Road Trip (Tom Green)

REVIEW
Executive producer Ivan Reitman revisits his Animal House formula over two decades later, and, darned, if it doesn't still work. Combining the gross with the sweet, Phillips directs a group of dormmates (who might be more realistic than those in his controversial documentary Frat House) who set off from NY to Texas on the most important mission of their lives: to retrieve a sex tape mistakenly sent to one of their girlfriends. Green holds down the fort at the dorm with such amiable schtick as tasting a mouse before feeding it to a pet snake. But he can't steal the show from the winning cast and their bizarre adventures -- that task goes to scrawny and pasty Qualls, who goes from nerd to hero when he learns to let loose. Road Trip is no classic, but it's sure to emerge from the gross-out renaissance's ashes unscathed.