Herald rating: * *
Cast: Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, D.J. Qualls, Rachel Blanchard, Tom Green.
Director: Todd Phillips.
Rating: R16 (nudity, drug use, and offensive language).
Running time: 95 minutes.
Screening: Village, Hoyts cinemas.
Review: Graham Reid
Okay, this movie wasn't aimed at me, but I'm pleased to report that this lame, strained teen-comedy raised few laughs out of its target audience either.
And the teens in my orbit who've seen it were more forthright than a family newspaper would allow me to report.
Here's the story: childhood friends and almost lovers Josh (Meyer) and Beth (Smart, from Felicity) separate to attend different colleges, he in Ithaca, New York, and she in Austin, Texas. He sends her video letters but one night makes out with Tiffany (Blanchard, from the teleseries Clueless) which they video.
A friend accidentally posts it to Beth, so Josh and a bunch of friends decide to make the drive to intercept it.
Naturally the trip involves the nerd with a domineering dad of military mentality (Qualls), the babe-laying wideboy jock (Scott, from American Pie) and the cool, intellectual stoner (Costanzo in an intelligently restrained screen debut).
So far, so ordinary. But all this is told in the present tense by one of the college room-mates (MTV comedian Green, who is suitably flaky) to a group of potential students and their parents being shown around Ithaca.
The shuffling deck of flashback storylines and present-day narrative interrupts any forward momentum, so it constantly stalls as director Phillips (Frat House) leaps back and forth in case you start asking, "Hey, whatever happened to ... ?"
The jokes are telegraphed, the humour shallow, the characters drawn in crayon and everybody is predictably happy at the end. The nerd gets laid and finds the courage to stand up to his dad.
This is a road trip worth staying home for.
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