Road Trip Review

This 2000 comedy directed by Todd Philips, before he made comedy gold like “Old School” and “Hangover”, was made to grab cash from teenagers, in the wake of movies like “There’s something about Mary” and “American Pie”. And thus it has everything a young male adult would want to see in this type of comedy. Or may, I say, something a person would expect in a movie which is trying to be next “American Pie”, but set in college. It has got nudity, sex, sex tape, drinking, toilet humour, four friends and Stifler!!! Yes, the Stifmeister himself!!  And I am not saying this because the actor who played Stifler is here, but because he is basically the same character. Only difference is the name and that he has no Finch to humiliate or pick up on. So, is this movie next “American Pie”? Not at all. I desperately wanted to like this movie but I didn’t. They forgot that it was clever writing that made Pie and Mary awesome and not the nudity, foul language and bodily fluid itself.

First let’s talk about the main characters. I have already talked about the Stifler , so let’s move on to other characters. The characters are pretty much forgettable and have no personality, except Tom Green’s character but not for a good reason. He is there because the director thought “Well, people nowadays like funny scene which have shock value, so why not hire a guy with weird face named Tom Green since he already has a lot of fans on MTV”. But he is neither shocking nor funny; he is just creepy and illogical like a psycho killer in dark alley, which appears in your nightmare. Then there is a skinny guy named Kyle who is a no-risk-taker nerd. Anyone who has seen  a lot of comedies know that this type of character becomes brave by the end of the movie and we root for him when he stands  up against bullies, just so director can show that he cares about something called “character development”. But unlike Harold of Harold and Kumar Goes to White Castle or any nerd from Revenge of The Nerds, this guy has no personality and it is difficult to root for him. Then there is our lead character, Josh who like Kyle has no personality and it is difficult to care for him since he is so bland. The only character I liked was Rubin since he makes the nerds look cool and you come to care for him. Not even the Stifler like character was funny, since he was underused.

Unlike “American Pie”, which was feminist since it had a few male characters who respected women and had some well written female characters, this movie makes mistake of being misogynist. When you are making a sex comedy with heart, you can’t make it misogynist. This movie is misogynist because the characters of Stifler/ Sean William Scott and Tom Green treat women like sex object and are often not punished for it. It is misogynist because female characters are underwritten here. And this makes it less feel good.

And finally, the funny scenes. The only time I probably laughed was when car crashed. And maybe a few more scenes. But most of the time I didn’t laugh. There was a scene in which Kyle politely asks a waiter to change his food since it contains sugar and he did not take sugar in the mornings. The waiter not only gives the same food but also makes it dirty with his farts before Kyle thinks he is eating different food. This is supposed to be a “hair gel” moment but instead of being memorable and funny , it is just gross. It fails due to two reasons: - a) We can see the joke coming since it is so predictable, thus it loses its shock value and b) There was no logic why waiter behaved rudely. “Hair Gel” scene worked in real life, this could actually happen. And then there is Tom Green who is never funny even when he is eating rat or showing his butt. I am not saying I was bored by this movie, but this was something I could have avoided and may not see again in my life. Only thing worth seeing in this movie is nudity.

4 out of 10