EuroTrip

EuroTrip
Directed by	Jeff Schaffer
Written by	Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer
Produced by	Alec Berg Daniel Goldberg David Mandel Jackie Marcus Joe Medjuck
Starring	Scott Mechlowicz Jacob Pitts Michelle Trachtenberg Travis Wester Jessica Böhrs Vinnie Jones
Distributed by	DreamWorks
Release dates	February 20, 2004
Running time	90 min.
Countries	United States Europe Union
Language	English
Budget	~ US$25,000,000

EuroTrip is a 2004 American comedy film. The main plot tells a story about how Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz) and his three friends travel across Europe in search of his German pen pal Mieke (Jessica Böhrs), whom he initially mistakes for a guy, when "he" is really a girl. Realizing he has feelings for her, they visit London, Paris, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Berlin, and Rome, getting into all manner of awkward and embarrassing situations along the way.

Plot

Scott "Scotty" Thomas (Mechlowicz) is dumped by his girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk) at his high school graduation. Devastated, he e-mails the happenings to his German pen pal Mieke (Böhrs), during which his friend, Cooper Harris (Jacob Pitts), quips about Scott being "predictable" and all people on the Internet are homosexuals looking for sex. They decide to go to a party to prove Fiona won't stop him enjoying graduation, but they arrive to find she has been sleeping with the lead singer of a college band Donny (Matt Damon), and are treated to a performance of the song "Scotty Doesn't Know", where every detail of the lewd affair is revealed with an accompanying explanation of why Scotty didn't know about it.

Drunk and angry, Scott arrives home and receives an e-mail reply from Mieke, who answers sorry for all that has happened, and wants to arrange a meeting in order to make Scott feel better. Resonating on Cooper's earlier comment of Internet relationships, Scott tells Mieke to stay away from him. Unfortunately, Scott's brother Bert (Nial Iskhakov) explains that "Mieke" in German is not "Mike" as Scott believed, but actually a name similar to "Michelle" in English. Realizing his mistake and that he has feelings for her, he tries desperately to e-mail her again, only to find she has blocked his address. Pushed by Cooper to go to Germany to see her, Scott resolves to travel to Europe to fix the situation and confront her face-to-face.

Unable to afford a passenger ticket, Scott and Cooper receive a discounted rate by traveling as couriers to London, where they end up befriending the members of a Manchester United football hooligan firm, after accidentally stumbling upon their pub and escaping a fight by claiming themselves as members of a Manchester United fan club from Ohio. After a wild night of drinking, Scott and Cooper wake up on a double-decker bus on their way to Paris for a Manchester United game. In Paris, they meet up with their fraternal twin friends Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester), who decide they will accompany them to Berlin to find Mieke. They agree on visiting other parts of Europe, since this will be the last summer the four of them will spend together before going off to different colleges.

Following a long train ride with an overly enthusiastic Italian man attempting to grope them, the group ends up in the fictitious French town of Crans Sur Mer, but leave immediately after realizing that only men go to the town's nude beach during the summer (the women don't want to be gawked and therefore go to another beach). In Amsterdam (which is actually filmed in Prague), Cooper heads to a brutal BDSM club by accident and Scott and Jenny mistakenly go to a café and eat what they believe to be hash brownies and proceed to "freak out," only to realise that they are normal brownies. While Jamie is at a camera store seeking to have his prized Leica M7 camera cleaned, the female shopkeeper takes him to the alley to engage in oral sex. Unfortunately, Jamie, who is in charge of all of the money and passports, is robbed of everything by a mugger.

With no choice but to hitchhike to Berlin, they manage to get a truck driver to pull over. Unfortunately, he does not speak English and Scotty uses what little German he knows to communicate with him, ultimately ending up in Bratislava, Slovakia (filmed in Milovice in the Czech Republic), where they are horrified by the desolation of Eastern Europe. They talk to a Slovak man and discover there is no train network, but due to an exaggerated exchange rate, they get the executive suite at a lavish Slovak hotel with only $1.83. Deciding to have "some more fun", they arrive at a nightclub, owned by a man Jenny met at the railway station in Paris. Smitten, she nearly falls for him, until she discovers he is married and bisexual. In a fit of depression, Jenny downs half a bottle of absinthe, becoming so intoxicated she makes out with her brother - both are horrified after snapping back to reality. The next morning, the same Slovak man drives them to Berlin. Unfortunately, Mieke's father states his daughter has gone on a boat tour for the summer and will only be reachable in Rome for a short time. In order to afford flight tickets, Jamie sells his precious Leica camera.

