Road Trip was a big hit. So naturally there had to be a second one to test how far they could take the movie before it started to smell fishy.
One of the big things movie series have to deal with is how much to change and how much should stay the same. With Beer Trip, which is much easier to remember and a lot faster to type, they’ve decided to stick pretty close to the first one. You’ve got a person who is only minimally in the story, retelling the story to a group of would be freshman on a campus visit. They even have the same mom hitting on the tour guide. It’s not Tom Green this time, but instead DJ Qualls, the skinny dorky kid from the first movie. Qualls has taken his lessons from the first Trip to become the Big Man on Campus. He has no real role in the movie; he’s the kids RA so he hops into rooms every now and then to give advice or something but nothing major.
They also stick pretty close to the original story in the story itself. Guy and girl have been dating since high school and then separate while going to college, but they still keep up with email and videos. Then the guy has the unique opportunity to score with a supermodel who he met at camp years earlier. So not exactly the same story, but the same formula. The girl throws the tension into the story by surprising hey boyfriend, Andy, and transferring to the same school. And it just so happens that she shows up the day he has to leave to find the supermodel and go to the Beer Pong National Championships. However, Andy and his friends need someone with money to help them get to the supermodel. They go and talk to Arash whose father is the Dictator of Tondor. Arash also serves as the comedic relief for this version of the movie.
The four of them take off on a trip and embark on misadventures that reminds me more of Harold and Kumar than the original Road Trip, including being detained by the CIA. The first place they stop is a strip bar where Arash gives one of the strippers a golden shower on accident. Then they pick up a hitchhiker who steals their stolen van. Sounds roes’ vehicle gets stolen by a hitchhiker….Sounds familiar. The boys then get a ride from a group of girls coming back from a “Chastity Until Marriage” retreat. The humor there is two-fold. Michael Trotter, who is in the Sean William-Scott role, wants to score the leader of the group of girls. And of course there is the suggestive acronym that a church group probably would have noticed.
The girls take them to Atlanta where the girl is and where the championships are and all the story lines get tied up. If that sounds like a good story to you, then this is your movie and there are also a lot of movies for you, because there is a lot of unoriginal stuff out there.
The acting is what you’d expect from a movie of this caliber. Nesbar is good, Danny Pubi is hilarious with the little line of dialog he drops into awkward places. Michael Trotter is the weakest of the actors; however, he gets a bit of a pass for looking like a mash up of Aston Kutcher and a buddy of mine.
As for the Unrated version versus the Rated R version, I’m guessing the only big difference is that the naked pillow fight is a little more naked in the Unrated version.
Road Trip: Beer Pong is presented in 16×9 Widescreen format and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.
No gross misappropriation of camera work or anything here. Some of the CGI looks cheesy, but that goes for most movies. The audio is right on for beer pong.
Wait…the extras are good?
One the road to Victory – The Making of Road Trip Beer Pong: It’s pretty standard stuff, finding the director, finding the actors, learning about beer pong. Standard, but the actors make it worth watching because it’s hilarious.
The bodacious Babes of Ta Ta’s: This is basically Nestor Absera sitting around with the girls from the bar saying which ones are hot.
Chastity Bus – Heading for Trouble: This is the girls from the bus talking about how fun it was to make the movie. And the guys from the movie saying how hot they were.
Get Your Balls Wet: This is the entire group going through the rules of Beer Pong, which are so numerous they don’t even get close to them all. They all talk about whether or not they actually play beer pong. Juillanna does, which is just another reason to love her.
Filming a Mini-Concert: All the actors talk about how much fun the little 3 minute concert was.
Deleted Scenes: They’re all ok to be cut; some are quite funny, one of them explains an odd occurrence in the movie.
Outtake: Nothing great, just a couple of flubbed lines.
If you’re into unoriginal stories with slight tweaks, you’ll be all over this. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t do anything new. It relies on cheap humor when it could go for more. It’s not as good as the first, but that’s to be expected.
DreamWorks Pictures Presents Road Trip: Beer Pong. Directed by Steve Rash. Starring Preston Jones, Danny Pudi, Nestor Aaron Absera, and Michael Trotter. Written by Brad Riddell. Running time: 96 minutes. UnRated. Released on DVD: August 11th, 2009. Available at Amazon.com.
