Roadtrip: Unrated
February 2001 Reviewed by: Doug Schneider Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Road Trip is, without a doubt, lowbrow entertainment. But who says that’s a bad thing? Movies like this one and American Pie are nothing really new. They’re simply a modern-day version of the teenage-sex comedies that I grew up with. Back then we had Porky’s, today we have Road Trip.

The premise to Road Trip is simple. Josh (Breckin Meyer) and Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) are childhood sweethearts. They’ve never been apart, but now their relationship is being tested since each are going to different universities some 1800 miles apart. When Josh doesn’t hear from Tiffany for a few days he starts to feel insecure and fears the worst. As a result, when a pretty student (Amy Smart) takes a liking to Josh, he goes for her and ends up cheating on Tiffany. Worse yet, he videotapes it. Even worse yet, his friends mistakenly mail it to Tiffany. All this occurs to simply get Josh and his group of friends into a situation where they have to get to Texas to get the tape before Tiffany does -- they go on a road trip. It’s the perfect scenario for outlandish situations, along with lewd and crude humor.

This movie is very funny at times, but is still not entirely successful. There are few parts that do fall flat. American Pie was much better. However, there is enough funny stuff here that will have many (like me) rolling with laughter. Furthermore, Tom Green (who plays Barry Manilow, a student in his seventh year who has never left the town) works wonderfully. He essentially narrates the film by presenting it to a group of perspective students as "the greatest story ever told." Tom Green’s humor doesn’t always work (for example, in Charlie’s Angels), but here he’s very funny. On the other hand, the weakest of the bunch is Paulo Costanzo as the drug-smoking Rubin. He’s an actor I’ve never seen before, but from what I can see here with his constant "look I’m being funny" smirk, he’s not well suited for comedies like this. The other standouts that do really seem to have fun with the material are Seann William Scott as E.L. (who was also in American Pie) and D.J. Qualls as Kyle (a painfully thin, but hilarious-actor).

Two versions of this DVD exist: the regular theatrical version and this, the "Unrated" edition. I saw the movie twice in the theaters and can spot a few scenes where something has been added, but it’s not really any cruder or dirtier than what you saw in the theaters. Picture and sound quality are not remarkable, but are simply very good. Also, while I like what they included in the DVD extras, I wish they had included more. There are some deleted scenes (a couple of which I thought should have been left in, and a few others, wisely left out) and a Tom Green-narrated feature that gives cursory interviews and a wee-bit of insight into the behind-the-scenes stuff.

This movie is for a select audience. Don’t buy or even rent this film if crude humor and juvenile jokes put you off. But if you like this type of movie, by all means rent it, or even buy it. Like the excellent Kingpin (a really, really funny movie), I’ve watched it numerous times and laughed just as hard with each viewing. And forget the regular version that’s available on DVD, go for the "Unrated" version. After all, if you’ve sunk this low, why not go all the way?

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