Road Trip: Unrated Version

Details

At the sleepy University of Ithaca, student Josh Parker is missing his long-term girlfriend Tiffany, who is studying almost two thousand miles away in Austin, Texas. Naturally, maintaining a long-distance relationship isn't easy and, after numerous telephone calls and video messages go unanswered, Josh begins to suspect that Tiffany may have found somebody else.

Meanwhile, Josh has become increasingly attracted to fellow student Beth and, believing his relationship with Tiffany to be effectively over, finally gives in to temptation. One evening the pair end up together and, during their rather passionate encounter, Beth records their antics on Josh's video camera. Unfortunately, a mix-up the following morning results in one of Josh's friends accidentally mailing the wrong videotape to Tiffany.

Realising exactly what his girlfriend is about to receive in the post, Josh has only a few days to travel from New York to Texas and intercept the package before it reaches her. With flying out of the question, he recruits his friends E.L. and Rubin for an emergency road trip, along with the rather sheltered Kyle, who conveniently happens to own a car - even if his extremely protective father doesn't particularly want him using it.

Naturally, things don't exactly go according to plan. Cars are destroyed, buses are commandeered, shortcuts prove rather less successful than expected and the four friends encounter an increasingly bizarre collection of people as they desperately race towards Austin. There's also an incident involving some French toast which will probably stop you complaining about anything in a restaurant ever again!

Picture & Sound

The picture is bright and colourful with an above-average bit-rate throughout the film. It does suffer from a fair amount of picture noise at times, although this appears to be more noticeable during the earlier parts of the film. Fortunately, the image settles down and print damage and other imperfections are kept to a minimum. Overall, it's a pleasing transfer with good detail and suitably vibrant colours.

Once again, to DreamWorks' credit, they've managed to squeeze both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks onto the disc. However, given the nature of the film it's difficult to recommend one over the other. Dialogue is clearly positioned in the centre channel, but the surrounds are surprisingly quiet for much of the running time. There are occasional bursts of rear-channel activity and some LFE, although these tend to accompany the energetic musical soundtrack rather than anything happening on screen.

Menu & Extras

The extras are interesting enough, with a selection of Deleted Scenes and the amusing, if rather brief, Ever Been on a Road Trip? featurette presented by Tom Green. There's also the Eels music video for Mr. E's Beautiful Blues, along with production notes, cast and crew biographies and some DVD-ROM material.

Despite the prominent Unrated Version label, don't go expecting a radically different film. The most noticeable additions amount to a little extra nudity which presumably would have caused problems with the theatrical rating. It's hardly a director's cut, although I doubt that anyone buying Road Trip is going to complain about the extra material.

Overall

If you liked American Pie and There's Something About Mary, then you should definitely consider purchasing this film. Road Trip occupies exactly the same territory, mixing gross-out humour, sex, bodily functions and a surprisingly likeable collection of characters into ninety minutes of thoroughly undemanding entertainment.

The road-trip format works particularly well because it gives the film an excuse to throw one ridiculous situation after another at its characters. There's barely time for one disaster to finish before the next begins and, although some of the jokes inevitably work better than others, enough of them hit the target to keep things moving at a suitably frantic pace.

Seann William Scott is perfectly at home as the sex-obsessed E.L. and anyone who enjoyed his performance as Stifler in American Pie will know roughly what to expect. Breckin Meyer provides a suitably likeable centre to the madness, whilst Paulo Costanzo's permanently worried Rubin and DJ Qualls' painfully sheltered Kyle complete an entertaining quartet. Amy Smart and Rachel Blanchard provide the romantic complications, although it's the four travellers who generate most of the laughs.

Then there's Tom Green. His Barry barely has anything to do with the road trip itself and spends most of his time tormenting a snake and looking after Rubin's unfortunate mouse, but his increasingly bizarre interruptions provide some of the film's strangest moments. Whether you'll find him hilarious or simply annoying will probably depend entirely on your tolerance for Tom Green.

There's nothing particularly clever going on here and anyone offended by crude humour would be well advised to stay clear. However, that's rather missing the point. Road Trip knows exactly what sort of film it wants to be and makes absolutely no apologies for it. The jokes are crude, the situations increasingly ridiculous and the whole thing rattles along without giving you much opportunity to think about how unlikely any of it actually is.

It may not quite reach the heights of American Pie, but as a slice of turn-of-the-century student comedy it's enormously entertaining and contains more than enough memorable moments to warrant repeat viewings. Add a good transfer, both Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks and a reasonable collection of extras and this Unrated Region 1 disc is easy to recommend. Just don't order the French toast.

Special features

• Deleted Scenes
• "Ever Been on a Road Trip?" Behind-the-scenes Featurette
• Eels Music Video "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues"
• Cast and Crew Bios
• Production Notes
• DVD-ROM Enhanced