American Pie 4

Doesn't quite reach the highs of the originals but extremely nostalgic and just about enough laughs to make it worth the watch.

I was 16 when the original American Pie came out. It was a film that spoke to me greatly. It was my generation's Ridgemont High, you might say. The sequels too, were enjoyable. But to say that the series didn't wear itself thin might be an understatement. And don't even get me started on the direct to DVD creations. However, American Reunion surprised me with a couple entertaining trailers, and nostalgia grabbed me by the balls. Having had the opportunity to see an early screening, I am happy to say that this is the series I remembered it being.

There's nothing too outside the norm for an American Pie series film. We find the original cast living life over ten years after the original film. Jim and Michelle are having a few marital issues and raising a kid. Stiffler is working a job as a temp, dealing with an a-hole boss. Finch has become a mystery of sorts. Oz is a big shot sportscaster with a supermodel girlfriend. And Kevin is a stay at home husband, slash architect. The group returns for their high school reunion and reconnect with each other and their fellow classmates. But this is a film that is as much about the audience seeing it as it is about our favorite foursome. As stated, the film isn't remarkable in the plot sense. Unlike the previous films, there isn't a big endgame to cling to. There's no goal of losing virginity like the first film, finding true love like the second film, or having a successful wedding like the third film. Instead, these characters just deal with being back in their hometown and their own individual issues.

If anything, the film is highly nostalgic. It's filled with characters and situations reminiscent of the previous films. It still manages to surprise with many of it's shenanigans, from the boys having to get out of some awkward tight spots, to Jim once again finding himself in extremely embarrassing situations. Heck we even get a few truly surprising moments that are also very laugh out loud. But for the audience that grew up on these films, it will be like a trip down memory lane. It's fun seeing all your favorite characters return, from the underused ones to all of the main cast. Even seeing characters like Oz or Vicky, whose real life counterparts haven't had much of a career since the American Pie film, are pleasant to see again. And they all do a great job of reprising these characters. Best of all, the film is hilarious, with plenty of laugh out loud moments.

My biggest qualm with the film is it's lack of a strong central plot. Nostalgia only goes so far and there's really nothing to cling to here in terms of something these characters are working for. By comparison, there was the ever present goal of the guys losing their virginity. Here, their personal issues seem meager. Yes, Jim and Michelle are having issues, but you never really feel like it won't work out. Knowing these characters, you already know they love each other. The same goes for most of the others, whom you always feel will come out on top. This despite a few surprises. And with the whole movie revolving around the up coming reunion, an event which doesn't seem to have much affect on the direction these characters take, there's never a real sense of character growth. Instead, you're just hanging out with the boys again, watching them get into trouble.

But this is okay. It's okay because the movie is funny. Much of what happens resembles the kind of humorous situations from the other films. There are some truly laugh out loud moments and the surprises will have you howling. Despite my nostalgic interest in the film, I found some genuinely fun and surprising moments. For fans, this should be a no brainer. The film is definitely worth the watch.

The in-between movies didn't really do anything for any American Pie fan (talking about everything that was tagged with the American Pie title after the American Wedding aka Part 3), but this one will satisfy the fans of the original. Even though (or because) they have grown up, many will remember them. While I think it works for newer viewers (without previous knowledge of the original trilogy), I think the full viewing potential/pleasure will only emerge if you have seen the others too.

While I was a bit skeptical about the fact that Stifler (played exceptionally again by Sean William Scott), went "back" attitude wise in this one, it made more than sense and doesn't take anything away from his arc in Part 3. I would even say, his journey is fulfilled now for sure! The others have their problems too (even if some seem small in comparison to others) and they play it as straight as the first time. Many familiar faces will show up, even the ones who didn't have an actual character name in part 1. A nice touch.

The movie may be (largely) predictable, but apart from some major surprise towards the end, it is done with love by everyone involved and you can feel that through the screen. A really fitting end (?) to a series, that defined a generation of movie-goers

American Reunion completes the transition into adulthood for these characters in a typically sincere fashion. It feels ahead of its time by being a legacy sequel long before it became one of Hollywood's main vices and sacrifices none of the laughs whilst still being able to let everyone accept that it's time to move on from trying to recreate the highs of high school.

