Overall Rating
  Awesome: 24.14%
Worth A Look: 27.59%
Average: 11.49%
Pretty Bad: 13.79%
Total Crap: 22.99%
5 reviews, 57 user ratings
|
|
| Eurotrip |
by Chris Parry
"Hello, Michelle Trachtenberg!"
|
It's legal to say that, right? Good. So EuroTrip. Comedy. Road movie. Teen crap. Did I laugh? Yeah. Sorry, I know I should feel dirty, but it made me giggle. The queue to sue me starts to the left.Picture An American Werewolf In Paris without any werewolves. Picture Van Wilder in Rome. Picture any 80's teen film that grossed under ten million on a $3m budget. That's EuroTrip.
"This isn't where I parked my car."
Scott (the unknown Scott Mechlowicz) is a boring high school grad looking towards college. He's been dating the hottest girl in school, but she's just announced that she's been doing another guy (Matt Damon in a ten-second cameo spot) for the last year, and that he's written a song about it which will be played to the entire graduating class.
So, like, sucks to be you, Scotty.
Thankfully, being as Scotty inhabits a place called Teen Schlock World, he has three friends. One is a slacker with wacky T-shirts by the name of Cooper (the unknown Jacob Pitts), another is a total Carlton Banks (hey, a Fresh Prince reference! - he's played by the unknown Travis Wester), and he's the twin of a hot tomboy who nobody seems to notice is hot (it is an 80's formula film after all - she's played by Michelle Trachtenberg).
So Scott gets dumped, then goes home to his computer with which he's been chatting to a German dude called Mike for a few months. Scott's persuaded by Cooper that this German guy must be gay, so when Mike offers to come to the US, Scott has a minor shitfit and tells the guy not to talk to him anymore. Unfortunately for Scott, Mike's name is actually Mieke - a girl's name in Germany, and Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) is hot. Real hot.
Which makes her a perfect rebound candidate. Only now she's blocked Scott's emails. So rather than set up another email account, he decides he must go to Berlin and see her in person. Cue four friends on the road in Europe trying to help their buddy meet the internet chat partner of his dreams.
"Ah! Here it is, Bratislava. Capitol of Slovakia. Here's an interesting fact: You made out with your sister! "
The original title of this film was The Ugly Americans, and that would totally have been an apt title, because these guys are just boobs. As you'd expect, every decision leads to trouble, every turn is a wrong one, and every person they meet is a European stereotype of the highest order. For example, when they ask a Polack when the train is coming, he says "Soon! They're building it now!" When they make it to mieke's house (she's not there), her little brother paints a Hitler mustache on himself and goosesteps around the living room. Yeah. It's a bit like that.
But what doesn't stink about EuroTrip is two things - first, some of it is actually witty. Most of it falls flat, but enough of it brings laughs for the film to get by without being boring. The other bonus comes from the inclusion of Michelle Trachtenberg, who clearly had been convinced that this was going to be a huge hit that would make people forget she used to be a little kid on TV. Of course, Elizabeth Berkley once made that mistake too, and we all remember what happened there...
Trachtenberg is actually very enjoyable in the film, despite the fact that most of the dialogue and a good chunk of the scenes are weak as three-day old bathwater. She'll be one to watch once she gets off the Teen People circuit and starts stretching her comedy skills stronger stuff. And she's not hard to look at, which helps.
"That's one crazy Pope!"On the teen gross-out-film scale, EuroTrip rates lower than American Pie and higher than American Wedding, which makes it worth catching on TV at 2am on a drunken Sunday. It's okay... but could have been so much better if someone had bothered getting some actual writers on the case.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8747&reviewer=1
originally posted: 05/31/04 12:27:08
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
 |
USA
20-Feb-2004 (R)
DVD: 01-Jun-2004
UK
30-Apr-2004 (15)
Australia
12-Aug-2004 (MA)
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed
![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
