The R-rated teen comedies is a fairly new genre, that has created numerous films of varying quality over the past few years. The best of them is arguably American Pie, and while this one comes close, it just doesn't reach the same high level of quality. It is, however, very close. The plot is very good; it's based on a mix-up(an uncommon mix-up, but not an entirely unbelievable one, I suppose), and on various situations that most teen guys could definitely relate to. The acting is good, all of the leads give pretty good performances, as well as most of the supporting characters. Of course, a somewhat well-known teen-movie actor Seann William Scott is expected to be good, but Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, DJ Qualls and Breckin Meyer impressed me, partly because I hadn't seen them in any other movies. The characters are well-written, credible and you can mostly relate to them. The humor is great; it's typical R-rated teen comedy humor, and it's really done great. It's hardly ever overplayed, and there aren't really any of the gags or jokes that fall flat. What puts this slightly below American Pie on the overall entertainment scale is the way this seems to be in a rush to get done with many scenes, and just squeeze as many jokes and gags out in as short time as possible, in order to get to the next scene; American Pie mastered the art that is pacing. It was laid-back, calm and easy to get used to. This has so much stuff crammed into it in such a short amount of time that if you don't pay attention you might miss something. It also has fewer situations that you can relate to than American Pie. One thing that this film has a great amount of is re-watch value; I've seen it no less than ten times now, and I'm not the slightest bit tired of it, which is more than what I can say about American Pie. All in all, a pretty good R-rated teen comedy, but not the best. I recommend it to any fan of teen comedies. 7/10
Review of Road Trip
