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"ROAD TRIP"
(2000) (Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott) (R)

Alcohol/
Drugs
Blood/Gore Disrespectful/
Bad Attitude
Frightening/
Tense Scenes
Guns/
Weapons
Heavy Mild Heavy Minor Mild
Imitative
Behavior
Jump
Scenes
Music
(Scary/Tense)
Music
(Inappropriate)
Profanity
Moderate Minor None Mild Extreme
Sex/
Nudity
Smoking Tense Family
Scenes
Topics To
Talk About
Violence
Extreme Minor Minor Moderate Moderate


QUICK TAKE:
Comedy: Several college students set out on a cross-country trip to intercept a sexually explicit videotape before it falls into the hands of one of their girlfriends and proves her boyfriend cheated on her.
PLOT:
Josh (BRECKIN MEYER) and Tiffany (RACHEL BLANCHARD) have been friends since they were kids, and by the time they attended high school, that friendship turned into romance. Unfortunately, they decided to attend colleges nearly two thousand miles apart, but agreed that their relationship could survive such a distance and that they'd stay true to each other in an exclusive relationship.

E.L. (SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT), one of Josh's friends at New York's University of Ithaca, thinks that's a horrible idea and wants him to hook up with Beth (AMY SMART), a pretty coed who's more than attracted to Josh and needs a boyfriend to repel the advances of Jacob (ANTHONY RAPP), a creepy teacher's assistant.

Josh is reluctant, but when he can't get ahold of Tiffany and then hears from her roommate that she hasn't spent the past several nights in their room, he figures she must have dumped him. As such, he thus has a fling with Beth, a sexual encounter they record on video.

Although Josh feels like a new man the next morning, that only last a short while as he discovers, to his horror, that his brainy roommate, Rubin (PAULO COSTANZO), accidentally mailed that tape - instead of a sweet and syrupy one - to Tiffany. Things then get worse when he learns that Tiffany wasn't fooling around on him, but instead had left school for a few days due to the sudden death of her grandfather.

Realizing she won't return to school until Monday, Josh, E.L. and Rubin convince Kyle (D.J. QUALLS), a geeky and insecure student, to let them use his car to make a road trip to Austin to intercept the mailed tape before Tiffany returns and receives it. Leaving long-time student and campus tour guide Barry (TOM GREEN) to watch over Rubin's pet python, and taking Kyle with them, the students set off on their high speed quest.

With only a few days, a long way to travel, and Josh realizing he'll have little time to study for his crucial philosophy midterm given by Professor Anderson (WENDELL B. HARRIS JR.), the young men race across the country, not realizing that their high speed trek will lead to a series of near disastrous complications involving, among others, Kyle's father, Earl Edwards (FRED WARD), a testy motel clerk (ANDY DICK), a gross waiter (HORATIO SANZ), and even Barry's grandparents (ELLEN ALBERTINI DOW & EDMUND LYNDECK).

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?
While most of the cast members are relatively unknown performers, the gross-out/teen sex comedy angle may prove enticing to many teens.
WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R
For strong sexual content, crude humor, language and drug use.
CAST AS ROLE MODELS:
  • BRECKIN MEYER plays a student who cheats on his girlfriend (by having videotaped sex with Beth several times) after he thinks she's cheated on him. When he realizes she didn't but will be receiving the amorous videotape by accident, he and his pals race across the country trying to intercept the tape before she receives it. He also uses strong profanity.
  • SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT plays his buddy, a wild party guy who serves as the instigator for most of Josh's problems. He also uses strong profanity and makes fun of a blind person (and steals a bus from a school for the blind).
  • AMY SMART plays a pretty coed who's attracted to Josh and is the aggressor in bedding him and videotaping their encounter.
  • PAULO COSTANZO plays Josh's brainy roommate who smokes dope.
  • D.J. QUALLS plays a geeky and insecure student who's talked into allowing Josh and his buddies to use his car and credit card on their road trip. Along the way, he shakes free many of his inhibitions, seems to get drunk and loses his virginity.
  • RACHEL BLANCHARD plays Josh's longtime friend and girlfriend who's apparently had relations with him, but we never see any of that.
  • ANTHONY RAPP plays a teaching assistant who's jealous of Beth's attraction to Josh and thus takes advantage of an opportunity to screw him over.
  • FRED WARD plays Kyle's overbearing father who hunts down his son after he disappears.
  • TOM GREEN plays a longtime college student and part-time campus tour guide who is fascinated by/fixated on the concept of Ruben's pet python eating a live mouse. He also makes out with one of the prospective student's mothers and uses some strong profanity.
  • CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

    HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE


    Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
    Then read OUR TAKE of this film.


