Teen flick garners laughs at Europeans’ expense

“Eurotrip” Directed by Jeff Schaffer
Dreamworks

Just when movie-goers started to think they were locked in a
perpetual cycle of bad bathroom humor, “Eurotrip”
brings something new.

One would think from the producers who brought us “Road
Trip” and the cult hit “Old School,”
“Eurotrip” would be reduced to nothing more than the
requisite bathroom humor. But this time around, first-time director
Jeff Schaffer take a slight detour from the typical teen comedy by
playing on European stereotypes.

Scotty Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) is distraught after he finds
out he has rejected an advance by his German online pen-pal after
mistaking her name Mieke for Mike. You’d think after
corresponding together for years, the sex of your e-mail buddy
would have been established. But that’s just thinking way too
hard.

To save the friendship from ruins, and possibly to spark love,
Scotty embarks on a raucous European trip joined by his sardonic
best friend, Cooper (Jacob Pitts), and fraternal twins Jenny
(Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester).

This is inescapably a teen flick, so there is the usual fare of
low-brow humor. But, there are a few gems hidden beneath the rough,
including a hilarious Absinthe-fueled incestuous moment and an
S&M session gone terribly wrong. There is no subject the film
leaves untouched ““ from a little boy who emulates Hitler to
the prospect of having sex in a confessional.

The European stereotypes the film chooses to ridicule are
nothing we haven’t seen before. There are the English
football fanatics, the arrogant French panhandlers, and of course,
the seedy stoners in Amsterdam. One particularly amusing episode
occurs when the group is stuck in impoverished Eastern Europe with
nothing more than $1.87, but they soon find out that is more than
enough thanks to the generous exchange rate.

In general, the acting is average, with no memorable
performances. Pitts creepily seems a lot like David Spade, both in
appearance and humor. Unfortunately, also like Spade, Pitts’
sarcasm gets trite toward the end of the film.

On the bright side, “Eurotrip” does consistently
offer more laughter than some of its counterparts. And any break
from bathroom humor is most welcome.

-Laurie Lo