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.
Review of National Lampoon's Senior Trip
