Review of Eurotrip

Introduction

Yes, it`s yet another film in the long tradition of teen movies from the 1970s and 1980s such as Porky`s, Weird Science and Animal House. American Pie is largely to blame for this return of teen comedies, after its success and then the stream of sequels and copycats. Like Pie, Eurotrip owes a lot to its predecessors (Pie included).

This time round, we get the combination of high school graduation and a trip around Europe, with a very obvious set of stereotyped European characters along the way. And then there`s the mistaken identity/penpal sub plot, the whole flimsy reason for some of our characters to embark on this trip. Some reasonably ignorant Americans blunder their way around Europe.....

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer which is a reasonable modern effort. It`s largely clean and tidy but there`s nothing spectacular about it. This is not a film for award-winning cinematography, despite the fact that there are some good European locations on offer. It`s just a film to deliver some cheap visual gags, and in that respect it does its job.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack is on offer and it only really comes to life when the soundtrack kicks in. The songs on offer are pretty much as you would expect for this type of film, and they come at you thick and fast. Modern teen comedies are defined by their soundtracks, and the selection here is about right. I quite enjoyed "Scotty Doesn`t Know", a song inspired by an earlier scene in the film, which comes back throughout the film, in different versions.

Features

The usual "not too much thought, but we made an effort" type of extras on offer here.

First up we have the "Party commentary", a rather gimmicky idea which features the writers and directors commenting on the film whilst sitting around drinking beer. They do have some good things to say, but this "party" element doesn`t really work when it comes to commentaries.

Next up is the gag reel, featuring some amusing out-takes - the usual kind of thing. Worth a quick laugh. Some of these are played over the end credits.

There are also some deleted scenes which didn`t make the film - none of these were very interesting. Also featured is an alternate ending which rather ruins the whole tone of the film, so it`s nice to see that they went with the right one in the end, even if it is a cheese-stuffed-feel-good one!

Nude Beach Exposed is a cheap feature about having lots of nude men on a beach. How funny. There`s also another feature about "Choosing a director", where the 3 writers draw straws to find out which one gets the directing credit. Worthless.

There`s also a feature about a pirate version of the film that`s out on DVD as well as a few trailers, biographies and videos.

Conclusion

It`s another very lightweight but sometimes amusing modern teen comedy. Like Pie before it, obvious jokes featuring bodily functions are combined with the odd rare moment of more subtle humour.

This film features lots of tedious and predictable European stereotypes (there`s Vinnie Jones as a football hooligan, there`s a homosexual Italian, sex mad, drug obsessed Dutch girls, some agressive Eastern European types, and some Hitler jokes when we meet a German family). The story itself is not very good, but the film does have its moments, with a few well thought out gags. Most of the time it`s just stuffed with cheap laughs at the expense of the predictable stereotypes, and at the end of the day it`s not something that you`ll want to come back to.

The DVD itself is a reasonable package, with a good picture and fine sound. The extras might get watched once, but you won`t be back in a hurry. This makes the disc a possibly amusing rental but not a recommended purchase.