Road Trip

USA 2000

Reviewed by Keith Perry

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

New York State, the present. On a tour of Ithaca University, visitors are intrigued by a story mature student Barry recounts about long-time couple Josh and Tiffany: Josh, studying at Ithaca, begins to doubt the fidelity of Tiffany, who studied at Austin; he has sex with classmate Beth and videotapes the event. The next day, it emerges the tape has been mistakenly mailed to Tiffany. With friends E. L. and Rubin, Josh heads for Austin in the car of acquaintance Kyle to intercept the package. The car is soon destroyed, but E. L. steals a school bus and the four continue their journey. Fearing a kidnap, Kyle's violent father, Earl, begins a search for his son.

Barry reveals to Beth that Josh has a girlfriend, but then inadvertently directs her to Boston University. Josh retrieves the package in time, but Earl arrives soon after, and there is a ruckus. Tiffany later suggests to Josh that they should see other people. Beth calls for Josh, and while the two are talking, Tiffany views the tape, but Barry has recorded over the sex scene.

Back in the present, Barry reveals to the visitors that Beth and Josh are now together.

Review

In Road Trip, a foursome of male students drive from upstate New York to Texas in order to retrieve a videotape revealing the infidelity of one of their number before it reaches his unsuspecting girlfriend. But it would be wrong to think that the film is a melding of road movie and fraternity comedy. This is merely a youth comedy on wheels; a series of set pieces in the tradition of Animal House (1978), intercut with a car or bus speeding up the freeway. It even ends right back where it started.

Curiously, when applied to the current run of scatological comedies, the law of diminishing returns does not seem to be operating. Debut feature director Todd Phillips has a CV that includes Hated, a documentary about the late excrement-eating punk G. G. Allin, while the film's narrator, Barry, is played by Tom Green - a Canadian comedian known for publicising his testicular cancer on MTV. The presence of either should have pushed the envelope, but nothing here is as outrageous as American Pie, which in turn was less daring than There's Something about Mary. The only boundary all three of these ruinously moral films break is the delicate one of taste. Highlights here include Barry's grandfather complaining about the effects of Viagra after knocking over ornaments with his pyjama-stretching erection, Green letting a real mouse crawl around inside his mouth and the smarmy E. L. chatting up a nurse at a sperm bank, who responds by milking his prostate. Much of this visual comedy is amusing, but the script (by Phillips and Scot Armstrong) should have been whipped into sharper peaks; too many scenes are capped with a bathetic "cool" or "awesome" instead of a punchline. Barry, meanwhile, emerges as someone ruled by heart not head - obsessed both with the true love between guilty fornicator Josh and girlfriend Tiffany, and the mortality of the mice he must feed to a friend's python. Green's delivery is flat, but his comedic tone tends towards wall-eyed surrealism, which douses some of the saturnalian mugging around him.

Of course, the teen-comedy genre has its obligations, like any other. In Road Trip, the frat-house party, girls' shower scene, car trashing and soft-drug banter are all present and correct, as are the personality types: the fascistic dad, the jock, and the pasty masturbator. As is now standard, the central female characters are all sexually responsible and pro-active; depicting them as being driven by their hormones - like the boys - would be a genuine transgression. All of which reinforces the familiarity of the genre's elements and will no doubt contribute to the end of this current cycle.

