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Film Reviews

EUROTRIP

By • Feb 20th, 2004 •

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DreamWorks Pictures presents a Montecito Picture Co. production / A Berg/Mandel/Schaffer film
Running time — 92 minutes / MPAA rating: R

What do today’s teens think about S&M, gay sex, incest, drugs, and nudity? EUROTRIP outlines it all. It is the textbook psycho-sociological tour of today’s young people’s mindset. It is an education.

The message: Everything is okay. Experimenting is natural. There are no judgments to be made.

The storyline is simple: Scott’s (Scott Mechlowicz) high school girlfriend has been cheating on him. He finds out on graduation day as Matt Damon whales the catchy song “Scott Doesn’t Know”. His German email pen pal, Mike, wants to come to the U.S. and meet. Thinking it is a gay hook-up, Scott sends off an angry email and blocks all incoming mail. Unfortunately, his younger brother informs Scott that Mike is really the very hot Mieke. Along with his best friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts), Scott decides to go to Europe and find Mieke, who lives in Berlin.

Their friends, twins Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester), are already in Europe. Scott and Cooper get cheap tickets to London where they promptly meet a gang of soccer maniacs led by Vinnie Jones. Then it’s off to Paris and its street performers, Amsterdam’s sex workers, and hilariously, the Eastern Europe poor. Finally in Berlin, they meet Mieke’s family where Mieke’s little brother is practicing the Nazi bootstrap march. Mieke has gone to Rome. So it’s off to St. Peter’s.

Nothing is sacred. Everything is good-naturedly ridiculed. It is everything you know to be true about spending a day in some of Europe’s capitals though seen through the eyes of spoiled, yet nice, U.S teens.

For a comedy like this to work, and work well, casting is everything. And here,
Jacob “The hope that was David Spade” Pitt, is a real standout. He’s taken the snarly David Spade persona and given it a gentle gloss. Pitt has an open smile, wide-eyed gaze, and fresh sidekick demeanor. His Cooper is along for the ride. Anything goes.

Thankfully, director Jeff Schaffer takes a freewheeling hand to the material and doesn’t clobber us over the head with silliness and cheap pratfalls. EUROTRIP is written by Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer, the same three that wrote the offensive DR. SEUSS’ THE CAT IN THE HAT. So now we get to really see what Mike Meyers brought to that table. Perhaps Meyers’s legendary micro-management of his films will now be curtailed. Or should CAT’s director Bo Welch be blamed? Whatever, that franchise is dead and a EUROTRIP franchise is surely in quick development.

Credits:
Director: Jeff Schaffer
Screenwriters: Alec Berg & David Mandel & Jeff Schaffer
Producers: Daniel Goldberg, Jackie Marcus, Alec Berg, David Mandel
Executive producers: Ivan Reitman, Tom Pollick, Joe Medjuck
Director of photography: David Eggby
Production designer: Allan Starski
Editor: Roger Bondelli
Costume designer: Julia Caston
Music: James L. Venable

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

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