Road Trip

(Todd Phillips, USA, 2000)

Road Trip is a formulaic, vulgar comedy which emulates many aspects of the splendid American Pie (1999).

Josh (Breckin Meyer) drags his friends out on the highway after realising that he has mistakenly posted an incriminating video of himself and the eager Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) to his interstate girlfriend, Beth (Amy Smart).

In between boring montages of the boys' bus hurtling through the landscape, we are treated to the usual doses of outrageous humour involving grotesque, sidelong characters who are variously old, obese or blind. In a half-hearted attempt to even up the gender representation, Tiffany has her own little subplot along a different highway.

Director and co-writer Todd Phillips hails from the independent music and documentary scene, but one would hardly know this from Road Trip. He enlivens proceedings from time to time with odd obsessions – boners in underpants are especially featured – and running gags about a narrator, Barry (Tom Green), who retells this entire tale in (as the narratologists say) highly unreliable terms.

MORE Phillips: Old School

© Adrian Martin August 2000