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Press - 2004
Kids Trash Europe On a Kooks' Tour
REVIEW
(2 STARS) EUROTRIP (R). High school graduates lose their cool and, often,
their clothes all over Europe. With Scott Mechlowicz, Michelle
Trachtenberg, Jacob Pitts and Travis Wester, with cameos from Lucy Lawless
and Matt Damon. 1:30 (nudity, vulgar language, sexual humor, drug
references and low-flying jokes at the expense of the British, the French,
the Germans, the Dutch, the Slovenians, etc.). At area theaters.
OK, so maybe I was a little harder last year on "Old School" than I needed
to be. Chalk it up to a bad mood - or, at least, to having one of those
days when I just didn't feel as though the world was an ongoing keg party.
One recognizes that movies such as "Old School" or, for that matter,
"Eurotrip" are pan-fried and salted for those times when you just want to
abandon decorum and taste. To say (literally) nothing of grace, style,
class, beauty, truth and respect for cultural differences.
No, "Eurotrip," much like "Old School" and "Road Trip" (all of which
proudly claim the same producers), is about little else besides gratifying
appetites no matter who gets hurt or what gets broken in the process.
What's more, it's all about kids who unleash their bad manners and
rampaging libidos upon the great nations of Europe. That the script was
concocted by the same writers who made burnt acrylic hash out of "Dr.
Seuss' the Cat in the Hat" would be alarming to the future of our foreign
policy if it weren't for the way they also make jokes at the American
kids' expense.
Take our hapless hero, Scotty (Scott Mechlowicz), an aspiring doctor whose
cluelessness makes one dread the future of U.S. health care. His
girlfriend breaks up with him the day he graduates high school and her
infidelity is chronicled at a party that night in a song played by a rock
band (fronted by a demonically exuberant Matt Damon).
Scotty confides his sorrow to his German cyber-pen pal Mieke, who offers
romantic solace. Scotty, alarmed that this "Mieke guy" is coming on to
him, e-mails his adamant rejection. Then his kid brother points out
something Mister Pre-Med hadn't known: Mieke is a girl's name. Look,
here's her picture! She's hot, too. Oopsie!
So it's off to Berlin to make amends. Scotty and his slacker pal Cooper
(Jacob Pitts) hook up with twins Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie
(Travis Wester), who were going overseas anyway. Along the way, they meet
the most interesting people: a soccer goon (Vinnie Jones), who'll gut and
skin anyone who doesn't pledge allegiance to Manchester United, a Dutch
dominatrix (Lucy Lawless) with state-of-the-art instruments of torture, an
Italian sex fiend (Fred Armisen) who loves train tunnels, plus an
obnoxious French mime (if that doesn't sound redundant), a little German
tyke who loves to play Hitler. ...
You get the idea. Isn't travel broadening?
Amid all the guilty, aimless giggles, the movie's paltry saving graces
include Trachtenberg, best known as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" kid
sister, who wields a sassy comic persona and an archly confident
sensuality. She looks as if she'll mature a lot faster than the movie's
target audience.
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