Eurotrip *** (2004, Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Michelle Trachtenberg, Travis Wester) – Classic Film Review 960

Co-writer/director Jeff Schaffer’s 2004 raunchy teen comedy is a bumpy ride, but it’s a mostly amusing, bad-taste college farce about nice but dim Ohio high school student Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) and his buddies (Jacob Pitts, Michelle Trachtenberg, Travis Wester) taking a trip to Berlin to find his German e-mail gal pal Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) whom he’s accidentally insulted.

Thinking his pen pal is a man named Mike, the not very enlightened Scott writes: ‘I’M NOT into guys like you so pleas keep yor hands off of my Genitals and never right to me again and don’T come to AMErica.’ Other gleefully homophobic and xenophobic moments include Wester’s being pestered by a creepy Italian guy (Fred Armisen) on a train.

Originally called Ugly Americans, but changed to access the crowd who liked Road Trip (2000), Eurotrip is a good example of the teen comedy revival of the late 90s and early naughties and arguably now a minor cult classic of the era. At least we can tell something about the film-makers’ intentions through the Ugly Americans title, so it’s a pity it was changed.

The right actors are up for it, and kick up a strong sense of youthful fun, but much more polish and finesse are needed in the writing and direction. Another couple of script re-writes with funnier gags might be good. But, somehow, it stays just about likeable in its lazy, sloppy way.

The Pope and those ‘funny’ Europeans are the butts of some weak, rancid gags in the screenplay by Schaffer, Alec Berg and David Mandel. The Brits aren’t left out, either, with Vinnie Jones being the comic footie fan – a Manchester United fan talking cockney! – in a quaint London known only to the Yanks. Admittedly he’s about the funniest thing in the movie.

The publicists tried to find a way out for the film-makers with their advertising line: ‘No actual Europeans were harmed in the making of this film’. But I’m not so sure.

But what the heck is Matt Damon doing here in a cameo as skinhead Donny (and he gets a funny song too! – Scotty Doesn’t Know)? Why is Lucy (Xena) Lawless playing a dominatrix? And how is Joanna Lumley’s Amsterdam youth hostel owner only in the outtakes? Probably, they’re the lucky ones.

Various deleted scenes and out-takes show over the closing credits. The DVD version includes extra footage and several deleted scenes. After the credits, there is a brief reprise of the scene where Pitts’s Cooper tricks Molly Schade’s Candy into rubbing her naked breast.

This was Mechlowicz’s reward for having graduated in 2003 with honours from UCLA’s Conservatory Acting Programme.

Cast members Scott Mechlowicz (Scotty), Jacob Pitts (Cooper), Michelle Trachtenberg (Jenny), Travis Wester (Jamie) joined director Jeff Schaffer and producers Alec Berg and David Mandel for a Q&A session in Hollywood in February 2014 to celebrate the film’s 10th anniversary.

The film exposed an entire generation of teens to a beach full of dangling male genitalia and, a decade later, those involved are apparently still proud of it — every sex organ included!

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