There's this idea that movies resonate with us more based on where we are in our lives when we first encounter them. Back in 2004, I thought EuroTrip was incredibly smart and fun, but I thought it would age poorly and show more of its flaws on consecutive reruns. That was absolutely true, but I still laugh at this movie, and it may have even been part of the inspiration I needed to import a British wife. Despite all the ways this teen comedy can be torn apart, EuroTrip still has plenty of frequent flyer miles to offer.
About twenty years ago, audiences were big on raunchy teen sex comedies, and EuroTrip was ready to take the idea overseas. For most, the day we graduate high school is glorious, but for Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz), it's also the day his beautiful girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk) abandons the pretense of their committed relationship and leave it. If that wasn't bad enough, the life band at the party that night performs a song about all the ways she's been cheating on him, and he blows his chance with the only other love interest in his life because of a simple bad translation. Now, Scotty and his friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts) go to Europe, where they will meet twins Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester) in an attempt to find Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) and fix things. . Obviously, it's a tour de Force of awkward comedy.
Okay, no, it's like the rest of this subgenre, more interesting to those who prefer crude humor, crude situational jokes, and some really cheeky nudity. The acting is serviceable, it falls flat in places, and the best overall performances probably go to the twins, who are not the main characters and have incest as one of the major story points. There are plenty of fun cameos, though.
Apparently, it's all about who you know. Jeff Schaffer is listed as the film's director, but Alec Berg and David Mandel also reportedly shared those duties. The three men also wrote the film and contacted their college classmates and acquaintances they had made in the industry to secure some interesting surprises for guest roles in the film. Names such as Lucy Lawless, Patrick Malahide, Diedrich Bader and Fred Armisen appear in the credits, while Jeffrey Tambor appears uncredited. But the two that viewers seem to remember the most are Vinnie Jones as the football hooligan and Matt Damon pretending to sing the lyrics to Lustra's “Scotty Doesn't Know.” Damon still has people yelling that phrase at him randomly on the street, and why not? The song is iconic and is heard several times and in different versions throughout the film. He The actor also states that the musical triumph was written by his college roommate's brother, completing the circle of oddities around EuroTrip.
The unrated version of the film is 92 minutes and there's a lot in there, but not all of the pacing works. Scott's trip also requires the group to visit several destinations in Europe, but most of the film was shot in Prague. This meant that several stand-in locations that were obviously not real locations had to be used, and a lot of green screen was necessary to help complete the illusion. One of the advantages of filming in Europe seemed to be that there was real beer in the party scenes, which meant that several people on set were at least slightly intoxicated.
The original script underwent several modifications. The initial title was Ugly Americans and all the producers opposed the change, but at the end of the day, they had no influence. EuroTrip was left stagnant, supposedly in an attempt to remind people of Road Trip in the hope that some of its success could rub off on the company's new project. On paper, many of the scenes were raunchier, more offensive, had harsher language, and featured even more male and female nudity. There were also supposed to be more cameos, but you can't convince everyone to spend their free time flying to Prague, so most of the actors were already there for other projects.
The only scene that was originally more toned down was the nude beach sequence, where they decided to just go with “wall to wall penises”for bigger laughs. However, this may have backfired, as many of the men chose not to dress between takes and, according to Trachtenberg, the “lack of shyness” made things quite awkward. The two biggest changes were removing the planned Anne Frank House scene, which is in script form on the DVD, and replacing it with Cooper's adventures at the Vandersexxx Club, featuring Mrs. Lawless and her two assistants, Hans and Gruber, as well as the first ending, which they filmed, but it was much more depressing.
EuroTrip is an unbalanced movie that didn't do well at the box office, finding some success after its theatrical release and becoming more of a shining light for people who like this type of humor. Frommers People I didn't even like it very much, and that movie fools its guides all the time. Now, it may be harder for the film to gain new fans, as some of its humor and lewd jokes simply haven't aged well over the past two decades. Much of what they were trying to make fun of (as evidenced by the original title) seems awkward, but sometimes limits to decent satire, but it's hard to say if it was an accident or not. All three producers have worked on shows like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, so it's easy to see where their comedy roots come from. However, there are some really funny moments in EuroTrip and I can't help but want to catch up with these characters again, but I certainly hope that's not how I act when I travel back abroad.
