• Aspect Ratio: 1:78:1
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
• Region: A (B? C?)
  
• Rating: R & Unrated
  
• Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
• Run Time: 93 Mins.
• Studio: Paramount Home Media Distribution
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: May 15th, 2012
• List Price: $19.99

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Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Film

[Rating:3/5]

Road Trip tells the story of Josh (Breckin Meyer) and his girlfriend Tiffany (Rachel Blanchard). Childhood friends, both have since developed their relationship into something more, becoming high school sweethearts. Now college has arrived and while Josh has chosen to stay nearby at the University of Ithaca in New York, Tiffany has decided to attend school all the way down in Texas. Both have sworn to keep their relationship together, regardless of distance. In order to keep a sense of closeness, each send one another tapes. This seems like a solid idea, until Josh makes a sex tape with Beth (Amy Smart). Late for class the next day, Josh asks his roommates E.L. (Seann William Scott), Barry (Tom Green), and Rubin (Paulo Costanzo) to mail the tape out. Bragging about his conquests later, Josh is shocked to realize that his friends have, in fact, mailed the sex tape to his girlfriend. Clearly not wanting her to ever see this, the four decide to embark on a road trip to Texas in the hopes of getting the tape before Tiffany ever has the chance to see it. What results is a fairly funny film, with a few laugh-out-loud moments mostly courtesy of Scott.

Having never seen Road Trip before the Blu-ray arrived at my door, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I clearly remember the film coming out, and generally have heard that the film was funny. While I can’t comment on the age of the film, I will say that some of the cruder, gross out jokes (perhaps because of the style of comedies in this day-and-age) really weren’t as shocking and crude as one might have thought; however, there’s no denying that Trip is still funny. While most of the humor does come from Scott and his crazy antics (really he seems to act in the exact same manner in nearly all of his films), I found the chemistry between all actors really helped the flow of the movie.

I will say that if, like me, you’ve never seen Road Trip before, I won’t recommend a blind buy as there are funnier, gross-out, films out there. If you have seen it, don’t hesitate to add this one to your collection post-haste.

Video Quality

[Rating:4/5]

The 1:78:1 framed, AVC/MPEG-4 encoded transfer is generally solid throughout. The film’s color palette features mostly warm, natural colors like that of the exterior shots of the campus of Ithaca. Flesh tones and close ups are accurate for the most part, although some of the contrast levels can look a bit bland at times (really lacking definition in some of the darker sequences). Speaking of darker moments, the film does hold fine detail throughout these moments with rock solid blacks. There is a bit of EE I noticed (halos), but nothing overly intrusive that would really hamper the transfer. All in all, fans will be pleased with what Paramount has done here.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4/5]

The film’s provided DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is equally as good as the aforementioned video. While this is a comedy, and typically comedies do feature front-heavy mixes, I was surprised by the atmosphere this track provided. Dialogue is well reproduced throughout via the center channel. Moments of atmosphere, like that where the car explodes, do provide us with a sense of ambience during that moment. The opening party also gives us a sense of being placed right in the middle of the action. LFE is mostly reserved for the musical selections, offering up solid low-end. Truly, this isn’t a great track and is nothing that you’d pull out to show off; however, is more something that suits the film well.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:1.5/5]

The included supplements are presented in SD and HD:

• “Ever Been on a Road Trip?” – This runs 4:55 and glances into a bit of behind-the-scenes action with cast interviews.
• Deleted Scenes – 10:54 worth of somewhat funny scenes are shown.
• Eels Music Video – “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues”
• Teaser – The film’s teaser (1:51) is shown.
• International Trailers – 2 trailers (2:12 and 2:25) are shown.

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3/5]

While Road Trip isn’t as funny as say The Hangover, the film still works due to the actors involved. Paramount’s Blu-ray debut of the film will please fans with solid video/audio. Recommended.

Additional Screen Captures

Purchase Road Trip [Best Buy Exclusive] at Best Buy

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Purchase Road Trip [Best Buy Exclusive] at Best Buy

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]

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