Dir. Jeff Schaffer, 2004, USA, 96 mins
Cast:
Scott Mechlowicz, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jacob Pitts, Travis Wester, Matt Damon, Vinnie Jones
From the producers of Road Trip and Old School comes another slice of American Pie -style hi jinks, detailing the overseas shenanigans of a bunch of irrepressible and irresponsible US teens. As with all these teen-orientated movies, Eurotrip echoes National Lampoon's European Vacation, with its story about a bunch of earnest but dim-witted Americans, their disastrous adventures abroad and their encounters with a gallery of European stereotypes.
In Eurotrip, the teen's transatlantic odyssey is initiated by Scotty Thomas (Mechlowicz), who has just graduated from high school and been dumped by his girlfriend (scenes that, in the vein in American Pie, cause Scotty much public embarrassment). On top of this humiliation, Scotty cuts off all email contact with his German friend Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) after he gets a message implying that she wants to come to America and get together with him. Believing that Mieke is male, Scotty is put off by this message, until he discovers that Mieke isn't a German version of Mike, but German girls' name. Scotty attempts to contact Mieke, but she cuts him off and stops him from emailing her. Realising that he has made a terrible mistake, and with no other way to contact Mieke, Scotty vows to travel to Germany and track her down, thinking that she may be the right girl for him. Scotty enlists the help of his friends, Cooper (Pitts), Jenny (Trachtenberg) and her brother Jamie (Wester), and the four American teens begin their journey across Germany to find Mieke.
As they travel across Europe, all the European caricatures are present and correct; English (Manchester United!?!) football hooligans (led by a psychotic, xenophobic football fan played by Vinnie Jones), French mime artists, kinky Dutch prostitutes (with Lucy Lawless as Madame Vandersexxx!) as well as a vision of Eastern Europe as a poverty-stricken hellhole caught in a time warp where Miami Vice is a popular new TV show. Then again, the Americans seen here are hardly model ambassadors for their country, with Cooper in particular portrayed as a stupid American who thinks Europe is one country, and that its inhabitants have been driven sex crazy by years of repression, which counts as an attempt to represent Americans and Europeans in an equally caricatured light.
Although some may be offended by the view of Europeans here, the film clearly isn't meant to be an insightful look at cultures outside America , but more of a humorous exaggeration of how Americans perceive Europe. As for how the British will react to the portrayal of themselves on screen as a bunch of violent thugs, it's possible that some will identify with Vinnie and cheer him as he on as he hurls obscenities at the French and 'I-Talians', while others will laugh at what they see as the often debated English xenophobia being lampooned.
However, the film is not as funny as it could have been, possibly because the Porky's -style teen movie genre (which was reignited by the success of American Pie in 1999) is beginning to stale, and because European Vacation (which, like Eurotrip, is a hit-and-miss movie) already covered similar ground nearly 20 years ago. Nevertheless, there are some amusing bits of business dotted throughout, usually moments that have little to do with the main story, including a street side skit involving an altercation with a mime that mimics a robot, resulting in a bizarre robot-style kung fu confrontation. Many of the laughs are to be found in the outtakes during the end credits, particularly Vinnie Jones' prolonged bout of swearing.
The leads are appealing enough and just manage to avoid being a bunch of blandly anonymous teens, with the stand-out being Cooper, who is occasionally amusing in his role as the now-obligatory crass, wide-cracking and - yes - breast-fixated best friend. As for Vinnie Jones, this could well be his best performance. In everything else he has done so far, he always seemed to try too hard to be tough. Here, he's essentially playing himself (or the image of himself cultivated through the media), and so he's less self-conscious and more relaxed than usual.
As well as being made by the producers of Road Trip, this is a virtual remake of that earlier film, with both films involving the cross country odyssey of a group of hormonal teens, who are attempting to correct a mistake made by the protagonist - an error that could prevent him from being with the girl he loves. Despite the close similarities between the two, the surreal diversions that Eurotrip occasionally takes (including fake hash brown consumption, the appearance of an absinth induced fairy and a ridiculous case of mistaken identity at the Vatican) give it a little freshness. Of course, there's ultimately only one agenda here: sex, sex, sex! That's good, of course, but the high school/college film genre has often produced more.
In 1978, when Animal House started the whole college sex comedy genre, there was a healthy dose of intelligent humour along with the schoolboy antics, with the main characters rebelling against their oppressive college and striking back at the hallowed, all-American institution that had no place for their light-hearted anarchy. Old School tried to revive the spirit of Animal House by fusing its high school elements with a Fight Club -style masculinity-in-crisis story, but for the most part it failed. Films like Clueless and Election are proof that more can be done with the teen movie than simply having the lead characters embark on a quest to get laid.
For those looking for a faster, fresher and funnier look at students travelling across Europe, they'd be better off checking out Rules of Attraction, where we're given a high speed, whistle-stop tour across Europe that grows in absurdity the longer it lasts. Unfortunately, despite a handful of amusing scenes, Eurotrip ends up being a half-baked rehash of a bunch of earlier teen films that were done better, and adds nothing that's new to the genre.
Martyn Bamber
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