sex comedy is passé, here comes “Road Trip” to allay your fears. The moguls are still well aware that there are worse ways to make a buck than to put a group of attractive young stars through a series of sexy or gross escapades played for laughs. That is not to say it is easy to pull this off; as with all genres, there are good and bad examples. Buoyed by sharp script and nice pacing, “Road Trip” is a good example. (And a wake-up call for those who have accused me of being a film elitist--I liked this picture, pretty much ruling out any elitism. Not that I am defensive about it or anything.) I would go so far as to say that the picture actually has as much in common with classic “road” pictures of the past as it does with “Porky’s.” As is so often the case, the script is the reason this picture works. Philips and Armstrong set up a simple yet strong narrative line to follow, so the picture is more than just a random series of unrelated gags.

A home-made sex tape has been accidentally sent to Josh’s girlfriend in Austin, so he and three friends must make the trip from fictional Ithaca College to Austin to intercept it. Naturally, they have a series of miscues and adventures. Pretty straightforward, but it works. Adding another layer, the story of the trip is being told by Barry (a weirdly funny Tom Green) to a group of prospective Ithaca students whom he is leading on a tour. Of course, he is telling it to the movie audience at the same time. The construct immediately sets up the tale as a campus legend, so we don’t have to worry too much about what is fact and what is embellishment. Phillips directs the picture with a terrific sense of timing; he keeps things moving, so no individual scene wears out its welcome (something Ridley Scott should have thought about in the drudgerous “Gladiator.”) The gags come at us fast and furious, but the picture is shot cleanly, so we never lose track of what is going on. He handles switching between the trip itself and Barry’s retelling of it with aplomb, something that could easily have become a confusing muddle.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not “art.” The picture never passes up an opportunity to show topless girls or make jokes about bodily functions. (Though, in a curious way, it seems slightly--and I do mean slightly--less outrageous that last year’s pinnacle of teen comedy “American Pie,” almost as if the filmmakers were restraining themselves ever so slightly.) But almost all the gags work, and the picture never loses its cheerful spirit. The sequence in which the boys crash at an all-Black fraternity is a minor classic (even more so that the by-now-overexposed bits with Barry and the mouse); it is a whole little story in itself. The four traveling buddies are well cast, with Meyer as nice guy Josh (naturally the least interesting of the group). Scott (who also appeared in “American Pie”) is hilarious as E.L., the wild man of the group. His is one of those types who leads a charmed life; he never worries about anything, does whatever he wants, and somehow even the worst turn of events works out in his favor. He is the kind of friend we all want to have; charming but disreputable, he acts out our fantasies and does the things we wish we had the nerve to do. In a way, you could say that the nifty “Road Trip” is the E.L. of movies--anything but respectable, but fun to be around. (5/21/2000)