The picture starts out a little sticky. Perhaps because the main character as well as his audience is itching to get out Los Angeles and see the world. Finally, he grabs his buddy who is inspired to drop the ashes of his best friend around the globe, and the two take off.

I might have walked away from this picture before it got off the ground, but my girlfriend encouraged me to give it a little longer. We ended up seeing it through to the end. It did get much more interesting. In fact, the awkward run-in with the Thai-law was very intriguing. Further, interactions with new people and their stories always proved to be quite amusing. I especially liked the story of "the stolen motorbike in Tokyo" and how stealing things there induced such great shame. Actually though, I expected that this was the lesson the main character promised that he would learn from travel. At the end, he summarizes how edifying and enriching travel can be, unfortunately, we didn't see him become edified or enriched. He just went around the world partying, drinking, and womanizing. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, just appears to be a disconnect with his narrated conclusion.

Nice crisp images and some great vistas. As a world-backpacker myself, I can tell you, this film gives a rather realistic taste of one face of this kind of travel. The wide-open opportunity here was missed to display meaningful interactions with locals (not just fellow travelers) and a deeper spiritual connection with the incredible dizzying beauty of the planet.

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