Ah, the Teenage Sex Comedy. Where have you been, my old friend? The hysterically funny jokes that the grown-ups won't get, the fixation on losing one's virginity, the Wonderfully Gratuitous Nude Scene. The secretly sensitive jock, the likeable everyteen with a lot of growing up to do, the quirky smart kid with the crazy schemes. Finally, youve all returned to us. Thanks, God of Movies, for .
This is no She's All That. It's more than just an excuse for a soundtrack album. American Pie is a wacky slice of High School as we always dreamed it could be, with sexy foreign exchange students, no time actually spent in class, and big keg parties where everybody gets laid. Awesome.
It's a really good movie, too. I laughed a lot. Beyond laughing, I sometimes even felt the need to pump my fist in the air. The jokes run the gamut from Something About Mary grotesquerie to more observational, barbed takes on the High School Years. Jazz choir and the band kids get especially well-skewered, along with assistant lacrosse coaches, Freshman/Senior relations, and Father/Son talks.
The Fast Times At Ridgemont High-esque, ensemble cast includes Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Sean William Scott, Chuck Sherman, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, Natasha Lyonne, and Alyson Hannigan. Remember these names, because they'll be popping up all over, starring in the slew of American Pie copycat films that will be released in the near future. They all do fine here, and seem to have a lot of fun. Klein, having made his acting debut in Election earlier this year, plays another Keanu clone, this time slightly more intelligent. The scenes showing his infiltration of the school's a cappella choir were alone worth the price of admission.
For those without their own a cappella nightmares, there's a high recognition factor for many of the movie's other scenes. Eugene Levy is wonderfully alien as father to everyteen Jim (Biggs), managing to be both intensely embarrassing and obviously loving at the same time. The party scenes are also highlights, capturing the brave-faced, desperate awkwardness pretty accurately.
If you aren't in high school, American Pie will make you wish you were and be glad that you aren't, simultaneously. I'm positive that Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) the naughty foreign exchange student would have been a constant presence of my dreams, if I were eight or nine years younger. As it is, I've only had one dream about her, involving a terrorist attack and a huge bowl of Jell-o. I wont go into it.
American Pie is no Rushmore. No one will walk out of the movie theater thinking about the art of cinema. If you're like me, you'll be thinking about the damage this puppy's going to do at the box office, and dreading the inferior clones to come. American Pie isn't terribly original, borrowing time-worn plot lines from dozens of Teenage Sex Comedy classics. But writer Adam Herz and director Paul Weitz do manage to breathe new life into one of my favorite film genres, and the film is full of wacky catch-phrases. At the very least, well stop having to hear quite so many people quoting Austin Powers.
Name: danielle Subject: excellent -- Feb 18, 2007 at 9:42PM mat on american pie 4 is kool have a great day fuckolol he is amazing
Name: neo Subject: Review: American Pie -- Jun 27, 2003 at 3:13PM i have seen the trailer for number 3 and he proposes to band dork michelle. after getting head in front of his dad
Name: k.s Subject: why? -- Feb 18, 2003 at 10:15AM why are all the girls pretty? Even the geek girl from band camp! Us less good-looking girls like to see less good-looking girls we can relate to. I am only 15 and feel like the ugliest girl in the world, including the grannies. If you make a third film could you pop some less good-lookin girls in please.
Name: KD Subject: Re: Funny, BUT... -- Aug 21, 1999 at 7:04PM >> Why in the nine holy >> Hell's did the movie >> try to have a message >> at the end? I mean, >> these guys spend the >> entire movie trying >> to get laid, and then >> at the end decide >> that getting laid >> isn't everything.
I don't necessarily disagree with your comments, but . . . Getting laid only seems like everything until you've *gotten* laid. Then it's all in perspective. The movie showed those guys growing a little, and in a way I found fairly accurate.
My two cents.
Name: Hoagie Subject: Funny, BUT... -- Aug 21, 1999 at 5:03PM American Pie had it's moments, to be sure. I won't go into detail here, because you either already know them, or you're going to see the movie anyway. There are some inspired gags here that go beyond bad taste. They will make you laugh. BUT...
There is something that I don't understand. Why in the nine holy Hell's did the movie try to have a message at the end? I mean, these guys spend the entire movie trying to get laid, and then at the end decide that getting laid isn't everything. I was just sitting in my seat with my jaw hanging wide open as the final act occurred. I mean, I was waiting for a hilarious good-taste-be-damned final act, and instead the movie tries to teach us something. I'm at a comedy, at a good comedy, and I want to laugh.
I've seen American Pie readily compared to Porky's, which was also the epitome of bad-taste. Porky's did one thing so much better than American Pie; it didn't try to teach us anything about life, it just gave us what we wanted. American Pie is a funny movie with some GREAT moments, but the fact that it tries to teach us something about sex and something about ourselves pulls it down.
Name: BillyBob Subject: It's Awesome! -- Jul 12, 1999 at 2:36AM This is one fantastic film. I'll tell ya, it's been really annoying watching all these updated versions of the old classic 80's teen movies.
You know "Never Been Kissed" which is just another "Just one of the Guys", "Varsity Blues" which is "All the Right Moves" . . . but see, I never related to those pictures. I didn't spend my teenage years trying to fit in with the cool crowd or worrying about some football scholarship. I spent it trying to get laid. Pretty much exclusively. Porky's was my movie, and now Porky's has been update for the nineties.
Man did I relate to these guys. The raging horniness, the constant masturbation, watching the naughty channels scrambled. It's dead-on what life was like back then, and it's *hilarious*. Who among us wouldn't have killed to have a Nadia masturbating in our bed?