    (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).


    OUR WORD TO PARENTS:
    Here's a quick look at the content found in this R-rated comedy. A great deal of sexually related material is present, including several sexual encounters (one that's videotaped), nudity, related humor (including views of erections under clothes, and a manually induced male orgasm via a gloved finger into the rectum to stimulate the prostate) and plenty of accompanying dialogue.

    Profanity is rated as extreme due to at least 10 uses of the "f" word, while plenty of other profanities and colorful phrases are also present. Several students and a grandfather smoke marijuana (and other references are made to drugs), while others drink (and one student seems drunk), although only a minor amount of regular smoking occurs.

    Various instances of imitative behavior and bad attitudes abound, including that involving some "gross out" material (a waiter putting French toast down inside his pants before serving it to a customer) and a student cheating on his longtime girlfriend (and his pals saying it's okay as long as certain rules of cheating were followed).

    Some instances of violence are present, while those skittish of snakes might not appreciate several scenes involving a student trying to feed a live mouse to a pet python. Should this summary not answer your concerns about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone in your home who wishes to see it, you may want to take a closer look at our more detailed content listings for specific examples of what occurs in the film.


    ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE
  • E.L. tells Josh that their window of opportunity for drinking, doing drugs and taking advantage of young women is passing them by.
  • We see students doing a lot of drinking at a party, along with a girl who's smoking a large joint (a guy then asks if she knows it will affect her decision making and lower her inhibitions and she states that's the plan).
  • The guys talk about the rules of cheating and among them they state that if one is "too wasted" when it occurred, it doesn't count if you can't remember it.
  • Ruben asks a motel clerk if he has any marijuana he can buy from him.
  • Josh and others drink beer at a frat house where Kyle asks for a wine cooler (but E.L. gives him a drink instead). Not long after that, we see that the alcohol has loosened Kyle's inhibitions as he parties with everyone else (and may be drunk).
  • A nurse asks questions of the students related to them donating sperm at a clinic. When she asks if any of them have done drugs in the past thirty-six hours, Ruben removes himself from being a donor.
  • While visiting Barry's grandparents, Ruben smokes a joint on the porch and then tries to hide it from the grandfather when he comes out. The grandfather, however, wants to know if Ruben is going to "pass that doobie." He then takes a hit and blows the smoke into his dog's face (and then sees the pet dog talking to him, saying that he has the "munchies"). Ruben then talks about his life and says that "weed" is the only thing that keeps him balanced.
  • Kyle asks the other guys, "What do we do now? Smoke some drugs?"
  • A joke is made in the closing moments about Ruben going on to develop a strain of pot that couldn't be detected by any standard drug tests and we then see his face on the cover of "High Times" as its man of the year.
  • BLOOD/GORE
  • E.L. hocks up some lung phlegm and then spit it across a ravine where we see it land on the other side of a bridge.
  • After Kyle tells a waiter that he ordered French toast without any powdered sugar, the waiter takes his order back into the kitchen where he licks off the sugar and then drops a slice of that toast down each side of his pants (and then squirms around to make sure they come into as much contact with those parts of his body as possible). He then takes the order back to Kyle who eats it without knowing where it's been.
  • After being punched, Kyle has some blood on his face.
  • DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE
  • Most of what's listed below is presumably meant to be viewed as comedy and not taken seriously.
  • Serving as a tour guide, Barry lies about the school's history, and the members of his tour group later make fun of him for being an awful guide.
  • Jacob won't take no as an answer from Beth when she refuses his romantic advances. He later gets jealous of her interest in Josh and then sets out to sabotage him by impersonating a professor over the phone and telling Josh that he can have an extension for his midterm (when in reality, he can't).
  • E.L. tries to persuade Josh that a long-distance, exclusive relationship is a bad idea and that he should go out with Beth.
