Senior Trip (1995)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Invited to meet the President of the United States, a group of high school seniors try to make the bus trip as exciting as possible, much to the anguish of their easily irate principal, in this lively comedy starring Jeremy Renner long before his Oscar nomination for 'The Hurt Locker'. The film is weighed down by heavily stereotyped characters (geek, slob, smart girl, prissy young teacher, etc) and at least a third of the gags backfire, but the ones that work are very, very funny thanks to great comic timing from all concerned. Matt Frewer is particularly energetic as the stuffy principal and Lawrence Dane is perfectly vile as a corrupt senator, while Tommy Chong is a lot of fun playing pretty much himself as the bus driver. There is also a wonderfully uncanny subplot involving a 'Star Trek' fanatic who believes that he has a mission to stop the bus arriving at its destination. The film additionally features two hilarious fake movies: one, a 1950s style film about contraception; the other, a pornographic version of 'Forrest Gump'! Oddly enough, the film does not really offer any real ideas regarding the future of education given that the students are traveling to Washington to discuss such matters, but this is a bubbly comedy first and foremost and an enjoyable one at that with Frewer even nicely learning how to bond with his students along the way.

Slacker Mark D'Agastino (Jeremy Renner) is chasing prudish class hottie Lisa and organizes senior skip day party at principal Todd Moss (Matt Frewer)'s house. Class president Steve narcs on them and everybody gets detention. They are assigned to write a letter about the problems with the school system to the President and gets invited to Washington. Moss and new teacher Tracy Milford (Valerie Mahaffey) chaperon the group of misfits on their senior trip with Red (Tommy Chong) driving the bus.This is fascinating to see a really young Jeremy Renner. However there is nothing too compelling about this. There are few laughs. Renner is not the flamboyant type to lead this group in a comedy. It's also interesting to have Nicole de Boer in this with Kevin McDonald playing a crazed Trekkie following the group. I'm not saying this is horrible but it simply doesn't have enough laughs.

I love how you can spice up virtually anything by putting "National Lampoon's" in front of it. It may not mean anything because National Lampoon lends its name to everything that moves, but it always has a nice ring to it. If you can't think of a clever title for your movie, just say what it's about and put "National Lampoon's" in front, it always works. The movie itself well, it's nothing special. The same tired stereotypes you see in every college movie go on (you've guessed it) a senior trip to party and cause mayhem and just generally do things that you'd rather do than watch. Meanwhile a ridiculously one-dimensional principal tries to put a stop to this because well, just because. The jokes are pretty stale, and the characters are unlikeable, but I still enjoyed this movie for some reason. It's a pretty good compilation of clichés I guess, its strength lies in its predictability. Also Tommy Chong appears, that always helps. Not the best college movie, but still easy to get through.

This is a great movie! While it may seem immature at times, this movie is amusing no matter how many times you have seen it. The cast is excellent, especially Jeremy Renner, aka Dags. The students in it will remind you of your high school days. The smart girl, the geeky kid, the burnouts, the fat kid, etc. The plot is an important part but along the way, little things are added. One example is a vindictive crossing guard who thinks he is one of the Star Trek crew members. He follows the bus, trying to get back at one of the kids. He has his blowup doll and his water-gun of a laser. The antics that ensue on this trip are very memorable and I can guarantee you'll have to see it again to catch it all!