Life's A Trip

Life's a Trip

I love Scrubs. Not because of the crazy Janitor, my love of Elliot, obsession with Heather Graham or me identifying with JD, but for the wonderful performance of John C McGinley as Dr Cox. His performance, which it seems has always been shockingly overlooked by the Emmys, was wonderful and it always surprised me that no one had capitalised on this great actor in a film yet. This ends now.

Life's a Trip follows the story of three friends who at Thirty-Eight haven't achieved all the dreams they set for themselves. Mark(McGinley), once a star footballer has spiralled into a gaping chasm of gambling debts that is threatening his marriage. Jason (Jason Paul Hipp) once a first grade student, is now working in a dead end job and still living with his parents. And finally Billy (D.B. Sweeney), who is now a failed musician and has been reduced to driving trucks for a living.

When Jason wins tickets for a football game in Florida, they all decide to haul into Mark's car, fill it up with beer and go on a road trip. This leads to the typical adventure we all experience like roadside attacks by alligators, arson, magic mushrooms and a carnival run by a one armed carnie played by Ed Harris. Or is that just me then? There is a nice mix ofcomedy and pathos which all three characters play to perfectly and though itdoes at times become quite bleak with them considering suicide and faking theirown deaths to overcome their problems. This leads to a lot of soul searchingand for anyone who's ever stared into the abyss; this is a wonderful film toshow you that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. It's just a caseof finding it, in whatever way you can.

The film co-written and directed by star D.B. Sweeney is a fairly accomplished work. The use of various design techniques both visual and aural is truly effective in bringing the film from out of the budget indie-film into a big budget feel. After viewing the use of just simple computer graphics on the Ed Harris character, you will never look at a cat in the same way again. It has to be admitted that the story is nothing original and you could almost cut and paste the film together from a dozen other buddy or road trip style film. The fact is, all the slogan 'From the Producer of Sideways' does is make you watch the film continuously nodding your head going 'oh yeah it is a bit likeSideways', which could be a negative or a positive depending on your point of view. At only a hundred minutes, the film is perfectly paced, not overstaying its welcome with the depressing elements of the three main character's failure at almost every aspect of life. However, the characters do not feel like just caricatures and are fully rounded three dimensional people who you feel a connection with, whether you can relate to their situation or not.

The only thing that is disappointing is the lack of special features. I was hoping after watching such a good film that there would be something to go along with it, even if it was just a short behind the scenes or a blooper reel. A commentary by D.B. Sweeney on how he handled his many hats in this film would have been great to listen to. Unfortunately, there is nothing, and that is a shame.

Life's a Trip is a great film for those who love buddy movies, Scrubs, Sideways, feel-good movies and comedy. In fact, this film is simply a great film in general. It is true that I may not watch this more than a few times (something special features would have remedied), but the film is still a trip we all should try.