Movie Gazette

It’s a good job ‘Road Trip’ was always a half-decent flick in the first place, otherwise I might have felt ever-so-slightly let down by this supposedly “Unseen and Explicit” DVD edition. After all, it might feature a scantily-clad young pretty on the cover and carry the tagline “what you didn’t see at the cinema”, but let’s not beat around the bush here: this version is actually only one minute longer than the original theatrical release. ONE MINUTE! And, while I’m on a bit of a rant, I might as well also point out that it’s nowhere near as raunchy as its marketing peeps seem so desperate to have us all believe. In fact, deep down this is a fairly warm-hearted – even verging on nice – little comedy. But I suppose “Slightly nicer edition” just wouldn’t have been much to brag about on the outside of the box. What a topsy-turvy world it is that we live in, eh folks?

I could moan all day about how misleading all of these not-very-special “special editions” are, but I suppose I better get on with reviewing the movie. It’s about Josh (Breckin Meyer), a college student who – for practically the first time in his life – ends up separated from childhood sweetheart Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) – when he goes to study in New York while she heads for Texas. Of course, the affections of campus hottie Beth (Amy Smart) help to soften the blow, but what seems like a harmless little fling soon backfires when a video showing the pair of them nookying ends up winging its way to poor ol’ Tiffany. Josh’s only hope of salvaging things? To cram into a car with three of his classmates (Seann William Scott, Paulo Costanzo and DJ Qualls) and attempt to make it all the way to Texas before the post. A race against time indeed (provided you’re prepared to suspend your belief just a little and accept that the US postal service is implausibly fast, that is).

Okay, so writers Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong have had to dream up a ridiculously contrived scenario in order to get things going, and the whole thing is really just an excuse to place four blokes in a series of sketch-like scrapes – but it really would be a miserable old world if we couldn’t all appreciate such mindless giggles from time-to-time. None of it is rocket science, but Phillips has a knack for directing comedy (he would later go on to helm 2004’s fun ‘Starsky & Hutch’) and the cast are all game for a laugh (most notably Tom Green, who pops up just often enough to plunge an entire mouse into his gob, swing a giant snake around a room, and indulge in some inter-generational snogging). Green’s on form here, and he’s by no means the only one.