National Lampoon's Going the Distance

Description

Buckle your seat belts for extreme comedy National Lampoon(r) is taking you on the road! In the bawdy tradition of American Pie and EuroTrip, this rapid-fire fun fest is the ultimate coming-of-age experience, where the envelope gets pushed, the rules get broken and the laughs come a mile a minute! When three hard-up high school grads jump in an RV and skip town, they have no idea it's going to be the most outrageous ride of their lives! Encountering every kind of cross-country crazinessfrom meeting beautiful hitchhikers and Avril Lavigne to running afoul of the law, two brutal bar babes and a bigwig on the music scene (Jason Priestley) these helplessly hedonistic horndogs are in for the ultimate education!

Customer Reviews:

Keep Going, Your Almost There.......2006-12-05

National Lampoons has always had the ability to put out mixed films. Some are good stupid and some are too stupid to even sit through like their genius movie Adam and Eve, which I turned off after 10 minutes. Here comes Going the distance which actually has some notable moments but most of them I can't write on Amazon. Going the Distance is about a teen named Nick who looks more like a 29 year old. Nick just got a special gift from his girlfriend on the night before she goes off to Toronto to intern for a slimy record executive who likes to take advantage of young interns. His girl doesn't tell him until the next day and Nick has no choice but to let her go.

A few hours later Nick decides to fly to Toronto and ask her to marry him but not before his friends and parents (who absolutely hate his girlfriend) force nick to have a few going away drinks. Somehow Nick's mom slips him something to make him pass out and when Nick wakes up he is in his trailer and his friends surprise him by taking a road trip to Toronto. This movie is actually enjoyable but it could be way better if they picked a couple of better actors. Christopher Jacot playing the lead character Nick doesn't really fit him. I actually would have liked to seen Ryan Reynolds play Nick but he probably had better things to do. Chris was a dry actor for a National Lampoon film and he drops the films worth. The supporting characters were ok but you can feel the need for one more crazy character to boost the movies excitement. There wasn't enough funny stuff going on in this movie, just a little here and a little there. Going the distance is worth seeing if you have nothing else to do and nothing else to watch and you'll definitely get a few laughs, especially on the farmer's table scene.

I really liked it.......2006-07-22

Well, I for one really liked this movie. It is like a canadian version of Road Trip, and the characters are pretty cliche, especially tyler, but other than that I really liked it! Lots of good scenery and good laughs. I really think you should buy this movie

Please enter a title for your review.......2006-01-20

This is as bad as Out Cold. I think most viewers, even if they just want dumb fun, will find this movie insulting to their intelligence. I guess maybe it's just a movie to watch while drinking with friends. Your brain would have to be completely turned off to be entertained by it. It's template derived, an endless string of cliches. The kind of script that draws inspiration from other movies rather than from real life or a creative imagination. The basic plot outline of a guy making an emergency trip across the country to save his relationship, while falling for another girl in the process, is ripped off of Road Trip who ripped it off of Overnight Delivery. Only in this movie instead of the other girl being wilder and broadening the guy's horizons she's more conservative, I guess a testament to the conservative mentality behind this film. The added bit of having to save the girlfriend from a sleazy record executive type = Wayne's World. The picking up girls who subject the unwitting guy to violent bondage = Tomcats. The popsickle scene was the only remotely clever part. If it was just the girl licking the popsickle seductively to tease the boy it would be really dumb, but because the guy was doing it too it had a certain inane random charm to it that I liked.
It's pretty tragic to think that hundreds of people spent months working on this. The only real problem is the script. It's a professional looking movie as far as the actors and cameras go, but it's all wasted effort because of the weak script. It's like building a mansion on a sinkhole.

The only good thing about it is the girl on the cover. Nothing else........2005-12-07

The National Lampoon movies used to be a respected name in comedy. When Chevy Chase still knew how to be funny and have a career, he made a good name for himself in some of the classics in the Vacation series. Then, not much happened with National Lampoon for a while. Van Wilder came out and floored most audiences. While I didn't care for it too much, you can't deny Ryan Reynolds' presence in it. But then it happened: countless direct to video/dvd releases flooded the market, and left most viewers wondering what the hell happened. Shoddy sequels to some of the better known installments, yet more about college, and a few road trip ones, it all got tiring fast. And for some reason, I had a glimmer of hope in Going the Distance. It looked the least irritating (read- it didn't look like it was going to try hard to be "edgy"), and had the most decent looking cover girl for the series this year. When I popped in the disc though, I felt like I was in generic comedy city. Everything was predictable, the characters weren't anything new, the situation was ridiculous, and there was no point in watching it through to the end. I actually had to watch this one in 4 installments before finishing it. It was that mediocre.

Because the back of the box fails to give any plot details, I'll have to actually sound like I was interested enough to follow what little plot there was. The movie follows three high school grads. There's the main character who has the best intentions (Guy A), the brawny jock that just wants to get laid (Guy B/Stiffler X), and the typical stoner who tries to give a few laughs (Guy C). Guy A ended high school with his loyal girlfriend, and they were each others' first time. But once college starts up, she wants more in life, and goes for an internship from some shady business executive she met at a party. She says she'll try to be faithful to Guy A, and leaves. But he doesn't take this too well since she was his first time and everyone's like that for some stupid reason, and makes plans to travel and propose to her. Guy B and C know he's making a mistake, and take him on a road trip one day after they all get stoned. He freaks out once more, and demands they all go to see his now former girlfriend. On the way, they pick up two girls that are trying to make a name for themselves in the music industry. Fortunately, they don't want to be pop singers, and are more hippy than bubble gum. Meanwhile, Guy A's parents hire a hit man to make sure he doesn't propose to his ex, because they know she's not good for him, and want him to make a better decision. Hilarity attempts to ensue.

