EuroTrip (2004)
April 17, 2024 9:43 AM - Subscribe
Dumped by his girlfriend, a high school grad decides to embark on an overseas adventure in Europe with his friends.
After a brutal breakup at a high-school graduation party, lovelorn Ohio teen Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) goes on a quest across Europe to find his sexy German pen pal, Mieke (Jessica Boehrs). Joining him are his brainless buddy (Jacob Pitts) and a pair of twins (Travis Wester, Michelle Trachtenberg) they meet up with in Paris. Scott's quest does not turn out to be easy, however, and the backpackers become embroiled in many farcical situations as they hop from country to country.
Stephanie Zacharek: "Eurotrip" works if you just give yourself over to its exuberant silliness. Be forewarned that the movie does include a good number of homophobic jokes, although they're all of the straight-high-school-boy variety: In other words, they emerge more from a fear of the unknown than from premeditated mean-spiritedness. (You don't even want to know what goes down at Amsterdam's Club Vandersexxxx.) And several other groups, including Germans and Roman Catholics, are skewered just as disrespectfully, if not worse. What's more, there are lots of naked breasts, so if these offend you, please stay away, but I will warn you that most of them are quite nice, so you'd be missing out on a lot. (Trachtenberg keeps hers under wraps, and while I'm sure they're lovely, I'm relieved that I don't yet have to reckon with the idea of Buffy's younger sister as a sex symbol -- not that she isn't already.)
Sara Gebhardt: After watching "Eurotrip," it seems as though I missed out on a lot during my coming-of-age Western European adventure.
For one thing, I never stumbled across a young blond boy who drew a square black mustache on his upper lip and then marched around his family's Berlin apartment hailing Hitler. And I certainly didn't find myself tortured by an evil dominatrix or having an absinthe-inspired make-out session with my brother. Nor did I sneak into off-limit quarters of the Vatican where, among other things, I set fire to a holy room and got dirty in a confessional booth while an old woman enumerated her sins on the other side. Of course, to expect "Eurotrip" to be true to the Euro-railing experiences common to many American teenagers and twenty-somethings is unrealistic.
Carla Meyer: As the tourist armed with an expensive camera and chained to his Frommer's guide (a constant plug), Travis Wester makes a likable stiff. Michelle Trachtenberg (from TV's "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer"), as his twin sister, is a bit too careful in her appearance to be plausible as just one of the guys. Her character is supposed to be so dudelike that the boys forget she's a girl. When she's looking for a rich European playboy, one of the boys tells her that sounds gay.
That brings us to a very prominent theme in "Eurotrip": gay jokes. The Italian molests the boys on the train, and Scott is warned (when he thinks Mieke is a man) that the German is out to kidnap him. Teen sex comedies always have more homoerotic moments than you can shake a ... whatever ... at, but "Eurotrip" seems overly concerned with penises and predatory men. This brand of humor, a time-honored crutch for comedy writers, is both lazy and unseemly.
Trailer
After a brutal breakup at a high-school graduation party, lovelorn Ohio teen Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) goes on a quest across Europe to find his sexy German pen pal, Mieke (Jessica Boehrs). Joining him are his brainless buddy (Jacob Pitts) and a pair of twins (Travis Wester, Michelle Trachtenberg) they meet up with in Paris. Scott's quest does not turn out to be easy, however, and the backpackers become embroiled in many farcical situations as they hop from country to country.
Stephanie Zacharek: "Eurotrip" works if you just give yourself over to its exuberant silliness. Be forewarned that the movie does include a good number of homophobic jokes, although they're all of the straight-high-school-boy variety: In other words, they emerge more from a fear of the unknown than from premeditated mean-spiritedness. (You don't even want to know what goes down at Amsterdam's Club Vandersexxxx.) And several other groups, including Germans and Roman Catholics, are skewered just as disrespectfully, if not worse. What's more, there are lots of naked breasts, so if these offend you, please stay away, but I will warn you that most of them are quite nice, so you'd be missing out on a lot. (Trachtenberg keeps hers under wraps, and while I'm sure they're lovely, I'm relieved that I don't yet have to reckon with the idea of Buffy's younger sister as a sex symbol -- not that she isn't already.)
Sara Gebhardt: After watching "Eurotrip," it seems as though I missed out on a lot during my coming-of-age Western European adventure.
For one thing, I never stumbled across a young blond boy who drew a square black mustache on his upper lip and then marched around his family's Berlin apartment hailing Hitler. And I certainly didn't find myself tortured by an evil dominatrix or having an absinthe-inspired make-out session with my brother. Nor did I sneak into off-limit quarters of the Vatican where, among other things, I set fire to a holy room and got dirty in a confessional booth while an old woman enumerated her sins on the other side. Of course, to expect "Eurotrip" to be true to the Euro-railing experiences common to many American teenagers and twenty-somethings is unrealistic.
Carla Meyer: As the tourist armed with an expensive camera and chained to his Frommer's guide (a constant plug), Travis Wester makes a likable stiff. Michelle Trachtenberg (from TV's "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer"), as his twin sister, is a bit too careful in her appearance to be plausible as just one of the guys. Her character is supposed to be so dudelike that the boys forget she's a girl. When she's looking for a rich European playboy, one of the boys tells her that sounds gay.
That brings us to a very prominent theme in "Eurotrip": gay jokes. The Italian molests the boys on the train, and Scott is warned (when he thinks Mieke is a man) that the German is out to kidnap him. Teen sex comedies always have more homoerotic moments than you can shake a ... whatever ... at, but "Eurotrip" seems overly concerned with penises and predatory men. This brand of humor, a time-honored crutch for comedy writers, is both lazy and unseemly.
Trailer
Worst twins ever.
posted by hanov3r at 10:37 AM on April 17 [3 favorites]
posted by hanov3r at 10:37 AM on April 17 [3 favorites]
I strongly dislike this movie, but "Scotty Doesn't Know" is hilarious. I've always felt it strongly influenced the Sarah Silverman-Matt Damon joint "I'm fucking Matt Damon," which also always cracked me up. Turns out I have a very simple sense of humor.
posted by grandiloquiet at 2:31 PM on April 17 [2 favorites]
posted by grandiloquiet at 2:31 PM on April 17 [2 favorites]
“Scotty Doesn’t Know” is surely the movie’s best joke, especially because it recurs along their trips as (IIRC) a techno remix in one of the dance clubs and a Muzak elevator track.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:18 PM on April 17 [3 favorites]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 3:18 PM on April 17 [3 favorites]
there was a band at my university that did a song called "scotty always knew" and it will live forever in my heart.
posted by LegallyBread at 5:34 PM on April 17 [1 favorite]
posted by LegallyBread at 5:34 PM on April 17 [1 favorite]
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But young boys were taking their queues from the media, I mean friends was full of that shit, as was movies like this. It doesn't really ever overcome the bull shit in my mind. You can see even from the Zacharek review how much she has to excuse, to say nothing of the gross Trachtenberg part of that quote.
The best joke is very much the Scotty doesn't know song though.
posted by Carillon at 9:47 AM on April 17 [2 favorites]