• Cert:
• Running time: 90 minutes
• Year: 2004
• Released: June 2004
• Widescreen Ratio: 1.85:1
• Rating: 8/10

Director:

Jeff Schaffer

Producers:

Alec Berg, Daniel Goldberg, David Mandel and Jackie Marcus

Screenplay:

Alec Berg, David Mandel & Jeff Schaffer

Music:

James L. Venable

Cast:

Scott Thomas: Scott Mechlowicz
Cooper Harris: Jacob Pitts
Jenny: Michelle Trachtenberg
Jamie: Travis Wester
Mieke: Jessica Boehrs
Mad Maynard: Vinnie Jones
Madame Vandersexxx: Lucy Lawless
Donny: Matt Damon
Fiona: Kristin Kreuk

This movie stands, for me, as the biggest surprise of the movie year so far., Please don’t take that to mean that this is a comedy classic, it’s not, but it is a film that laughed in the face of my expectations for it. The rest of the films so far have pretty much turned out as I expected – I expected The Day After Tomorrow to be nothing more than okay (and it was), I expected Van Helsing to suck even though I wanted it to be good (and Boy did it suck!) and I expected Harry Potter to kick ass (which it did most certainly). In much the same way I expected sitting through Eurotrip to be painful, as the trailer was disappointing to say the least, but in reality the film has turned out to be a guilty pleasure. The plot (such as it is) revolves around Scott (Scott Mechlowicz) whose Graduation turns out to be the WORST. DAY. EVER. He is dumped by his girlfriend Fiona (Smallville’s Lana Lang - Kristin Kreuk) who it turns out is the proverbial ‘Town Bike’, he also receives a suggestive email from his German pen-pal Mike saying that he wants to come to America and ‘get to know him better.’ Whilst drunk Scott sends a reply that, in no uncertain terms, informs Mike that he wants nothing more to do with him. The following day he is informed that Mike is not a guy but a rather stunning German girl called Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) who has now blocked his e-mail address so he can’t apologise through that route. Scotty’s best friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts) suggests that they should visit Europe and he can drop in and apologise in person, whilst there they can also hook up with their friends Jenny and Jamie (Michelle Trachtenberg and Travis Wester) who are also doing the Europe thing. Thus a plan is formed. That’s the first 18 minutes of the film out of the way, and the rest follows them through the ups and downs as they attempt to party, get laid, see some sights and get Scott to where he needs to be. Right, let’s get this out of the way before we even start… A lot of people are going to see this because it’s a teen sex-comedy featuring Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s sister Dawn). However, whilst she does wear some tight and revealing clothes, anyone only watching this to see some of her intimate ‘Trachtenbits’ is going to go away disappointed. Okay… Anybody left? Onto the movie then…

Trachtenass.... Woot!!!

How did this happen? This movie was supposed to suck! Watching it was supposed to be the equivalent of having Sulphuric Acid poured into my eyes, my IQ should have been halved just by witnessing this spectacle… However, not only did that not happen, watching it was fun and I actually found myself laughing out loud at quite a few points. How did this happen? Well… Quite a few reasons actually. The first of these being a surprisingly smart script… When you read ‘surprisingly smart script’ you might get visions of something akin to the calibre of The Usual Suspects. Please don’t. We’re not talking about that kind of deal, this film is as predictable as they come, once the scene is set you know in broad strokes how it’s going to pan out. The film is also populated with a collection of stock main characters from the American Pie universe and then finished off with various European stereotypes. (For once we Brits are not seen as Tea drinking sophisticates - this time we’re represented by Vinnie Jones’ gang of boorish Football Hooligans!) The rest of featured Europeans will also find something to complain about in their representation, so this isn’t one too watch for the easily offended. That said, the Americans featured here really don’t come off too well either, shown as unsophisticated, clueless, sex obsessed clowns… So it’s not just us who come off badly! Nope, this script’s a winner because it doesn’t use these stereotypes as a lazy storytelling device, it amps them up until they become so absurd that we start to laugh at the stereotype itself. This is nowhere more obvious than in the movie’s post-apocalyptic vision of Eastern Europe, this section contains some of the film’s best material and also one of the funniest sight gags that I’ve seen in years. The script also manages to churn out some rather witty dialogue exchanges that took me by surprise. Upon checking though, this is explained by virtue of the scriptwriting team all having worked on TV’s Seinfeld at one time or another. It’s not all good-news though, there’s one use of a Nazi stereotype that misfires badly and comes off as a bit of a cheap shot.

By Moulin Rouge 2, Kylie had really let herself go!

Another reason the film work’s so well is due to the fact this it’s so well played by the young cast. They work hard to breathe some life into their characters and make them likeable, it’s good to be able to say that they completely succeed in this regard. A lesser cast and poorer script could have made the leads really obnoxious and painful to spend time with, so it’s a credit to all involved that the group comes off as, at worst, likeably clueless. For a movie that supposedly takes in some of the World’s most beautiful places, the visuals are Eurotrip’s weakest aspect. The director/Co-Writer Jeff Schaffer is not really what one could call much of a visual stylist, preferring mainly to just point and shoot. Some more adventurous camerawork could have added a little vibrancy to the proceedings, as it is, the movie’s energy is more or less generated by the cast’s performance and the soundtrack. It’s not the worst looking movie by any means, but I would have liked to see what someone like Barry (Get Shorty, Men In Black) Sonnenfeld could have done with it. Overall, what could have been a worthless addition to the already overstuffed ‘Teen Movie’ genre has turned out to be something more than that. A smarter than you’d think script is well performed by a likeable cast, and forms the basis of a trip that is well worth taking. (Here in England, the movie has only just been released to cinemas, however Eurotrip has already been released to DVD in Region 1. It is available in both the Theatrical Cut and also an Unrated cut – which is the version I saw.)

Review copyright © Ian Stanley, 2004.