Back in 2000 Todd Phillips (The Hangover) directed Road Trip, a comedy that worked in its day and age, but hasn’t held up after the years. Revisiting it now brings up some small memories, with a few chuckles, but essentially Road Trip is just another comedy from the past that should probably stay in the past.
Josh (Breckin Meyer) is an average college student trying to maintain a long-distance relationship. Things get a little tough on him and he assumes that the lack of communication between him and his girlfriend means that she’s out sleeping with others and that it’s okay if he does the same. He sleeps with a girl that he really likes (Amy Smart) and when he asks his friend to send an innocent tape to his girlfriend it actually gets mixed up with a sex tape from the night before.
He must now go on a road trip across the country in order to stop his girlfriend from ever seeing the tape. Of course things don’t go exactly as planned and the gang makes a few pit stops and runs into a handful of wacky and over-the-top situations that makes for a comedy that didn’t wow me in 2000 and still doesn’t wow me in 2012.
Road Trip is director Todd Phillips‘ first film, before he went on to make much better films like Old School and Starsky & Hutch (hey; I liked it!). He’s widely known now for his Hangover films, but back in the day he was just another filmmaker that specialized in idiotic teenage comedy. Road Trip isn’t a horrible movie at all, but it’s not all that funny. I laughed maybe five times from start to finish and while I didn’t find myself bored with what I was watching I was never overly impressed.
Maybe it’s the age of the film and the jokes or maybe it was never all that good of a film. Seann William Scott plays an exact replica of his role in American Pie, while Tom Green continues to show the world just how weird he is. The only real performance that made me laugh was from DJ Qualls. He’s such an odd performer and I love the way he awkwardly delivers his dialogue.
Road Trip won’t go down as a comedy event for the ages or even one of Todd Phillips‘ best films, but it works on a very basic level and I can’t discredit the film for that. It’s sort of funny, but mostly forgettable.
The 1080p video transfer definitely shows the age of the film. It was released in 2000 and that’s very noticeable in this shaky transfer that displays colors well, but doesn’t hold the strongest detail. Skin tones and fine texture aren’t the strongest, but overall balance remains natural and probably as good as something like this is going to look.
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track doesn’t have nearly as many problems. The track is another typical comedy affair, with dialogue delivered clean and loud on the front channels and the occasional car explosion or weird music cue staying on the back channels.
The disc comes with the following special features:
- Theatrical & Extended versions of the film
- Ever Been on a Road Trip? (SD)
- Deleted Scenes (SD)
- Eels Music Video – Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues (SD)
- Teaser Trailer (HD)
- International Trailer 1 (HD)
- International Trailer 2 (HD)
Watching Road Trip on Blu-Ray today doesn’t make me miss the days when it first saw a theatrical release. It simply brought back a few old jokes that stuck with me and then made me go about my day. It’s just another comedy from my earlier years that I remember, and not something I go around telling people to watch or revisit. It has its funny moments, but at the end of the day it will go down as a forgettable and harmless comedy that is only memorable for its weird inclusion of Tom Green.
The Blu-Ray should be more than enough for fans, but those not looking to drop any more money might just want to skip this one until it hits a $5 dollar bin.
