The best thing about the characterizations in "Road Trip", in which a group of college pals embark on a whirlwind trip from upstate New York to Texas to prevent the hero's girlfriend from viewing an incriminating video, is that for all of the cartoonish antics of his colleagues, the hero himself seems like a regular and decent fellow. In any movie, and certainly one of this genre, this is noteworthy indeed. The story is presented through a rather interesting and unusual device: it is recounted by one of the hero's room-mates (the one who stayed home from the trip, and is fascinated by one of the room-mates' pet boa constrictor and its feeding habits) as he conducts a campus tour for new prospective students. This allows the story to have breaks, and for certain clarifications and asides which are generally amusing. So the hero has caught the eye of a pretty fellow student (played by Amy Smart). Anyone who has been to college can relate to the thrill of striking up a new interesting acquaintance, and then "bumping into" them on campus as the semester progresses and a relationship takes shape; (Amy Smart would certainly be any guy's dream of such a potential relationship- she is also presented as a "regular girl", not some sex pot with a cartoon figure and wild notions of extracurricular behavior). We believe she genuinely likes him, and is hurt when it seems that he is still involved with his childhood sweetheart, following the interlude which led to the videotaping central to the plot. The childhood sweetheart, we are informed by the narrator, and he have made a pact to remain true to each other while they are separated at schools 1500 miles apart. The accompanying roommates are stock characters, but are not objectionable: a party boy, a pot-smoking intellectual and a baby-faced geek, whose car they need for the trip. Some of the bits are eminently predictable: the ethnicity of the fraternity where they plan to pass themselves off as visiting members, the crude demeanor of the grandparents with whom they stay one night, and the sudden courage of the geek to stand up to his domineering father in the climatic scene. Some scenes were unnecessarily vulgar (and could have easily been adjusted to be funny instead of cruel) such as the treatment that the geek's french toast order receives when he sends it back to the kitchen, and before it is re-served to him. There are some holes in the plot, but this movie does not pretend to aspire to cinematic accolades. No one at the "University of Austin" seemed to have any Southern accents, and money for gasoline and food (though commented upon) was never apparently a real concern. All in all, though, it was amusing, and even had a happy )and for some, I imagine) a surprising ending. It's worth the $4 at Blockbuster.
