Stars: Martin Lawrence, Donny Osmond, Carrie Evans, Raven Symone

Director: Roger Kumble

Summary: Directed by Roger Kumble (THE SWEETEST THING, JUST FRIENDS), the 2008 comedy COLLEGE ROAD TRIP stars Martin Lawrence as Chicago cop James Porter, an overprotective father who wants to keep his college-bound daughter, Melanie (Raven-Symone), close to home. When the smart, assertive Melanie declares her intention to attend Georgetown instead of Northwestern, James insistently sets out with her on a cross-country car journey to Washington D.C., hoping to dissuade her along the way. En route, of course, plenty of hi-jinks ensue, including scenarios involving a precocious pig and, oddly enough, Donny Osmond, who turns up as an eerily cheery dad also on a college-touring campaign.

Directed by Roger Kumble (THE SWEETEST THING, JUST FRIENDS), the 2008 comedy COLLEGE ROAD TRIP stars Martin Lawrence as Chicago cop James Porter, an overprotective father who wants to keep his college-bound daughter, Melanie (Raven-Symone), close to home. When the smart, assertive Melanie declares her intention to attend Georgetown instead of Northwestern, James insistently sets out with her on a cross-country car journey to Washington D.C., hoping to dissuade her along the way. En route, of course, plenty of hi-jinks ensue, including scenarios involving a precocious pig and, oddly enough, Donny Osmond, who turns up as an eerily cheery dad also on a college-touring campaign.

With its broad, slapstick humour and energetic leads, COLLEGE ROAD TRIP is a perfect vehicle for Lawrence and Raven, who both play to their well-established personas--the former a cranky bumbler, the latter a headstrong teen. Osmond, in his first film role in decades, ideally embodies Ned Flanders-like enthusiasm, stealing plenty of scenes with the aid of his equally giddy on-screen offspring (Molly Ephraim). Although it's far from high-minded cinema, TRIP is a fun, family-oriented road movie that easily appeals to a wide audience, and offers up many silly and appalling moments of parental embarrassment.

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Road Trip is a mostly agreeable, by-the-numbers teen flick with a handful of inspired sequences, most of them involving MTV's resident disturbed soul, Tom Green. It concerns a sleepy University of Ithaca student named Josh (Breckin Meyer) who accidentally mails a video of his sexual encounter with an infatuation (Amy Smart) to his long time girlfriend (Rachel Blanchard), who's seemingly avoiding him while at school in Austin, Texas. Naturally, he recruits some pals--Seann William Scott as the lech, DJ Qualls as the hopeless nerd and Paulo Costanzo as the doper genius--to hit the open highway and intercept the package. Even more naturally, mayhem ensues: a car explodes, a bus is stolen, a nerd is deflowered, French toast is horribly violated and an elderly man bogarts both pot and Viagra.

The film's humour is more democratic than politically correct, as everyone--women and minority characters, not just the hipster white guys--have a hand in the high jinks. Green plays Barry Manilow (no, not that one), a professional student (eight years and counting)--he relates the film's story to sceptical prospective students while leading them on a tour of the college. In particular, in an already justly famous sequence of scenes, he sadistically anticipates and endeavours to accelerate a mouse's demise at the jaws of a python. It's very much in the vein of American Pie, perhaps a smidgen tamer, but at least its characters don't really learn any dopey lessons in the end. Director and co-screenwriter Todd Phillips, who earlier made the much-questioned documentary Frat House, again proves he's more adept at staging fictional comic sequences than real ones. --David Kronke, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Commentary with director Roger Kumble and star Raven Symone, Commentary with writers Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Evans, Raven's Video Diary, Alternate Opening and Ending, Deleted scenes, Bloopers, Raven Symone 'Double Dutch Bus': music video, Behind the scenes of '
Year:	2008
Release Date:	January 26, 2009
Runtime:	83 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B U A 0092201
Keywords:	Road, English, Comedy, General, College, Trip
Genre:	Comedy