  • Barry takes advantage of some naïve young women at a party by getting them to sexually experiment with him (by telling them that doing so is part of a well-rounded education).
  • Josh cheats on Tiffany by having sex with Beth, but his friends talk about the rules of cheating and say that if it happens in a different area code it's not cheating and that if it involves two girls at the same time it's also not cheating since they cancel each other out. They then add that if one is "too wasted" when it occurred, it doesn't count if you can't remember it.
  • Some viewers may not like several scenes where Barry tries to get a pet python to eat a live mouse and encourages/urges the snake to do so (he occasionally holds the mouse upside down by the tail and later puts it into his own mouth).
  • A scene involves E.L. going into a blind school and being disrespectful to a blind woman there, although she seems to know what he's doing. Even so, he does manage to steal one of their school vans for he and his buddies to use - by lying about it needing maintenance.
  • After Kyle tells a waiter that he ordered French toast without any powdered sugar, the waiter takes his order back into the kitchen where he licks off the sugar and then drops a slice of that toast down each side of his pants (and then squirms around to make sure they come into as much contact with those parts of his body as possible). He then takes the order back to Kyle who eats it without knowing where it's been.
  • Beth admits that she called in a bomb threat to have a midterm exam cancelled/delayed for Josh (we don't see her making the call).
  • FRIGHTENING SCENES
  • For those who are skittish about snakes, some scenes involving a pet python may be unsettling or suspenseful. Several involve Barry trying to get the python to eat a live mouse (we see the mouse crawling around within the snake's striking distance), and then one has the snake suddenly grab Barry's hand and then grab another student's neck (all played for sudden laughs).
  • Although it's all played for laughs, a scene where the guys attempt to jump a short ravine with their car may be slightly suspenseful to some viewers.
  • GUNS/WEAPONS
  • Handgun: Aimed by Earl at several people during a scuffle.
  • IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR
  • Phrases: "You're a f*cking sissy," "F*ck off" (written), "No sh*t," "Boner" (erection), "Wise ass," "Balls" (testicles), "Bitch," "Shut up," "Horny," "Jacking off" (masturbating), "Sucks," "Bust his ass," "I'm totally screwed," "Screw me over," "Friggin,'" "Chick" (woman), "Jeez," "Screwed up," "Pissed," "What the hell is that?" "Balls" (testicles), "Go to hell," "Bull crap," "Jerk" and "Loser."
  • Beth persuades Josh to allow her to set up a video camera to record their sexual encounter.
  • Two of the guys hang out of the car's windows as it drives down the road.
  • The guys use Kyle's car to jump over a relatively short ravine where the bridge is currently missing (they do so, and despite severely damaging the car, none of them are hurt).
  • A woman gives E.L. "the finger."
  • After Kyle tells a waiter that he ordered French toast without any powdered sugar, the waiter takes his order back into the kitchen where he licks off the sugar and then drops a slice of that toast down each side of his pants (and then squirms around to make sure they come into as much contact with those parts of his body as possible). He then takes the order back to Kyle who eats it without knowing where it's been.
  • After losing his virginity, Kyle walks out (clothed) and adjusts his crotch.
  • Trying to show the pet snake how to eat a live mouse, Barry puts such a live rodent into his own mouth (with only the tail sticking out).
  • Josh does some pelvic thrusting while dancing by himself.
  • Beth admits that she called in a bomb threat to have a midterm exam cancelled/delayed for Josh (we don't see her making the call).
  • JUMP SCENES
  • A car suddenly explodes.
  • A snake suddenly strikes out and grabs Barry's hand.
  • MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE)
  • None.
  • MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE)
  • A song has a lyric about "making love" while other songs have several instances of "ass" and "G-damn" in them.
  • PROFANITY
  • At least 10 "f" words, 5 "s" words, 4 slang terms for sex ("boink"), 3 slang terms for/using male genitals ("d*ck" and "c*ck"), 12 asses (2 used with "hole"), 7 hells, 3 damns, 2 craps, 10 uses of "G-damn," 7 of "Oh my God," 5 of "Oh God" and 1 use each of "For God's sakes," "God," "Good God," "Jesus Christ," "Mother of God" and "My God" as exclamations.
  • SEX/NUDITY
  • As Barry narrates the introduction of Josh and Tiffany's relationship, he states that their friendship blossomed into a relationship that included French kissing and lots of heavy petting (we don't see any of that) and then adds that "even dogs started dating" (and we briefly see a male dog mating with a female dog).
