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Scott has just discovered his girlfriend has been cheating
on him. But it gets worse: his internet pen pal, Mieke, says
she’s coming to visit him for the Summer from Europe.
Unsure of whether Mieke might actually be a guy, Scott freaks
and impulsively writes back a cruel email.
When Scott learns that Mieke is actually a girl, he decides
the only thing to do is to hop a plane to Europe with his
best friend, Cooper and track her down. Joining them are twin
pals Jenny and Jamie who already backpacking across Europe.
Of course, it’s not all as easy as that. Along the way,
they get thrown around the country like a Fed-Ex package –
encountering boisterous soccer players, male-heavy nude beaches
and courteous truck drivers who are intent on taking them
anywhere but their destination.
Apparently Todd Phillips, the director of the similarly-themed
“Road Trip” is a little angry that the film is being
marketed on his effort – because frankly, he had nothing
to do with it (same producers apparently).
If anything, he’s said, they’ve ripped his film
off. Maybe…but when the laughs are as gut-busting as
the one’s in this flick, audiences are pretty forgiving
for misuse of the photocopier.
So what is the same? Ok, we’ll there’s the fact
that it’s about kids taking a wild trip together, some
of the stopovers also feel familiar, and well…the jokes
and bust-shots are also evident in both films. But what Phillips
doesn’t remember is that his flick was merely ‘funny’,
‘Euro Trip’ is – excuse the French – ‘Piss
Funny’.
Sometimes just a few good elements can make a movie. There’s
not much to the script here, but for what there is, it’s
witty. Very witty. In addition, the cast are great (especially
some of the celebrity cameos look for a young Oscar winner
at the start as a punk rock singer), the character suitably
off-the-wall, proceedings substantially speedy and the gags
– very imaginative.
Whilst still not a shade on some of those early 80’s
movies – though there’s enough T ‘n’ A
in this to think you are actually watching one of those –
or some of John Hughes earlier efforts, “Euro Trip”
is still a welcome distraction. It’s better than both
“Road Trip” and “American Pie – The Wedding”
combined, and startling corroboration that all might not be
lost for the genre.
DVD Extras
First things first, don't bust open the piggy for the DVD
if you're expecting a horde of deleted, much racier, stuff.
You won't find it. Yep, although there is some extra scenes
here and there, there's nothing so special that you're going
to immediately recognise them as such.
Having said that, the extras component is a blast. There's
an elongated blooper reel, an alternate ending, some deleted
scenes (nothing special - click that fast forward arrow),
and several featurettes, including one on that surprisingly
blunt nude scene with the Germans.
A treat is the full-length music video of Matt Damon lip-synching
"Scotty Doesn't Know", and the cherry on top of
that little tasty treat is...drumroll....the bootleg version
of the movie!
I kid you not, the filmmakers found a bootleg copy of "Euro
Trip" in Chinatown and decided to add it (or the first
ten minutes or so of it - as if you're going to want to watch
that messy version, over the one on offer, anyway) to the
extras. How frickin' novel!
Conclusion: Movie 80% Extras 65%
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