Credits

Director
Todd Phillips
Producers
Daniel Goldberg
Joe Medjuck
Screenplay
Todd Phillips
Scot Armstrong
Director of Photography
Mark Irwin
Editors
Sheldon Kahn
Peter Teschner
Production Designer
Clark Hunter
Music
Mike Simpson
©DreamWorks LLC
Production Companies
DreamWorks Pictures and The Montecito Picture Company present an Ivan Reitman
production
Executive Producers
Ivan Reitman
Tom Pollock
Associate Producer
Sheldon Kahn
Production Controller
Jim Turner
Production Co-ordinators
Janice F. Sperling
2nd Unit:
Teresa M. Yarbrough
Unit Production Manager
Joe Dishner
Location Managers
Brian Albertsman
2nd Unit:
Brad Smith
Post-production
Executive:
Martin Cohen
Supervisor:
Erica Frauman
Co-ordinator:
Sven E.M. Fahlgren
Assistant Directors
Michael Neumann
Frank Davis
Melanie Grefé
Veronica Hampton
2nd Unit:
Dave Hallinan
Robin Warren
Script Supervisor
Barbara Tuss
Casting
Nancy Nayor
Ann Goulder
Atlanta:
Shay Bentley-Griffin
Voice:
L.A. MadDogs
2nd Unit Director of Photography
Anthony Hardwick
Camera/Steadicam Operator
John Moyer
Talking Dog Effects
Santa Barbara Studios
Special Effects Co-ordinator
Burt Dalton
Special Effects
Don Myers
Dale Ettema
David Fletcher
Paul H. Haines Jr
Art Director
Max Biscoe
Set Decorator
Traci Kirshbaum
Storyboard Artist
Ted Boonthanakit
Costume Designer
Peggy Stamper
Costume Supervisor
Fred Lloyd
Make-up
Department Head:
Harriette Landau
Artist:
Donna Premick
Hair
Key Stylist:
Joani Yarbrough
Stylist:
Phillip Ivey
Title Design
The Picture Mill
Titles/Opticals
Pacific Title
Music Supervisor
Peter Afterman
Executive in Charge of Music
Todd Homme
Music Editor
Roy Prendergast
Soundtrack
"University of Ithaca Alma Mater" - Gordon Henderson & His Midnight Music Makers; "I Got a Girl" - Breckin Meyer; "The Salmon Song" - Tom Green; "Fortune & Fame" - The K.G.B.; "Duet" - Black Eyed Peas; "Early Morning", "Freakin' You" - Jungle Brothers; "I'm Gonna Fall" - Ash; "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" - Eels; "Heart Shaped World" - Jessica Andrews; "Only Worse" - Randy Travis; "Voodoo Lady" - Ween; "Natural High" - Bloodstone; "My Drinking Club" - E40; "It's Tricky" - Run DMC; "Inside My Love" - Minnie Riperton; "e.m.s.p." - Kid Rock, featuring Uncle Kracker; "I Wanna Rock" - Twisted Sister; "I See You Baby (Fatboy Slim U.S. Guitar edit)" - Groove Armada, Gram'ma Funk; "Lovin' Machine" - The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; "Pumping on Your Stereo" - Supergrass; "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" - Buckcherry
Production Sound Mixer
Jonathan 'Earl' Stein
Re-recording Mixers
Gary Bourgeois
Greg Orloff
Recordist
Alison Sanford
Supervising Sound Editor
Cameron Frankley
Dialogue Supervisor
Benjamin Beardwood
Dialogue Editor
Gary Lewis
Sound Effects Editors
Jason Jennings
Kenneth L. Johnson
Bradley C. Katona
ADR
Recordist:
Cary Stratton
Mixer:
Dean Drabin
Supervising Editor:
Jerry Edemann
Editor:
David Melhase
Foley
Supervisor:
Steven D. Williams
Artists:
Catherine Harper
Hilda Hodges
Mixer:
Don Givens
Editor:
Jim Williams
Fashion Consultant
Signe Yberg
Stunt Co-ordinator
Gregg Brazzel
Animals
Boone's Animals For Hollywood
Head Animal Trainer
David Allsberry
Animal Trainers
Shawn Weber
Senia Phillips
2nd Unit Aerial Pilot
Ray McCort
Cast
Breckin Meyer
Josh
Seann William Scott
E.L.
Amy Smart
Beth
Paulo Costanzo
Rubin
DJ Qualls
Kyle Edwards
Rachel Blanchard
Tiffany
Anthony Rapp
Jacob
Fred Ward
Earl Edwards
Tom Green
Barry
Andy Dick
motel clerk
Ethan Suplee
Ed
Horatio Sanz
French toast guy
Rhoda Griffis
tour group Mom
Marla Sucharetza
sperm bank nurse
Ellen Albertini Dow
Barry's grandma
Edmund Lyndeck
Barry's grandpa
Jessica Cauffiel
the wrong Tiffany
Kohl Sudduth
Mark
Wendell B. Harris Jr
Professor Anderson
Rini Bell
Carla
Jaclyn DeSantis
Heather
Aliya Campbell
Wendy
Kim Fox
target clerk
Patricia Gaul
Cookie Edwards
Richie Dye
Duffy
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Blind Brenda
Tim Ware
Officer Bortz
Julia Wright
Joyce
Paula Claire Jones
Stephanie
Richard Peterson
Michael
Phe Caplan
Boston co-ed
Avery Kidd Waddell
Jeff
Omar J. Dorsey
Lawrence
Preston Brant
Chris
Mia Amber Davis
Rhonda
Jimmy Kimmel
Corky the dog
Bethany Sacks
Lisa
Charlie McWade
Brian
Todd Barry
Bill Rowell
campus security
Bill Gribble
bomb squad detective
Guinevere Rodriguez
Al Wiggins
Lisa Chyn
Daniel Taylor
Rachel Marinacci
Bobby Place
Frank Girardeau
Marla Leigh Malcolm
tour group
Matthew Paul Walsh
crime scene photographer
John Ross Bowie
waiter
Cristen Coppen
Kim
Cleo King
woman on bus
Lori Beth Edgeman
Kellie Garrigan
Rada Phlong
Michael Cornier
Frank Cooper
Mark Bez
Andrew Fowler
Paul Simpson
party guests
Raymond DeLoatch
Marc Gordon
Tharon Johnson
Will Aklin
Calvin J. Wilson
Benjamin Booker
steppers
Bridgett Wise
Aerica D'Amaro
Barry's girls
Todd Phillips
foot lover
Deborah Zoe
E.L.'s girlfriend
The K.G.B.
Johnny Genius
Moses
Tom Peyton
Ben Kramer
Eric Tobias
the party band
Certificate
15
Distributor
United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
8,452 feet
93 minutes 55 seconds
Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
In Colour
Prints by
Technicolor
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011