I admit it; I laughed at "American Pie". I laughed at the recognition of the humiliation the characters put themselves through, the exaggeration of the basic, over-the-top approach teenagers can take when they deal with the topic of sex. I laughed even at scenes that I found disgusting, perhaps because they did what Mel Brooks always claimed his movies did, when he sniffed "They rise below vulgarity". Yes, indeed I laughed, because the material isn't what counts as much as how it's presented.
**(Mild spoilers ahead:)** "Road Trip" also made me laugh. I laughed at scenes involving a snake and Tom Green, a manic, flaked-out guy who tried desperately to get the snake to eat a mouse so that it can experience "what it is to be at the lowest rung of nature". I laughed at how this scene played out, and chucked lightly at the way he handles a campus tour after explaining that he has been attending this college, Ithaca University in New York state, for 8 years. He knows it better than anyone, but still claims the library was built in "the 1600's" even though the cornerstone plainly reads 1951.
I also laughed at other scenes, involving the doomed trip of a Ford Taurus and the way the characters have a sort of natural, unforced way of talking that still seemed funny. I did not laugh at much of the movie, which at times seems lost in a wasteland of strange characters, weird situations, and really gross ideas that didn't seem to fit with it's overall tone. I will say that it will be a while before I will eat French toast again, and that a scene with a talking dog is too creepy to be truly funny.
The movie's plot is set in motion by a videotape made by Josh (Breckin Meyer) with a girl he met at a campus party, Beth (Amy Smart) as they have sex. He sleeps with her because he thinks his longtime girlfriend, Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) is blowing him off by not returning his messages, but in reality her grandfather passed away, and she was staying at her mother's house. He discovers this after the horror of realizing his tape of him and Beth was mailed to Tiffany in a mixup. He has three days to reach Austin, Texas, where Tiffany is attending college, to get the tape back before she gets it. This is really just a setup for a road movie and a clothesline on which to hang all the gags.
I guess I got what I paid for. The movie doesn't aspire to be any more than this year's gross-out flick, a tradition started by the Farrelly brothers in "There's Something About Mary". I liked that movie a lot, because it had the bravery to go for broke, and had a sunny disposition that allowed the characters to wade through it's mire of grossness cheerfully. "Road Trip" is too aware of itself, too dependent of disgusting sight gags to be considered really original. By the time a character waggles his bare butt in front of a video camera, I was marvelling at how creatively bankrupt the screenplay was.
The movie isn't all bad, it just doesn't try very hard to be good. It doesn't rise below vulgarity, it remains firmly mired in it. Gross gags can be very funny, if presented in a way that focuses on the irony, rather than how disgusting it is. The beer scene in "Pie" was funny even though I gag just thinking about it, because the characters' reaction was funny. In "Road Trip" the gags come by themselves, mainly; the characters are largely unaware of how nasty a situation they've gotten themselves into. It's not how disgusting it is that makes a scene funny, it's how it affects the characters. Without that payoff, you may as well stick your fingers down your throat; at least that won't cost you eight bucks.
The movie is confusing in some scenes and there is one in which we are left to wonder if an event occured or not, based on whether or not you understand if it was a dream (or not). I couldn't piece this together until the end, and still can't be sure. I wonder if the filmmakers realized what they were doing here, and how empty it. But I admit I'll remember the sight of Tom Green with that mouse in his mouth. Maybe they should just go ahead and give the guy his own movie.
**(Mild spoilers ahead:)** "Road Trip" also made me laugh. I laughed at scenes involving a snake and Tom Green, a manic, flaked-out guy who tried desperately to get the snake to eat a mouse so that it can experience "what it is to be at the lowest rung of nature". I laughed at how this scene played out, and chucked lightly at the way he handles a campus tour after explaining that he has been attending this college, Ithaca University in New York state, for 8 years. He knows it better than anyone, but still claims the library was built in "the 1600's" even though the cornerstone plainly reads 1951.
I also laughed at other scenes, involving the doomed trip of a Ford Taurus and the way the characters have a sort of natural, unforced way of talking that still seemed funny. I did not laugh at much of the movie, which at times seems lost in a wasteland of strange characters, weird situations, and really gross ideas that didn't seem to fit with it's overall tone. I will say that it will be a while before I will eat French toast again, and that a scene with a talking dog is too creepy to be truly funny.
The movie's plot is set in motion by a videotape made by Josh (Breckin Meyer) with a girl he met at a campus party, Beth (Amy Smart) as they have sex. He sleeps with her because he thinks his longtime girlfriend, Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) is blowing him off by not returning his messages, but in reality her grandfather passed away, and she was staying at her mother's house. He discovers this after the horror of realizing his tape of him and Beth was mailed to Tiffany in a mixup. He has three days to reach Austin, Texas, where Tiffany is attending college, to get the tape back before she gets it. This is really just a setup for a road movie and a clothesline on which to hang all the gags.
I guess I got what I paid for. The movie doesn't aspire to be any more than this year's gross-out flick, a tradition started by the Farrelly brothers in "There's Something About Mary". I liked that movie a lot, because it had the bravery to go for broke, and had a sunny disposition that allowed the characters to wade through it's mire of grossness cheerfully. "Road Trip" is too aware of itself, too dependent of disgusting sight gags to be considered really original. By the time a character waggles his bare butt in front of a video camera, I was marvelling at how creatively bankrupt the screenplay was.
The movie isn't all bad, it just doesn't try very hard to be good. It doesn't rise below vulgarity, it remains firmly mired in it. Gross gags can be very funny, if presented in a way that focuses on the irony, rather than how disgusting it is. The beer scene in "Pie" was funny even though I gag just thinking about it, because the characters' reaction was funny. In "Road Trip" the gags come by themselves, mainly; the characters are largely unaware of how nasty a situation they've gotten themselves into. It's not how disgusting it is that makes a scene funny, it's how it affects the characters. Without that payoff, you may as well stick your fingers down your throat; at least that won't cost you eight bucks.
The movie is confusing in some scenes and there is one in which we are left to wonder if an event occured or not, based on whether or not you understand if it was a dream (or not). I couldn't piece this together until the end, and still can't be sure. I wonder if the filmmakers realized what they were doing here, and how empty it. But I admit I'll remember the sight of Tom Green with that mouse in his mouth. Maybe they should just go ahead and give the guy his own movie.