  • Tiffany tells a male student that he was amazing last night and that she's never come like that before (and that she had to take two birth control pills this morning). The two then start passionately kissing outside and she takes off her top (we see her in her bra), but this turns out to be just a dream that Josh is having.
  • E.L. tells Josh that anytime he passes up on sex, he's cheating on himself. He then adds that their window of opportunity of drinking, doing drugs and taking advantage of young women is passing them by. He then adds, "Your d*ck will never forgive you" and then bends down to Josh's crotch and asks, "What do you think little man? Don't you want to experience something new?" He then impersonates Josh's privates by saying "I wish I was your d*ck, E.L., cuz this is torture. If something doesn't happen soon, I'm just gonna pack up my balls and leave." E.L. finally adds that before Josh knows it, he'll be 40 and will have to pay for these girls.
  • We see a girl at a party dancing in her bra, while Barry is in a room, sitting on a bed with two naïve young women. He tells them experimentation is part of a well-rounded education. Moments later, he kisses one and then says that he wants to see the two young women kiss each other. Even later, we see all three of them topless, with each feeling the bare breasts of the others (in more of an experimenting rather than erotic way).
  • At a college girl auction at a party, some young women show cleavage and E.L. reminds the bidders that buying the girls in no way constitutes buying sexual relations.
  • After Josh "saves" Beth by outbidding Jacob for her at an auction, Beth tells Josh that she owes him one and he playfully adds that she owes him more than one. She then asks if he's ready to collect his payback, he states that he is, and we then see them passionately kissing in his bedroom. She then wants to videotape their encounter, and thus starts the recorder, has him on the bed, and then undresses in front of him (removing her pants so that we see her in her string bikini like panties - from front and back - and then slowly and sensuously removing her top so that we see her bare breasts). She then climbs on top of him on his bed and they kiss (with her lying on him just in her panties).
  • We briefly see a poster on the wall of a buxom woman holding something covering her bare breasts, although we do see the side of her bare butt.
  • Josh informs his friends that he and Beth had sex twice the night before as well as once that morning.
  • When they knock on Kyle's door, E.L. jokes that he's probably "jacking off" and when Kyle opens the door, he embarrassedly looks down at his own crotch and then partially hides behind the door.
  • The guys talk about the rules of cheating and among them, they state that if it involves two girls at the same time it's not considered cheating since they cancel each other out. Kyle then adds that it's not cheating if you spread peanut butter all over your testicles and then let your dog lick it off.
  • In Barry's exaggerated but visualized version of the story, we see several bare-breasted college students in a locker room, as well as a few ever so brief glimpses of female full frontal nudity and most of a young woman's bare butt in her thong-like bottom. During this, Tiffany and her friends state that all men ever think about is sex.
  • As Beth and some woman on a bus talk about what scoundrels men can be, the older woman tells Beth that there's hope, but that it comes with batteries. She then shows Beth her vibrator and tells her that she can keep it.
  • After Ruben asks a motel clerk if he has any marijuana that he can buy (he doesn't), the clerk sarcastically asks if he can get anything else for him, such as an eleven-year-old prostitute that he could send to his room.
  • The camera passes by a sleeping student and we see an obvious erection in his underwear.
  • Seeing Beth's bare feet and the fact that she's asleep, a man tries licking her toes while both are on a bus.
  • Kyle tells a large woman that he's had sex before, but never with a person. We see them kiss and then see them in bed together (she in her underwear and on top of Kyle who's in his underwear). She then asks if he has a condom, and when he says he doesn't, she tells him to check the drawer next to the bed (where he finds one). As we see a lot of her ample cleavage, she then pulls down his underwear and puts the condom on him (we don't see any nudity or anything explicit as this occurs off-camera). We then see sexual movement under the sheets as she's having sex on top of him.
  • The next day, Kyle shows his road trip buddies her large underwear, sniffs it, and then says that he "boinked" her.
