EuroTrip: Looking Back at the Raunchy Comedy 20 Years Later

27.02.2024 - 20:47 / comingsoon.net / Matt Damon

There is the thought that films resonate more with us based on where we are in our lives at the time we first encounter them. Back in 2004, I thought EuroTrip was incredibly clever and funny, but figured it would age poorly and show its faults more on consecutive re-watches. That was absolutely true, yet I still find myself laughing at this movie, and it may have even been part of the inspiration I needed to import a British wife. For all of the ways this juvenile comedy can be torn apart, EuroTrip still has plenty of frequent flier miles to offer.

Twenty years or so ago, audiences were really into raunchy teen sex comedies, and EuroTrip was prepared to take the idea abroad. For most, the day we graduate high school is a glorious one, but for Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowicz), it’s also the day his beautiful girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk) drops the pretense of their committed relationship and dumps him. If that weren’t bad enough, the life band at the party that night performs a song about all of the ways she’s been cheating on him, and he bungles his chance with the only other love interest in his life due to a simple mistranslation. Now, Scotty and his friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts) are going to Europe, where they’ll meet up with the twins Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester) in an attempt to find Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) and make things right. Obviously, it’s a tour de Force of awkward comedy.

Okay, no, it’s like the rest of this sub-genre, more interesting to those who prefer crude humor, vulgar situational gags, and some seriously unabashed nudity. The acting is serviceable, with it slipping in a few parts, and the best overall performances probably go to the twins, who aren’t the main characters and have incest as one of their biggest story points. There are, however, a lot of fun cameos.

Apparently, it IS about who you know. Jeff Schaffer is listed as the director of the film, but Alec Berg and David Mandel reportedly shared in those duties as well. All three men also wrote the film and reached back to their college chums and acquaintances they had made in the industry to secure some interesting surprises for guest roles in the film. Names like Lucy Lawless, Patrick Malahide, Diedrich Bader, and Fred Armisen all show up in the credits, while Jeffrey Tambor appears uncredited. But the two that viewers seem to remember the most are Vinnie Jones as the soccer hooligan and Matt Damon pretending to belt out the lyrics to Lustra’s “Scotty Doesn’t Know.” Damon still has people shouting that phrase at him randomly on the street, and why not? The song is iconic, being heard multiple times and in different versions during the movie. The actor also claims that the musical triumph was written