There's more good than bad with this movie. The group constantly loses their mode of transportation to some abnormal circumstance, and then gets an even stranger way to travel. All the jokes are simple, and rely on small bits of "gross" humor. And most of it is pretty tame, so don't come in expecting something like the American Pie gross-out humor that Stiffler had to endure. The characters are so simple, that all of their dialogue is just there so we remember that they're in the movie. Most of the lines come from Guy B, and most of it is just him going on about how he wants to score. Guy A only whines about his problems, Guy C barely does anything after the first 40 minutes, Girl A is such a perfect woman with good intentions that they may as well hang a halo on her head and get it over with, and Girl B falls in love with Guy C for on apparent reason. For those looking for nudity, you'd better look elsewhere, as there are maybe 4 short bits of bare breasts, and 3 of them are later on. Something else unforgivable is a scene where the group gets a ride to their destination with some band. A few members play a ps2 game (it looks like Armored Core), but the sound coming from the tv is obviously from the first Street Fighter II game on SNES. It's the music from China, and you hear all the old sound effects. This doesn't make any sense at all, and is a disgrace to both game series, especially Street Fighter since, well...I love that series. Even worse is the generic ponk (pop-punk) music that plagues the movie. Just when one song ends and you breath a sigh of relief, another one starts up. I should've known better since the box mentions "Special Appearance by Avril Lavigne" under the title. Luckily, she barely does anything until the end, and is never seen again. If this is what her career's down to, she's no longer a threat in modern music. Add in an ending that you can see from miles away, and you've got one forgettable movie. I can't stress it enough- if you want a better comedy for the same age demographic, go for the American Pie series, or even better- The Girl Next Door.

Since the budget for this thing wasn't that great to begin with, the visual quality isn't anything to rave about. Everything looks basic...worse than some tv shows even, and that's sad. Some backgrounds are muddy, close ups are blocky, and there's grain in the majority of the scenes. The audio's just as bad: most scenes are quiet, save the horrible soundtrack, and the mixing is so off, you'll find yourself playing with the volume on the remote every few minutes to rebalance it.

Aside from bloopers before the credits roll, the only other "extra" is 9 minutes of trailers for other MGM movies. The back of the box didn't even mention special features, so I didn't know what to expect. But hey, that means less time that the disc diseases your dvd player.

If I sound like I hated this movie, it's because I did. Sure, there were maybe 5 small laughs that I had, but that was it. I regret watching this, and will make sure to sell it by the end of the week. Things like these recent National Lampoon movies only further my mindset that I can get a movie made if crap like this does. Mark my words, after the script I'm writing, which is a disaster/zombie movie, I'll write a teen comedy, and it'll be the cure for STDs like this.

luv it!!!.......2005-10-17

althought i am not 18 my parents allowd me 2 watch it andi loved it. quite cool i say.

Average customer rating:

Your kids will probably be bored

Ultimate Summer Break DVD Giftset

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Teen | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000NQQ0B4
Release Date: 2007-05-08

Amazon.com

This giftset includes 10 hilarious summer-break films including: National Lampoon: Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj (Unrated), National Lampoon: Class Reunion, National Lampoon: Dorm Daze, National Lampoon: Gold Diggers (Unrated), National Lampoon: Going the Distance, National Lampoon: Movie Madness, Cooley High, UHF, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey.

Customer Reviews:

Your kids will probably be bored.......2007-03-17

I realize that this batch of films is aimed at older teenagers and college kids, not adults over the age of 25. However, you can probably do much better picking out films your kids will watch than this collection. That's not to say that there aren't some great yet silly films in the batch, because there are. Next I describe each film in descending order of quality.

UHF (1989) - This is a great film starring Weird Al Yankovic as a directionless young man whose uncle gives him a rundown TV station to manage. His unconventional programming turns things around for himself and the station.

Cooley High (1975) - This is a great film for all ages, and was the basis for the sitcom "What's Happening", although it only faintly resembles it. It is set in south-side Chicago in the mid 60's, and concerns a group of high school friends that have numerous comic encounters, but there is also some tragedy involved in the plot.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) - The first one was very funny and fresh, and Keanu Reeves will always be Ted as far as I'm concerned, even if he winds up doing Shakespeare at some point. The plot concerns two slackers who are about to fail history that are given some help from a time traveller from the future. The only problem is that it is so steeped in 80's pop culture that your kids may not get half the jokes.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) - The second one is still funny, it just seems to try harder and not get quite the same comic effect as the first.

The rest of the movies are under the National Lampoon label.

Dorm Daze (2003) - One of National Lampoon's better college farce movies, with the plot set up by a series of silly misunderstandings. The closest thing you're going to get to "Animal House" 25 years after the fact.

Going the Distance (2004) - A Canadian version of Roadtrip. This movie was better than I expected, with a lot of good interaction between the main characters, but still not that great even for a teen farce.

Class Reunion (1982) - This movie had all the ingredients to be funny, but it just bored me, even in 1982. Top that off with all of the 80's and even 70's pop culture references, and I don't think it would do much for today's kids.

The last three movies are just awful - "Movie Madness", "Gold Diggers", and "Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj". I won't even bother to describe them. When I say they're bad, I'm saying they are boring and completely unfunny. If you force your kids to sit through these three films as part of their summer break, they'll be looking forward to going back to school.

The end result is you have three good to excellent films that are all older movies, four mediocre to OK films, and three horrible movies. I think you can do much better at entertaining your older teenagers/college kids than this collection.

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