It's really nice to have the main five back together and whilst Chris Klein is probably the least funny, his reintroduction brings so much heart and that's always been this franchise's greatest strength. Seann William Scott essentially repeats his arc from the last one to even greater success and Eugene Levy getting more screen time than ever is an adorable gift.

Directors Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg continue what Jesse Dylan started by giving this one quite a bit of energy with their pretty dynamic direction. There's some well placed callbacks here and some of these jokes leave a huge lasting impression. As is always the case, the soundtrack here is a real highlight as it bookends the film rather than being a constant presence.

It was 1999 that American Pie launched what would be a series of teenage sex comedies, given a relatively cost effective formula loaded with nudity and toilet humour, that exploded at the box office and made everyone sit up to take note which of its cast members would go on to make it big. The film spawned two more films that would culminate in a wedding, before going direct to video in the many spin offs lie Band Camp, Naked Mile, Beta House and Book of Love that had very little links to the main characters. It's almost a decade already, and it's perhaps time to put those spin off films to rest, and bring back the original cast and their characters to the big screen in a logical reunion. And why not, given that the individual cast members never really made it to the big league, that coming together in a show of unity may rekindle memories of an audience who grew up with them from 1999's original, and in some ways provide one last shot in the arm for their individual careers.

And so it's a warm hello to old friends with whom we have last left off without much of a closure for all the characters, and like a real reunion, we discover just what our friends have been up to during the course of their absence in our lives. Some are successful, others not, and some are depending on what definition you're using. There's Jason Biggs as Jim Levenstein who's still married to Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) with a kid in tow and having trouble with their non-existent sex lives, Oz (Chris Klein) being a successful television sports anchor and celebrity with a model girlfriend (Katrina Bowden), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) who's also happily married but dreading a very routine lifestyle filled with TV and more TV, who would have thought Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) being very much of an all round adventurer, and Stifler (Seann William Scott) the jock who, well, according to unwritten rules, finds himself in between jobs, getting really nowhere in his career, and still bearing a grudge towards Finch for nailing Stifler's Mom (Jennifer Coolidge).

Some things never change too, as we usually find out during meet ups with old friends, old flames and once rivals, that when we rekindle the past, we'll at times tangent into the what ifs. And there are plenty of such situations that make up the narrative of Reunion, with Jim having to fend off the advances of his neighbour Kara (Ali Cobrin), whom he babysat a long time back and is now a nubile 18 year old eager to lose her virginity to Jim, and both Oz and Kevin discovering old feelings with their exes Heather (Mena Suvari) and Vicky (Tara Reid). Stifler faces challenges at work especially that threatens to cancel his attendance at the school reunion ball, while Finch seems to get onto a real relationship with Selena (Dania Ramirez).

There's also the return of the evergreen favourite, Jim's dad (Eugene Levy), now a widower but still finding time to talk about sexuality very openly to an always embarrassed Jim, and that of a slew of supporting characters from the earlier films that I will not name to contain the surprise. But it's a full reunion as the filmmakers pulled out all the stops in order to make sure of a proper representation rather than a half-hearted event, in order not to short change the audience. And surprisingly though that directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg seemed to have restrained themselves a lot from their Harold and Kumar days, and like touching a holy grail of teenage sex comedies, treated the material and characters here with a lot of respect rather than going for the jugular because getting the team back together again with a valid excuse will seem like a long way ahead.

But when the jokes came, they came fast and furious since we have Stifler in the party and ensuring that his posse of friends get the best deal out of their short weekend stay in town, and this balances out with more dramatic moments which can be seen coming from a mile away. Stifler's party forms the centerpiece where the you-know-what hits the fan, and for all the amount of nudity in the earlier movies, American Reunion would win for being the tamest of the lot, toning blatant nudity down by a lot of notches, and keeping things in relative PG mode as the narrative chugged along drama rather than comedy, for the most parts of the second half anyway.

The first American Pie film garnered an R21 rating here, and this one, although having full front male genitalia on display, male on male kissing, the requisite foul language and subject matter that will earn it an R21 easily, its M18 rating perhaps also reflected a relatively loosening of ratings here in Singapore, although this remains to be seen whether one off, or gets sustained and gradually loosened up even more as time goes by. Still, American Reunion, whatever the rating, is definitely for franchise fans (whether considering the direct to video titles or not), and I really enjoyed how it went full circle in the group's reunion in their final scene together. If you're a fan, then what are you waiting for?