  • The four students show up at a sperm bank to make the related donations to earn some money. A nurse asks questions of them, including whether any of them have had sex or masturbated in the past twenty-four hours and Kyle thus removes himself from being a donor (stating that he had sex last night, with a girl). We then see the nurse leading Josh and E.L. down to their separate rooms, handing them binders filled with pornographic images (we only see glimpses of them and from a distance, and thus don't see anything explicit).
  • E.L. then asks if she has anything with Asian women in it and she says that they don't. He then tries hitting on her and says he could use some "professional assistance." She asks if he needs help, he says that he does and then stares at her clothed butt. They then go into the room and she tells him to turn around, drop his pants and put his hands on the table. She then puts on some rubber gloves and tells him that she's going to manipulate his prostate to induce an ejaculation. As such, she then puts her fingers up his rectum (she's behind him so we don't see anything explicit) and we see his exaggerated pleasured reaction (and hear the related sounds) as she brings him to an orgasm (and then shows him what she collected in the sample cup) and he states, "That was awesome."
  • Meanwhile, we see Josh in his room with the porno binder on his lap and his hand rhythmically moving behind it as he masturbates.
  • Barry's grandfather watches a video with shapely women in small bikinis. When he gets up, he has an obvious erection and then knocks over at item on a table with it as he passes by. Later, he blames that on Viagra.
  • We see a motel clerk looking through a porno magazine but don't see anything explicit.
  • In another comic nightmare, Josh imagines Tiffany watching the videotape and seeing a close-up of Beth's butt (in her bikini underwear) as she approaches him in bed.
  • Tiffany tells Josh that he's "pretty much the only guy I've ever been with." When Josh questions the "pretty much" part, she implies she did something back when she was fourteen and he was away at camp.
  • We see part of Barry's bare butt on videotape (after he taped himself).
  • E.L. chastises Josh for not having sex with a girl one last time before breaking up with her.
  • Beth and Josh passionately kiss and we then see Barry and a prospective student's mother kissing on his tour. Later, he lies down on top of this woman and kisses her on the ground (both are clothed).
  • A joke is made in the closing moments about E.L. being with a girl (standing behind him wearing gloves) who asks if she should use two fingers and he replies that she better make it three (in relation to the above scene with the manually induced ejaculation via entry through the rectum).
  • SMOKING
  • Kyle smokes once and some students smoke at a party.
  • TENSE FAMILY SCENES
  • Kyle finally confronts his overbearing father.
  • TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT
  • The fact that Josh cheats on Tiffany (by having what's initially a one-night stand with Beth) due to jumping to conclusions.
  • Barry takes advantage of some naïve young women at a party by getting them to sexually experiment with him (by telling them that doing so is part of a well-rounded education).
  • VIOLENCE
  • Most of what's listed below is presumably meant to be viewed as comedy and not taken seriously.
  • The guys' car is several damaged and then explodes (without anyone in it) when they jump over a ravine with it.
  • After Beth mistakenly tells the wrong Tiffany that her boyfriend has been cheating on her, this student goes out and bashes the windows of her boyfriend's car with a bat. She then hits him on the arm with it as well (and we hear the sounds of her hitting him even more).
  • A pet snake suddenly grabs Barry's hand, causing him to panic and swing it around the room (knocking things over) until it lets go, flies through the air and grabs ahold of another student by the neck.
  • Earl grabs a motel clerk and smashes his head down onto a counter top when the clerk won't answer his questions.
  • A student mail clerk punches Kyle, then picks up Josh, and smashes him down onto a table. The others then tackle and hold down this student (with E.L. elbowing him) until security arrives, armed with pepper spray, along with Earl who then pulls his gun. Earl then grabs Kyle who's holding a fire extinguisher that goes off as the guards shoot their pepper spray at them.
  • In the closing moments, a joke is made about a student becoming a cult leader and then wanting to stage a mass suicide, but that he was the only one to drink the poison (and we see him fall to the ground dead).



  • Reviewed May 15, 2000 / Posted May 19, 2000

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