Eurotrip review

Passport already stamped with the likes of Road Trip and Old School? Then prepare to feel at home in the world of Eurotrip, where horny high schoolers are the main characters and the plot takes a back seat to dumb set-pieces.

Eurotrip's speciality is stereotypes, director Jeff Schaffer's juvenile offender taking pot shots at everything from English football hooligans (led, fittingly enough, by Vinnie Jones) to kinky Dutch dominatrixes. The tone strives for goofy ribbing, but too often attains obvious, overblown stupidity. The Germans are Nazis! The Italians are rigidly religious or sleazebags! The whole of Eastern Europe is a slum! Aahahahahahaha! Stop it, you're killing us. It may be what you expect from a loud, brash teen movie, but it's not what you expect from a loud, brash teen movie scripted by a team who got their start writing for Seinfeld.

Admittedly, the idea of laughing at stupid Americans abroad is a solid one, but there's really nothing new here to justify relocating to Europe (or should we say Prague, the city's tax breaks encouraging the filmmakers to mock up their entire Euro tour within its limits). Silly foreign stereotypes aside, this may as well be set in Texas, the horny characters simply wandering the usual trampled paths towards getting laid.

There is, however, one saving grace: the likeable cast make an honest stab at selling the tepid gags. Yet even this amiable bunch lose out to a cameoing Matt Damon, on hand to perform the brain-invading punk "theme" song `Scotty Doesn't Know'. Sporting a shaven head and more piercings than an explosion in a needle factory, he marks a comic high in a film with too many lows - most notably Saturday Night Live no-mark Fred Armisen as the creepy Italian fondler seen in the trailer. Talk about a half-joke that's milked 'til it's red raw.

More heavy slog than enjoyable jaunt, this is one time you might want to consider holidaying at home.