Guilty Pleasures – Eurotrip

There’s a problem with teen sexy sex comedy films. They usually put out a great trailer to get the ball rolling, but when it comes down to a full-on 90 minute performance, things usually fizzle out. Euro-Trip however, was an example that did the genre proud.

Ohio high school student Scott Thomas is a good student and nice guy – albeit a little predictable – who is about to graduate and go into pre-med. He is unceremoniously dumped by his whorish girlfriend Fiona on graduation day. Among the people he turns to in his hour of despair is his German pen pal, Mike.

Scott and Mike seem to have a special connection. After Mike makes advances to Scott now that he and Fiona are not seeing each other, Scott abruptly sends Mike a message saying he never wants to hear from him again. However, Scott learns shorty thereafter that Mike is actually a beautiful girl named Mieke. By this time, Mieke has blocked his messages. Thinking that Mieke is actually who he was meant to be with, Scott, impulsively for a change, decides to go to Berlin to be with her. Along for the ride is Scott’s best friend, the girl crazy Cooper Harris. They manage only to get a flight into London…

On the surface, a movie that combines football hooliganism, papal blasephemy, French robot fights and dutch sex club antics gone awry, should not work. And yet, it somehow does, and beautifully at that.

Sure, it’s your typical sex comedy but with a more international flavour, but everyone present, from the main cast, through to Vinnie Jones as a Manchester United supporter, Lucy “Xena” Lawless as a dominatrix and Matt Damon as a punk rock singer is performing at full throttle here.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, gives a performance worth noting, even if it was for a mere minute. I mean, thanks to Eurotrip, I’m now afraid that I’ll be raped by an Italian in a train trip. And it doesn’t hurt the film either, with it’s slick presentation and catchy music.

The jokes are fresh, even today, hell some of them being even better thanks to recent events, while the main cast is quite loveable and likeable, as they wreck one nation at a time in their epic trip.

There’s some inspired laughs present here, and the fun is exuberantly addictive. If you’ve got low expectations for a raunchy comedy and have the time to spare, you won’t find yourself disappointed, and quite possibly surprised, by the quality and entertainment wrapped up in this little gem.

Last Updated: September 12, 2012