There's something to be said for not trying to exceed one's grasp. As cinema, Eurotrip aims very, very low—and hits its mark with flying colors. While I'd be remiss to call it a good movie, as debauched teen fantasies go, it isn't half-bad.
Much of the credit goes to the four leads—unfamiliar actors who are surprisingly appealing, albeit in a fairly clichéd way. Scott Mechlowicz puts in an adequate performance as a regular guy named Scott. The comic relief is provided by Jacob Pitts as Cooper, a smart aleck slacker, and Travis Wester as Jamie, a nerd who's into silly things like culture. Throw in Jamie's twin sister, Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg), whom the others consider just one of the guys, and it's a group just odd enough to be interesting.
The movie opens on high-school graduation day, with Scott's girlfriend dumping him because she can't take all the lying and cheating going on in the relationship; all of it being done herself. Enter Mieke, Scott's German cyber-pal.
Thinking Mieke is a guy, Scott freaks out after he gets an e-mail saying they should get together. Scott e-mails Mieke back, saying never to contact him again. When Scott realizes his mistake, it sets up a plot for the four friends to trek across Europe and find the foreign fantasy girl of Scott's dreams.
But that's all just an excuse to watch some Americans take a check-your-brain-at-the-door trip filled with drugs and sex. As they frolic from one country to the next, they encounter one stereotyped character after the next: the creepy, amorous Italian; the crazed British soccer fan; the annoying French mime. I was worried the film's xenophobia would be offensive, but the way it paints the world as one big, happy, stereotypical family was a pleasant revelation. The film has such a carefree and disposable tone that it goes down smoothly. Only a joke about a boy who draws a Hitler-esque mustache on himself to play a Nazi is misguided.
In a way, I even admire the movie. It doesn't hedge its bets or pretend to be something it isn't. It doesn't do many things well, but it is good at one thing: being very, very bad.