When New York student Josh (Meyer) accidentally mails a tape of himself having sex with someone else to his long-distance girlfriend in Austin, Texas (as you do), he and his three friends (including Seann W. Scott, aka American Pie’s ‘Stifler’) have just three days to travel across the country, get the tape back and get back in time for mid-terms.
All of which is, naturally, just an excuse for a succession of frequently hilarious gags and gross-out moments…This is one of those films that shouldn’t work, but it does, largely thanks to an excellent cast, some great lines and a sensibly short running time.
There is nothing here that’s particularly inspired (such as American Pie’s ‘pie’ scene), and sometimes the film seems to be working in spite of the gross-out gags rather than because of them, but the characters are all immensely likeable and the whole thing zips along with such an infectious sense of fun that you can’t help but go along for the ride.
The film also deserves credit for not making its sexually-aggressive lead female character (Amy Smart, coming soon to a bedroom wall near you) into a villain.
If there is an unpredictable element in the film, it comes from US comedian Tom Green, who stays behind to narrate the movie and provides some of the weirder moments – if a friend yells at you to "unleash the fury", you know which film they got it from!