Day 172: Road Trip (2000)

R, 1 hr. 31 min.  Directed by: Todd Phillips.  Release Date: May 19, 2000. DVD Release Date: December 19, 2000.

Ugh.  I'm still awake, which is a surprise considering I was using this in an attempt to fall asleep.  It's starting to push 2 am, and I'm exhausted, but just can't seem to shut my brain down tonight.  This morning, or I guess yesterday morning now, I woke up tired, so I can't figure out what the problem is, but these sleepless nights seem to be happening more and more frequently.

There are a lot of teen sex comedies, and this is one of them.  That's not fair.  I used to like this movie.  Not a lot, but enough that I added it to my DVD collection in 2000 or 2001, although considering how frequently I used to go to Blockbuster and check out those 4 DVD for $20 sales, you'd be amazed what's found it's way in to my collection.   I should probably say more, and I'm thinking of how best to form my thoughts.  While these comedies can generally overlap in my mind, especially since I've watched so many of them over the years, I've come to set my opinions based on how well they set themselves apart from their endless ranks of competitors.

There are two possibilities that set this apart from others of its genre.  The first is the, um, milking of Seann William Scott.  Before I popped this into my DVD player today, that scene was the only one that popped immediately to my recollection.  The other scene made a reappearance as I watched the movie:  the scene when DJ Qualls finally finds his ness and gets a hookup. I realized that the woman who played his love interest died relatively recently, which is kind of a sad thing.  I'm still relatively young and she wasn't younger still. 

But what else here is original?  A cheating boyfriend?  Nope.  A crazed girlfriend?  Not that either.  A pothead?  Nope.  I've seen those same things happen in the same movie before.  I've also seen them done better in the same movie.  There have been road trips in other movies, and I know I've lived through a few myself.  There have been other frat parties... Animal House comes to mind as being a better set up.  Even National Lampoon has had a few better frat parties.

There's an interesting cast in this movie.  Not a great cast, or even a good cast, but an interesting one.  Some of them have made careers out of doing teen-interest movies, and most of them are passable.  Almost everyone in the cast has a few decent lines and a few zany escapades before the whole thing is over.  But no other teen movie has the lead weight that is Tom Green.  I think in 2000 he was mostly famous for having married Drew Barrymore.  Personally, I'm glad she came to her senses about him (Drew, if you read this, call me!).  He lurches around this movie, looking like a total jackass, he provides little to the story, but you have to sit through his insufferable stupidity.  In my opinion, Tom Green bears sole responsibility for making a blah-fest from a decent comedy.

I probably wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this to someone I liked.  It isn't terrible, but there are so many better movies of this sort available that I wouldn't have come up with Road Trip on my own.