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