Euro Trip
Overview: After learning his pen-pal from Germany is a female and not
a male, Scotty is mad at himself for turning down
an invitation she made to meet him. His friend Cooper decides they
need to go to Germany and track her down.
My Rating: Funny movie. From the director or creator of Road Trip.
Some of the humor is sophomoric. The movie may be
more geared towards the male audience with the female nudity. However
if you get the unrated version, there is a scene at
a nude beach full of men that women will like or possible throw up at.
More Detail: Scotty (Scott Mechlowicz) and Cooper (Jacob Pitts) have
graduated High School. After graduation, Scotty
meets up with his girlfriend Fiona, a junior. Scotty is looking
forward to the summer with Fiona but she breaks up with him.
When he asks her why, she says she can't go on with the lying and
cheating. Scotty says he never cheated on her, Fiona says
that's what makes this so hard. (And we're off).
Cooper and Scotty get ready for a graduation party. Scotty answers an
email from his Pen Pal Mike from Germany. Cooper
tells him to be careful, Mike is probably some old man who wants to
make love to him.
At the Party the lead singer of the band plays a song he wrote for
his girlfriend Fiona called "Scotty Doesn't Know". A pretty
catchy number I might add. The Lyrics are something like, Scotty
thinks she's at church on Sunday when she's really on her
knees with me. Scotty Doesn't Know". So Scotty drinks heavily at
the party. Cooper comes across a group of girls in the hot
tub and when one is left jumps in saying "I didn't park my car
here". He then tells her she has a mark on her breast and she
keeps rubbing it to get it off. The boys then arrive and Coop is
tossed out.
Back home Scotty gets an Email from Mike. Mike is Sorry about Fiona
and is thinking about coming to America to meet
Scotty. Scotty replies back to stay away you pervert and never write
me again. That morning Scotty's younger brother is on
his computer and tells him it's not Mike it's Mieke, a common German
name for a girl. He shows his brother a picture of
Mike with a girl to prove him wrong, but it turns out the girl is Mieke.
Cooper finds out and decides he and Scotty should go to Germany. To
get there they fly as couriers to England to save
money. In London they enter a bar that is for Manchester United
Soccer fans only, Hooligans all around. Coop and
Scott manage to bluff there way through as the USA fan club
presidents. They drink with the boys and end up in Paris.
In Paris they meet up with the brother and sister twins Jamie (Travis
Wester) and Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg - very hot).
They hook up with the twins and go on a once and a life time trip
around Europe.
Many laughs ensue including Cooper being strapped down to a bed at a
sex show and not being able to pronounce the "safe
word" to make them stop. Jenny and Scotty have a bad trip after
eating some hash brownies, but come back down when
they find out they are just regular brownies.
Jamie hooks up with the girl at the camera place in the alley. He gets robbed at knife point but doesn't care.
After some heavy drinking at a night club, Scotty and Cooper are surprised Jamie making out with another girl, his sister.
In the end, the gang goes to Rome to catch up with Meike who is
touring the Vatican. The guys ring the bell signifying the
Pope is dead. They wear his hat and set it on fire by mistake. They
throw it in the chimney and the white smoke signifies a
new Pope has been elected and they think it is Scotty.
Scotty final catches up with Meike and explains what happened. She
still goes on her trip to Greece but not before they
hook up in a confessional.
In College, Scotty is waiting for his new roommate. Meike is going to
School in Greece, or so he thinks. She shows up at
his door. Turns out they thought she was a guy too and roomed her in
Scotty's room.
The Butterfly Effect
Overview: A young man struggling to remember his memories, finds out
he has the ability to travel back in time and change
things. What he changes in the past has a direct link to the future
affecting him and those close to him.
My Rating: A pretty wild ride. A different role for Ashton Kutcher.
He breaks away from the character that has made
him a household name on That 70's Show. While the premise of the
movie is unbelievable, it is fun to watch.
More Detail: The movie opens with Evan, a young man in college,
running from his doctors in the psychiatric hospital. He hides
in an office and writes a note, If you find this then I have died, If
you don't then maybe I have been able to save her. Something
like that.
We now go back in time to Evan around 8 - 10. He is raised by his
mother, a Nurse. His dad is in a psychiatric hospital. Evan
has problems with blackouts that no one can explain. For a school
assignment he has to draw a picture of what he wants to be.
he turns in a picture of a man holding a knife over a couple dead
bodies, he does not remember drawing it.
Evan wants to meet his dad. His mom drops him off at his friends
house, Kayleigh. Kayleigh has a father and brother, Tommy.
The problem is is their dad is not a nice man. He films Kayleigh and
Evan although Evan does not remember it, he "wakes"
up from his blackout without any clothes on.
A few years pass and the kids are now teens. They also have a friend
Lenny. Tommy is pretty much a juvenile delinquent.
He finds a large firecracker his dad had and they decide to blow
something up. He gets Lenny to put it in a mailbox.
Evan is waiting for the explosion when he and tommy are running
through the woods with Lenny, he doesn't remember
what happened. Lenny has to go to the hospital, he is in shock.
Evan has been keeping notes, a journal, to help him remember things.
