Road Trip *** (2000, Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, D J Qualls, Paolo Costanzo) – Classic Movie Review 958

Co-writer/director Todd Phillips’s 2000 comedy is a hoot from the man who went on to make Old School and The Hangover, which are much in the same vein.

Breckin Meyer stars as New York student Josh Parker, who makes two videotapes – one about college life to send to his absent long-term girlfriend Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard), the other a raunchy record of his drunken night of infidelity with a sexy blonde student Beth (Amy Stuart).

Then he’s forced to drive off cross-country on a 1800-mile road trip to Austin, Texas, with three misfit student buddies (Seann William Scott, D J Qualls, Paolo Costanzo) to retrieve the illicit tape mistakenly sent to his girlfriend, stop her from seeing it and get back home in time to sit his exams.

Hilarious, bad-taste comic mayhem results, with loads of laughs from the four main stars and a hysterical turn from Tom Green (playing a character called Barry Manilow) – the feeding scenes with his snake are especially funny.

You think it’s going to be American Pie 2, and it kind of is. But, despite its gratuitous female nudity, crude humour, swearing and drug use, it’s still really very good-hearted and nice spirited.