Road Trip follows the style of a successful string of gross-out humour-to-the-extreme comedies that have come out of Hollywood in recent years, from the initial movies with Jim Carrey (including Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber) to Austin Powers to There's Something About Mary.
The plot, as it were, is simply designed to hold together a bunch of funny gags, and is narrated by Barry Manilow (Tom Green), an Ithaca College student in upstate New York in his eighth year, explaining to prospectives why they should choose Ithaca. Josh (Breckin Meyer) is worried about his long-distance relationship with Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard), a student at the University Austin, Texas and childhood friend. In a moment of weakness, he sleeps with Beth (Amy Smart) who videotapes them in the act. By mistake, that tape gets mailed to Rachel instead of the one where Josh proclaims his love for her. So, three days before his philosophy final in which he has to get a B+ to pass, Josh and his motley crew of friends, E.L (Seann William Scott), wanna-be Jim Carrey; Rubin (Paulo Costanzo), the Seinfeld impersonator; and Kyle (DJ Qualls), the nerdy car-owner, head out on an 1800 mile road trip.
Hilarity ensues, as the gang first lose their car after attempting to jump over a bridge, have a dining experience that I hope never happens to anyone reading this review, donate sperm with some "extra" help from behind, steal a bus from a school for the blind, end up staying overnight at an all-black fraternity house where Kyle becomes more worldly after going crazy to Run DMC, witness the amazing effects of Viagra, and even encounter a talking dog.
In the meantime, Beth goes off on her own road trip after mistakenly assuming that Josh is in Boston, which leads to a few hilarious gags on their own, including acquiring an used vibrator and causing havoc on the University of Boston campus. Barry, who is left behind and entrusted with feeding a live mouse to Josh's snake, gets to experience the reptile "unleash the fury" first-hand (no pun intended).
The movie is great and there's little wrong with it if you're into this style of a film. However, I didn't think it was as consistently funny as the movies I've mentioned above. In part, what this movie lacks that the other movies have had is someone like a Mike Myers or a Jim Carrey or even a Ben Stiller who have the charisma and the audacity to carry the movie. The person who could vaguely come close to that level of talent in this lot is Tom Green and he is definitely not in his element here (not to mention that the screen time he is alloted isn't very much). Breckin Meyer is okay in his lead role, but he and the others are trying too hard. The one person who shines a bit is DJ Qualls.
It could also be that that the gags aren't as outrageous as they used to be. Most of them are predictable. However, the dream sequences are one of the more novel ideas to come out of the film, and it definitely had me going more than once. The choice of music is interesting and amusing also, and nice complements the film. Tunes include I Wanna Rock by Twisted Sister, Voodoo Lady by Ween, and It's Tricky by Run DMC.
It's extremely hard to even begin to gross me, and while the movie itself doesn't (because it doesn't show the scene), the preview, which has the out take with the comment "oooh, he just had an accident" just as Tom Green has the live mouse in his mouth, sort of came close. It would've been fun to see all the out takes. Road Trip is one of the funniest movies I've seen and definitely the funniest this year (though The Skulls comes a close second). Don't miss this one!