Euro-Trash
Here is a simple equation: "Road Trip" + "National Lampoon's European Vacation" = "EuroTrip". It takes the idea of a young man trying to get somewhere to solve a girl problem from "Road Trip" and combines it with the whistle stop tour of European countries from "National Lampoon's European Vacation". The trouble is "EuroTrip" lacks most of what made either of those movies good as it dumbs things right down to be little more than a collection of stupid, sometimes insulting gags about European stereotypes. Having said that "EuroTrip" does surprisingly get better with age with some jokes being funnier than they were but for the most it was and still is a dumb movie.
Scott (Scott Mechlowicz) had his summer planned till he got dumped by his girlfriend and then messes up big time when he sends a drunk email to the German pen pal he thought was a man only to find out she is a babe. Determined to make up for his mistake Scott along with best friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts) decide to go to Germany and end up taking in various European countries along the way as they meet up with their back-packing friends Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg - Inspector Gadget) & Jamie (Travis Wester).
There isn't a lot to say about "EuroTrip" when it comes to what it is about as it steals its main two ideas from other movies. So as mentioned that means a road trip style storyline due to a young man and a babe and then we have are tour of Europe where we meet various stereotypes, or should that be American vision of European stereotypes. The thing is that it doesn't work partly because it is so obviously a copy of these other movies but also because most of the humour fails. Basically you can sum it up by saying that it isn't very likeable, the characters are not likeable and the humour certainly isn't likeable.
Now you may ask why and it starts with the simple fact that are 4 friends are not exactly pleasant, Cooper is annoying and vile, Scotty is weak and twins Jenny and Jamie are just annoying. And to be honest the only performance from the main stars which gets close to being entertaining is Michelle Trachtenberg's as her character is about the friendliest of the bunch. In truth "EuroTrip" ends up having more enjoyable cameos with Matt Damon stealing the scene as a singer who sings the catchy "Scotty Doesn't Know".
But it is not just the acting which sucks it is also the humour with pretty much every joke playing out long after they ever came close to being funny. Now I know that "EuroTrip" is basically just a dumb teenage movie but it has to be said that at times it borders on the offensive with it's portrayal of European stereotypes. Brits portrayed as racist football hooligans, French as nudists and the Dutch drug takers is just too much and whilst you could say it portrays American students as being ignorant it doesn't stop it from being any less offensive. It made me wonder how Americans would feel if someone did a movie where Brits travelled across America and made fun of American stereotypes; obese, rude, racist and full of themselves.
What this all boils down to is that "EuroTrip" was and still is a dumb teenage comedy which is surprisingly offensive. Some of it is funnier than it was, mostly the cameos but it just doesn't work.
