Road Trip: Unseen & Explicit (2000)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Deleted Scenes-8 Music Video-Eels Featurette-Making Of Theatrical Trailer-2
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	90:20 (Case: 94)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:54)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Todd Phillips
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Breckin Meyer Seann William Scott Amy Smart Paulo Costanzo D.J. Qualls Rachel Blanchard Tom Green
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$36.95	Music	Kid Rock Mike Simpson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Auto Pan & Scan Encoded	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Dutch Swedish Norwegian Danish Finnish German	Smoking	Yes, copious amounts of dope
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, a Ford Taurus amongst others
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Josh (Breckin Meyer) has been going out with his childhood girlfriend Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard) for what seems like forever, but because they end up going to different colleges, their relationship becomes somewhat of a long distance one (around 1800 miles in fact). With limited opportunities to see Tiffany, Josh finally gives in to his desires and ends up with another girl, Beth (Amy Smart). Beth is a little more adventurous than Tiffany ever was, and decides to record their night together on tape. This is where the fun starts.

    As a result of the actions of Barry (Tom Green), Josh's idiotic room-mate, the tape of Beth and Josh's 'adventures' is sent to Tiffany. This results in Josh and his buddies travelling across America, from Ithaca to Austin, Texas on a road trip (hence the title), with the aim of retrieving the tape before Tiffany sees it. Of course, no road trip would be complete without a variety of obstacles, problems and subsequent fun.

    Someone I must mention is Seann William Scott - talk about a one-dimensional character! He uses the same acting style in every film he is in that I have seen; American Pie; Final Destination; Dude, Where's My Car? and now this, although that is not necessarily a bad thing, as he is still fun to watch.

    For a bit of a laugh and a pleasant way to spend ninety minutes, Road Trip may be for you, although you may have to lower your standards a little to relate to some of the crude jokes on offer. Recommended.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, slightly at variance to the theatrical ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The disc sports a detailed but not overly stunning transfer. Sharpness is excellent for the most part, nicely demonstrated by the legibility of the text on the Sony Handycam, however this is marred by the use of excessive edge enhancement at scattered points throughout the film, at times being blatantly obvious. This problem seemed to occur on the American Pie DVD as well - maybe this style of film is linked to the use of post-production enhancements? (Ed. I'm sure many of the actresses in this film have had post-production enhancements...) Shadow detail is slightly lacking, as shown when the boys are walking up to the motel, although this is not overly bothersome given the style of this film. No low-level noise was spotted.

    Being a road trip, most of the scenes occur during the day as not much driving is done at night. This would suggest that a bright colour palette would be on offer. In fact, the colour is actually a little on the bland side. Although the colour range is large, the colour isn't very vibrant, even with the bright red lights from the party at 14:40. No chroma noise was noted.

    Some aliasing was noted at 00:50, 2:59, 46:15 and 77:48. Additionally, a few spots on the print were noticed, especially during the opening scenes, though these were insignificant. Slight grain was noted in some scenes but was only really noted on very careful inspection.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change occurring at 53:34 during a natural fade-to-black. It is minimally intrusive.

Audio

    There are two audio streams present on this disc, those being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and a German mix of the same nature. I listened to the English track only.

    The dialogue is easily discernible at all times, seemingly due to an abundance of ADR work, not all perfect as audio synchronization is out at 44:52 for a second or two.

    The music is credited to Kid Rock and Mike Simpson, though nearly all the music in the film is from contemporary artists, most of whom I have never heard of. Still, the music suited the film well and especially worked with "We Wanna Rock".

    The surround channel use is very limited, helping out with an explosion or two and with the obligatory musical chords amongst other minimal uses. As stated above, not too much is to be expected from a film like this, as long as everything is crisp and clear, which it is. The subwoofer channel was hardly used, other than lightly by the background music.

Deleted Scenes (8, 12:36, 1.33:1, DD 2.0)

Music Video - Eels (3:31, 1.33:1, DD 2.0)

Featurette - Making Of (4:54, 1.33:1, DD 2.0)

Theatrical Trailer 1 (2:06, 1.85:1 16x9, DD 2.0)

Theatrical Trailer 2 (1:45, 1.85:1 16x9, DD 2.0)

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall