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 man. Realizing he has feelings for her, they visit
London,
Paris,
Amsterdam,
Bratislava,
Berlin and
Vatican City in
Rome, encountering awkward and embarrassing situations along the way.
Plot
Scott "Scotty" Thomas (
Scott 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, who he believes is a German guy named "Mike". 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 Donny (
Matt Damon), the lead singer of a college band, and are treated to a performance of the song "Scotty Doesn't Know".
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", but actually similar to "Michelle" in
English. Realizing his mistake and that he has feelings for her, he tries desperately to contact her again, only to find she has blocked his address. Pushed by Cooper to leave Ohio and go to Germany to find 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, led by Mad Maynard (
Vinnie Jones), 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 (
Jessica Böhrs). 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 (
Fred Armisen) 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 at and therefore go to another beach). In
Amsterdam (which is actually filmed in
Prague), Cooper heads to Club Vandersexxx (which is said to be the Red Light district's "hottest sex club" as a bribe to American men) which is actually a brutal
BDSM club, 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 (
Diedrich Bader).
With no choice but to
hitchhike to Berlin, they manage to get a
truck driver to pull over. Unfortunately, he does not speak English. The driver mentions Berlin in his speech many times, he is actually saying he is going nowhere near Berlin, as he is wanted there for assaulting a woman and raping a horse. They ultimately end 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 - who are both 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, Mieke has sex with Scott 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 with her 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 her bed.
Cast
Production
All scenes were filmed in
Prague,
Czech Republic, especially in the streets close to the
Rudolfinum. The opening scene placed in the United States was filmed at the
International School of Prague. 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
Prague's National Museum.
Home media
Eurotrip was released on DVD on June 1, 2004, in an R-rated theatrical version (91 minutes) and an "Unrated" extended version (93 minutes).
Reception
Box office
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.
Critics
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
Metacritic, the film scored 45 out of 100 based on 30 reviews.
Soundtrack
- "Scotty Doesn't Know" - Lustra
- "My Generation" - Chapeaumelon (The Who cover)
- "Wild One" - Wakefield
- "99 Red Balloons" - Goldfinger (Nena cover)
- "In The City" - The Jam
- "Shooting Stars" - Cauterize
- "Nonchalant" - Chapeaumelon
- "Scotty Doesn't Know" (Euro Version) - MC Jeffsky
- "Make My Dreams Come True" - Apollo 440
- "Du" - David Hasselhoff (Peter Maffay cover)
- "Les Promesses" - Autour De Lucie
- "I Love Marijuana" - Linval Thompson
- "Turn It Up" - Ugly Duckling
- "Get Loose" - The Salads
Additional tracks
The film features additional tracks not included on the soundtrack album:
- "Morning Train (9 to 5)", a song by Sheena Easton plays after the football hooligans, having forced Scott and Cooper to "sing the Manchester United song", approve of Scott's altered ending to the song.
- "England 5 - Germany 1", a song by the seminal English Oi! band The Business plays on the hooligan bus trip to Paris.
- "Guinness Boys ", a song by the seminal English Oi! band The Business plays on the hooligan bus trip to Paris.
- "Prosper", a song by Maurice Chevalier is playing over the background in the scene at the Louvre when the panning camera stops and returns to ogle a beautiful brunette.
- "Ça plane pour moi", a song by Belgian musician Plastic Bertrand, can be heard when the four friends first get on the train.
- Donna Summer's 1979 hit "Hot Stuff", 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 edition where the twins are seen drunkenly kissing each other.
- Bloodhound Gang's The Bad Touch. The song can be heard in the film when Cooper is walking in Amsterdam looking for Club Vandersexx
- "Keine Überdosis Deutschland", a song by Normahl, can be heard during the journey through Germany to Bratislava.
- "The Sacred War" during the visit in Slovakia.
- "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet is used in the scene where they take off in an airplane.
Theme song
"Scotty Doesn't Know" is a song that was written exclusively for the film. It is performed by the band
Lustra, but in the film, 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 film, 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 film, it has become so widespread and (presumably) popular that Scott's best friend Cooper is able to use it as the
ringtone on his phone.