In Rome, the four head to Vatican City, where Mieke will tour before she leaves. Cooper erroneously rings the bell of Saint Marco, before setting fire to a "pope hat" and throwing it onto the fireplace, which lights up white smoke in Vatican City, making everyone believe a new pope has been elected. Trying to escape, Scotty gets tangled in a golden curtain, before stumbling out on the balcony where he is believed to be the new pope. Spotting Mieke, he jumps down a banister to meet up with her. Although the Swiss Guard realize what is going on and attempt to stop them and severely punish them for their actions, the football hooligans from England return and save Scott and Cooper. Scott finally introduces himself to Mieke in person and upon confessing his love for her, they spend time having sex in a confessional before she boards her boat, telling Scott to continue to write to her. A man whom Jamie took on a tour of the Vatican turns out to be Arthur Frommer, author of the guidebook Jamie has memorized and he hires him to tour every museum and cathedral in Europe. Scott, Cooper and Jenny finally get their passports and prepare to head home. On the return trip, Jenny entices Cooper to have sex in one of the aircraft's toilets.

Scott moves to Oberlin College in the fall and is surprised to see Mieke. She states she is his roommate, due to another misunderstanding about her name. The film ends with Scott and Mieke embracing one another and kissing on his bed.

Production

All scenes from Europe were filmed in Prague, Czech Republic, especially in the streets close to the Rudolfinum. The scene when the main characters are boarding the train station in Paris was filmed in Prague's main railway station (Hlavní nádraží). The scene inside "Vatican City" was actually filmed in Pragues National Museum.

Cast

• Scott Mechlowicz – Scott "Scotty" Thomas
• Jacob Pitts – Cooper Harris
• Michelle Trachtenberg – Jenny
• Travis Wester – Jamie
• Jessica Böhrs – Mieke
• Kristin Kreuk – Fiona
• Nial Iskhakov – Bert Thomas (Scott's brother)
• Vinnie Jones – Mad Maynard (Hooligans' leader)
• Patrick Rapold – Kristoff
• Matt Damon – Donny
• Fred Armisen – Creepy Italian Male on Train
• Lucy Lawless – Madame Vandersexxx
• Rade Šerbedžija – Tibor
• J.P. Manoux – Robot Mime from the Louvre.

DVD Release

Eurotrip was released on DVD on June 1, 2004, in an R-rated theatrical version (91 mins) and an "Unrated" extended version (93 mins).

Soundtrack

Untitled

1. "Scotty Doesn't Know" - Lustra
2. "My Generation" - Chapeaumelon (The Who cover)
3. "Wild One" - Wakefield
4. "99 Red Balloons" - Goldfinger (Nena cover)
5. "In The City" - The Jam
6. "Shooting Stars" - Cauterize
7. "Nonchalant" - Chapeaumelon
8. "Scotty Doesn't Know" (Euro Version) - MC Jeffsky
9. "Make My Dreams Come True" - Apollo 440
10. "Du" - David Hasselhoff (Peter Maffay cover)
11. "Les Promesses" - Autour De Lucie
12. "I Love Marijuana" - Linval Thompson
13. "Turn It Up" - Ugly Duckling
14. "Get Loose" - The Salads

• "England 5 - Germany 1", a song by the seminal English Oi! band The Business plays on the hooligan bus trip to Paris. This song does not appear on the soundtrack.
• "Ça plane pour moi", a song by Belgian musician Plastic Bertrand, can be heard when the four friends first get on the train. This song does not appear on the soundtrack either.
• Donna Summer's 1979 hit "Hot Stuff", also not included on the soundtrack, is featured in the scene where the four are on the train to Amsterdam.
• "Let Forever Be", a song sung by Noel Gallagher of Oasis on lead vocals and performed by The Chemical Brothers. It can be heard in the unrated movie edition where the twins are seen drunkenly kissing each other.
• Bloodhound Gang's The Bad Touch. Though this song is not on the official soundtrack, it can be heard in the film when Cooper is walking in amsterdam looking for Club Vandersexx

Theme song

"Scotty Doesn't Know" is a song that was written exclusively for the movie. It is performed by the band Lustra (although commonly mis-credited to the band Sum 41), but in the movie, the lead singer is portrayed by Matt Damon, whose character surreptitiously steals a girl from "Scotty", hence the title and subject matter.

The song contains numerous lewd references to how Scotty's girlfriend Fiona has been cheating on him for an extended period of time. In the movie, the song becomes something of a popular phenomenon: a week or so later in Bratislava, the song is remixed and is playing in a popular nightclub. By the end of the movie, it has become so widespread and (presumably) popular that Scott's best friend Cooper is able to use it as his cell phone ringtone.

Reception

The film was released in the United States and Canada on February 20 2004 in 2,512 theaters. Over its opening weekend, the film grossed $6,711,384. It went on to gross $17,771,387 in the United States and Canada and $3,025,460 in other territories for a worldwide total of $20,796,847.

On the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 47% approval rating based on 111 reviews and a 23% rating based on 26 reviews from top critics. On the similar site Metacritic, the film scored 45 out of 100 based on 30 reviews.

The film was referenced in the 2008 comedy Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay when Kumar says on a plane to Amsterdam that Harold and his trip will be like EuroTrip, except that it won't suck.

External links

• Official website
• Do a Eurotrip within your Budget!
• EuroTrip at IMDb
• EuroTrip at Rotten Tomatoes
• EuroTrip at Box Office Mojo
• EuroTrip at Metacritic
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