Rating: D
Dir: Todd Phillips
Star: Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Tom Green
If anyone ever wants to know the difference between smart-dumb and dumb-dumb, point them here, since this movie contains supreme examples of both. As you might expect from the director of the infamous documentary on G.G.Allin, Hated, there is a lot of reliance on tired gross-outs: it’s ironic that most of those who’ll find subjects like farting on toast hilarious will be too young to get into the film. The basic structure is sound – a cross-country trek to retrieve a damning video-tape, mailed in error to a girlfriend, has plenty of scope for comedy.
However, it’s all painfully obvious, you just know the car will get trashed and the nerd laid, as his father (Fred Ward) runs amok. The main saving grave is the very strange Tom Green, a man who turned his battle against testicular cancer into an MTV comedy special. He acts as narrator, and the resulting surreal bizarreness is the most entertaining thing on offer. You get the feeling he could sustain an entire movie, just as long as the director had a cattle-prod to keep him in check. His enthusiastic attempts to get a pet snake to consume a mouse will stay with you, long after the gags about sperm donations, erections and dope-smoking OAPs have been left behind the bike-shed.