Tommy, Kayleigh and Evan go to the movies and
sneak into Seven. Kayleigh gets up and leaves and Evan follows. They
talk for a bit and kiss. Tommy sees this and yells
at them. An older kid at the movies, trips Tommy and Tommy goes off
on him. He hits him in the head with one of those
metal pilons they use to form lines.
When Lenny gets home from the hospital, Kayleigh and Evan go to see
him. They walk through a dump and see smoke.
Tommy is putting Evans dog in a bag and pouring gas on it. Tommy
whacks his sister with a piece of wood and hits
Evan. Evan tries to get him and blacks out. He comes to to find the
burnt bag.
His Mom decides they are moving and Evan holds up a sign for
Kayleigh, who is running towards their car, I'll come
back for you.
In College, Evan is a great student and working on was to improve his
memory. He starts to read from his journal and
passes out. He sees what he had missed from blacking out.
He realizes that Kayleigh's dad had abused them. He finds Kayleigh
working at a diner and walks her home. He tells
her he has had flashbacks to that day and knows what happened.
Kayleigh gets all upset and leaves him. Back at School
the next day he gets an angry message from Tommy, What did you say to
my sister? She killed herself last night.
Evan reads the section in his journal about that day at Kayleigh's.
as her dad tells them to get undressed he has her put her
hands on her ears and then he tells her dad off. Kayleigh tells her
dad never touch me again. When Evan comes to his
brain is overloaded with memories, some being removed, others added.
He wakes up next to Kayleigh. The are at the
same school. The people he knew in school don't know him. His car
gets trashed and it turns out Tommy is after him.
Tommy was left to deal with all his fathers abuse, he never touched
her again. Evan kills Tommy and goes to jail.
With the help of an inmate, Evan is able to "dream" his way
out of prison. This time though, Kayleigh is a hooker.
Evan tries to tell her about his abilities and she tells him he
should go back to that day they put the fire cracker
in the mailbox.
Evan does that. What he had missed as a kid was a mother and baby
going to the mailbox. Tommy yelled at Lenny
not to utter a sound. Evan ran towards the mailbox and told them to
stay away. Tommy tackled the mom and child
as the cracker went off.
Evan woke up and was back in college. This time, Lenny, who was in a
hospital after another "dream" of evans had him
kill Tommy before setting the dog on fire, was his roomate. To top it
off Lenny was with Kayleigh. Evan had no hands
from the blast. Tommy was religious fanatic. Evan's mom was dieing of
cancer. After the explosion she started chain
smoking.
In the end, Evan realizes no matter how hard he tries to make things
better for everyone, someone always gets hurt. He
goes back one last time. To the time he first met Kayleigh. He tells
her he hates her and if she comes near him again
he'll kill her whole family. He wakes up with Lenny as a roomate and
when he asks about Kayleigh, Lenny has no
idea who he is talking about.
Evan and Kayleigh do meet again. On the street they cross paths. They both look at each other and keep going.
Taking Lives
Overview: For 20 years a serial killer has murdered his victims and
stolen their identities. Now there is a break through
and the local police work with an FBI agent to try and capture the killer.
My Rating: Pretty good. A lot of twists, some you could see happening
and others you couldn't. The last twist was the
best.
More Detail: Angelina Jolie plays FBI agent Illeana Scott. She
travels to Montreal where a body has been found.
The local detectives are not too happy to see her, wanting to solve
the murder on their own.
Ethan Hawke is an art dealer named Costa. He witnessed the man the
police are after, hitting a man in the face with a
rock. Being an artist, he is able to draw a sketch.
One down side to the movie, is it didn't take long to figure that Costa was the guy they where after.
Police survey Costa mostly for his protection. Scott realizes that
all these unsolved murders are related. The person they
are looking for is Martin Asher. Martin ran away 20 years ago and she
figures he is killing people to live their lives, being how
his was not so good.
Scott interviews Mrs. Asher, who told police she recently saw her
son, who she thought had died. When Martin was 6
his twin brother died trying to save his life.
Costa's studio was broken into. Police see that he has an appointment
with a man they just ID as being dead. They figure
Asher is using his identity and wants to kill Costa. They plan to
intercept but the guy never shows.
The police are helping Costa move when he is attacked, presumably by
Asher. One officer is shot dead and Costa is now
driving away at gunpoint with Asher in the car. Scott is in hot
pursuit when Costa crashes. Asher is thrown through the
windshield and Costa shoots him a couple times for good measure.
Costa shows up at Scotts hotel and they make love. The next morning
she takes him to the hospital to resew some of his
stitches. Scott goes with Mrs. Asher to ID the body. She shakes her
head and walks out. She gets into the
elevator and the door closes before Scott can get there. She hers the
voice Hello Mother. It is Costa.
Scott runs down the stairs and when the elevator opens she is in
shock to see Costa cutting the head off. He gets away and
meets another man on the train, his next victim.
Spoiler Alert.
For her actions, Scott is dismissed from the FBI.
She moves back to PA. seven months have passed. She is very pregnant.
Her nursery is setup with two cribs, she's having twins.
She goes to make some tea and Asher is there.
He's been watching her. He doesn't want to hurt her but does beat
her. He is choking her when she grabs the scissors.
He gets them from her and is holding her from behind. He stabs her in
the stomach.
She pulls out the scissors and stabs him in the heart.
She wasn't pregnant, it was just a suit. she was never released from the FBI. It was all a setup to get him.