Michael Elliott
Senior HTF Member
Eurotrip (unrated)
:star::star:1/2/:star::star::star::star:
Studio: Dreamworks
Year: 2004
Rated: NR
Film Length: 91 minutes
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Retail Price: $19.95
Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) has just graduated from high school but his plans for the summer change when his girlfriend announces that she wants to break up because he’s just too predictable. Things get even worse when he attends his final high school party only to be embarrassed to see his ex making out with a band member while singing a song making fun of their relationship.
With everything going bad at least Scott has an internet buddy to talk to but his real life buddy (Jacob Pitts) warns him that the internet is nothing but perverted men trying to lure young boys. Scott sends this friend a hateful e-mail only to wake up the next morning and realizing that this perverted old man is actually a hot, young girl who wants to meet him. With nothing else to loose Scott decides to take a trip around Europe in hopes of catching this girl so that he can have the best sex of his life.
The teenage sex comedy has been done so many times the past twenty years that it’s hard for a new one to try anything new. I went into Eurotrip expecting a stupid, dumb and obnoxious film full of dirty jokes, sex, drugs, alcohol and breasts and that’s exactly what I got. The film doesn’t offer anything new to the genre and the cast isn’t overly appealing but if you don’t mind offensive and raunchy humor then I’m sure the film will bring a few laughs.
The one thing that the screenplay has on its mind is beautiful young girls flashing their breasts at every possible opportunity. These scenes pop out of anywhere and this includes a dumb blonde in a spa, a freakish sex shop in Amsterdam and a throwaway shot at a nude beach. What does any of this have to do with the actual story? Not a thing but in a teen sex comedy there’s no reason to show nudity except to give the viewer a cheap thrill and this film offers several cheap thrills including the virginal male getting his first sexual favor from an innocent looking camera shop girl.
Outside the all important nudity we’ve got several attempted comedic scenes with some outright hilarious while others fall flat on their face. There’s a constant bashing of gay humor throughout the film from our hero being warned that German’s will molest him before killing him and one of our stars actually gets molested on a train. Characters are constantly being told they’re gay and even the sexy Michelle Trachtenberg is mistaken as a boyish character who gets tapped into the homosexual jokes. Other offensive comes from the stereotypes of various countries including the UK’s brutish Soccer fans, a psychotic German truck driver and even the Pope is made fun of.
The biggest problem with the film is that not enough of the laughs fall into that hilarious mode because we’ve seen them countless times before and like the lead character, everything is just way too predictable to catch us off guard. The greatest and most shocking scene in the film happens between a brother and sister, which is so outrageous that not even a comedy from the 1980’s would have tried. This one scene is probably worth sitting through the other 90-minutes and it’s something that won’t be easily forgotten. Eurotrip is your typical, offensive comedy that is worthy enough of one viewer even though we’ve seen this countless other times.
VIDEO---The film is shown widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Once again Dreamworks delivers a very nice transfer that while not reference quality still manages to be a lot better than what most other studios are delivering. The colors levels are very vibrant throughout with wonderful detail that really shows off the various locations in the film. The film has various settings and all of them come off looking terrific thanks to the transfer. The outdoor locations are wonderfully bright and three definitional looking with the colors bouncing off the screen. The black levels are very rich and deep without any softness to be spotted. The scenes with the train entering the tunnel go completely black, which is usually a time we would see speckles and other problems but that’s not the case here. There’s some minor edge enhancement but it’s hardly noticeable unless you’re looking for it.
AUDIO---The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is good enough for this type of film but don’t expect anything to blow your speakers through the roof. The dialogue is clear throughout without any scratches or other issues. The Surround use is rather weak but there’s really nothing in the film that would be able to stand out. The one spot I found the soundtrack rather weak was when any songs were being played because they weren’t that upfront and you’d expect a newer track to blast these songs but the music is buried in the Surrounds without much of a punch.
EXTRAS---Filmmakers Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg and David Mandel offer us two commentary tracks and both feature a different purpose. The first track is a technical track where the men try and discuss the moviemaking process for any young filmmakers out there. There’s some pretty interesting stuff being talked about here but it gets rather tiresome fairly quick. There’s some interesting talk about the differences between the R-rated cut as well as the uncut version, which is included here. There’s also some interesting information about why the DGA wouldn’t allow three director’s credits in the film. The second commentary is a “drunk” track where the three watch the film while getting drunk. I’m sure this was meant to be funny but this here is really obnoxious. The three basically drink beer, say dirty words and don’t say anything else interesting.
Up next is a gag reel that runs just over five minutes. These gag reels are among my favorite extras but this one here wasn’t all that funny. We get the normal line goofs but none of them are outrageous enough to be that funny. Up next is an alternate ending, which I somewhat enjoyed more than what was used in the film but I guess this here wasn’t sexy enough for the feature film. There’s an optional commentary here and the scene is shown widescreen but isn’t anamorphic. Next up are thirteen deleted scenes, which also feature an optional commentary track by the directors. Most of the scenes are extended jokes from scenes in the actual film and thankfully most of them were cut. The best scene is one featuring Michelle Trachtenberg as she removes her shirt trying to get someone to give her a ride. Sorry but no nudity here guys.
Nude Beach Exposed is a behind the scenes featurette about the nude beach scene that has plenty of behind the scene footage as well as interviews with the directors as they explain how male nudity is funny. There’s plenty of nudity here so keep the kiddies away. How To Pick a Director goes into more detail about something brought up in the commentary. There were actually three director’s but the DGA wouldn’t allow this so the three come here and show how they picked who’s name would end up on the film. This is rather interesting and certainly something I haven’t seen before. Eurotrip Bootleg is without a doubt one of the most interesting extras I’ve seen. The director’s bought a DVD bootleg copy of their movie in Chinatown and here on the actual DVD they review the thing. Why on Earth anyone would buy a bootleg film is beyond me because the quality is so poor that it’s good that a studio would use a real DVD to put down bootleggers. The director’s also have a F.U. for those out there who record films from the theater screen. The Music of Eurotrip features a sing-a-long to “Scotty Doesn’t Know” as well as a music video for the song. Also included are your typical cast bios, production notes as well as a photo gallery, which is pretty useless. The script is also available for you to read. For some reason a theatrical trailer either wasn’t included or it’s hidden as an egg, which I couldn’t find.
A bonus feature for the unrated version is a nudity scene index as well as an unrated scene index. This way you can jump to what’s different from the R-rated version or you can quickly jump to your favorite breast scene. More studios should follow in the footsteps of Dreamworks by doing this.
OVERALL---Eurotrip was nothing original but if you like these mindless teen comedies then I’m sure there’s a few funny moments here for you. Dreamworks delivers another sharp transfer as well as a nice, if soft sound mix. The extras are just as entertaining as the actual film especially the bootleg version of the film.
Two DVD's will be available on 6/1/04. There's the theatrical, R-rated cut (90m 2s) and an unrated (91m 45s) version. All of the above extras are on the unrated version but I'm not sure how many will be carried over for the R-rated cut. Naturally the nude scene index and the uncut index will be missing.
Release Date: June 1, 2004
