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Another week of work has been completed and with that comes another thousand reasons to relax, take a five minute break and watch a movie. While the weather has been rather pleasant these past few days, the complications of life have been as challenging as ever. Easter has come and gone, and we are back to wading through life without the obvious guidance of a holy hand. Instead, we have only Hollywood to turn to in our quest for solutions to problems we can't solve by relating to the Bible (I don't know about you, but Jesus' presumed resurrection isn't going to help me pass my college final exams).

What I can offer is a few films that have brought me joy over the years. Some have even satisfied questions that I was asking at the time of viewing. They may not help with your end-of-semester finals (or job review, raising kids, or whatever it is that burdens you these days) and some of them are well below the Fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com, but these are movies that for some reason impacted me. Some have held up over time, some have fizzled away into bargain-bin oblivion. Whatever the reason, these films are worth checking out, especially if you can't come up with your own method of coping after your busy work week.

Road Trip (2000)

Having just taken my last undergraduate college final, with graduation just two short weeks away, I'm stuck in a funk that has me reminiscing in the glory days of my education. There are the obvious college-set classics (Animal House and Old School), but one of my own personal favorites has always been Road Trip.

The plot is simple enough: Josh (Breckin Meyer, whose career never took off the way it should have) accidentally makes a sex tape with someone who isn't his girlfriend (the always darling Amy Smart) and has to drive from New York to Texas to intercept the incriminating evidence. Granted, it's a bit of a rip-off of Overnight Delivery, starring Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd, but it holds a higher place in my heart. Road Trip is much more perverse and has a hilarious supporting cast that includes Seann William Scott (before he got obnoxious), Tom Green (back when he had both balls) and DJ Qualls (too unknown to make fun of, but boy does he get some of the best jokes of the film).

I probably chose this movie because I will miss college severely after graduation. Anyone who has had any sort of Animal House-esque moments of their own while partying can understand my sadness, but if not, they can at least understand my selection of Road Trip. When it came out in 2000, I was a freshman in high school and had to sneak into the theater to catch a glimpse of all the insanity that was destined to come with college. While I have never been among four white men at a black fraternity, been attacked by a boa constrictor or donated my services to a sperm bank (like those involved in Road Trip), I have partied plenty and will remember those days fondly when I watch the movie again in the future. Hopefully you will too.

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