Road Trip
The greatest college tradition of all time.
A review by Mike Shea Movie Rating: ( * * * · · ) DVD Rating: ( * * * * * )
I never really knew of Tom Green. I heard something about a nut who based a TV show of practical jokes involving his parents and fecal matter, but I hadn't been exposed to his work personally. Tom Green plays the storyteller for our movie today, Road Trip. Road Trip falls into the realm of hard R comedy like Mallrats and American Pie Normally this isn't my style of comedy, but they follow a very important rule. Multi-variate jokes. the Zucher brothers, makers of Airplane and Naked Gun have a rule that the best jokes are the ones that all happen at the same time. Getting the whole audience to laugh at different jokes at the same time is a tough goal, but the director of Road Trip has it down. Just one take where we have a super thin college student sleeping (one joke) with an Atari t-shirt (joke 2) and his hand down his tighty whities (joke 3 and 4). That is four jokes with one camera pan and not a word was spoken. Very well done. The plot line is as thin as a plot line needs to be and still have a reason for girls to take their shirts off. It is a good vehicle for the humor and nothing more. The last major scene of substance is designed to make you scream at the main character, but still has a method to it's madness without being completely idiotic.
The DVD of this movie is definitely very good. It includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack as well as a DTS soundtrack (now a requirement for a five star rating). The picture is a 1.85 to 1 16x9 enhanced transfer with a lot of nice color.
I watched Road Trip with a bunch of my Neanderthal friends from college and it was the perfect setting. I went in expecting crap and what I got was some good laughs if not the subtle humor of a movie like Being John Malcovich or Rushmore. Definitely give this one a go if you are a fan of Porkys, Mallrats or American Pie.