American Pie

I had the good fortune to see a sneak preview of this film in England, a couple of weeks before release - and I was very impressed indeed. Hurrah - a comedy that is laugh-out-loud funny, enough to make you cringe at the embarrassing bits (of which there are many), and smile at the sentiment, which isn't corny in the slightest. This coming-of-age tale of four boys who make a pact to become men by losing their virginity by prom night is the perfect movie to go the cinema with your buddies to see, but probably not with your family. Having said that, I saw a family (son, mother, father and grandmother) coming out of the cinema, and they had a great time. The grandmother couldn't stop laughing, and saying how true it all was. Which is interesting, if a little embarrassing.

Part of the success of this movie is due to the fact that we've all had to contemplate how we feel about sex, and losing your virginity is something which (no matter how fraught with peril it is) bonds us all because it is a very frightening experience. It's also a topic which has so much comic potential, and I'm glad that cast and crew don't throw any of the opportunities away. Here's the thing: if you're going to make a movie that is probably going to offend a few people no matter what you do, and is a very near-the-knuckle affair, why stop at only half-gags? Go the whole hog, push the boat out, thrust it in their faces. And that's what "American Pie" does.

The performances are all great, if a little clichéd (are all you Americans really either:

a) jocks

b) geeks

c) sweet, loveable square-jawed heroes/long haired, intelligent heroines? ...gosh, I hope so, that would be so funny for us Brits to watch). There is yet another high school prom (jealousy sets in once more - see "Never Been Kissed"), which causes much consternation for all concerned. There are marvellous scenes between concerned father and embarrassed child, quite the highlight of the movie. I'll be interested to see how the careers of all of the stars fare after this film. I wish them all well, but I find it hard to see them all thriving outside a high-school environment (which is good, because it indicates that they all play their roles with a great deal of endearing believability).

It'll certainly give you something to talk about with your mates, and it'll make you think about things, too. It'll make you check what's in your beer, it'll make you think about apple pie, and it'll make you think more about your relationships. All of which is good stuff. The soundtrack is good (although doesn't contain any Don McLean), the lighting is also very good in places, the direction adequate, the editing fine, the . But at the end of the day, this is the kid's movie, and they make an excellent job of an excellent script and situation, so fair play to them. This movie deserves to succeed, and I hope it receives a good welcome from us Brits, who should enjoy it a lot. (Incidentally, this film got a fifteen rating, which I think is about right for it - eighteen would be too prohibitive (after all, isn't this film aimed at people aged fifteen?)). Take a piece of advice, though - if you are embarrassed easily, don't watch it with members of your family. But do watch it.

I laughed so hard I spit out half the bucket-o-pop I was drinking, and finally had to stop sipping from its fine nectar, because so many times I was hooting and bending over in joy.

There are some slower moments to let you catch your breath and allow for moments of sincerity, but only for a minute. The scenes in the previews (the ones you think will ruin the movie for you) are expounded on ten-fold, so there are plenty of surprises.

During the movie I kept saying, "This is me and my friends when we were in high school!" They were almost the same conversations about life, sex and girls; just not as frequently, but it's only a two-hour film. Any guy will appreciate American Pie full tilt, and girls will realize just what hoops guys jump through in order to get their attention, let alone in their pants.

What added to American Pie is that I liked every character, because the filmmakers didn't feel the urge to give us prototypical teen characters. Their personalities are distinctive, and their situations are all different, which leads to a hilarious finale where we see just how their pact plays out on prom night.

As I mentioned before, there are genuine moments on the screen where the guys and gals have revelations of sincerity. It adds a needed depth to a film like this, where it's not just raw, raunchy comedy, but important to the lives of the characters who know more than sex is at stake. Which is another reason to like Pie, there are several slices, and sexual conquest is only one of them.

"So high school boys everywhere only think about sex, huh?" my Japanese wife turned to me and said about 20 minutes into "American Pie." She looked at me expectantly, as if she wanted to hear me say I was somehow different, above such base pursuits. I could tell she was mildly disappointed when I replied, "Yeah, pretty much." Eighteen-year-old boys' raging hormones is a truly universal theme.

There have been four American Pie films to date, not counting the straight-to-video releases. The film notably struck a chord with teens when it was released in 1999. I remember sitting in art class and overhearing a popular and attractive senior girl condescending to an awkward and geeky freshman boy, "You haven't seen 'American Pie'? The great American sex comedy?" I still cringe when I remember that.

If you haven't seen it, it is basically about four senior boys who make a pact to lose their virginity before they graduate high school. They shrewdly determine prom is their last chance to get laid, and devote all their energy to getting a woman in bed at the after-prom party, to be held at the lake house of the cocky lacrosse player, Steve Stifler. The boys, particularly Jim, have a series of embarrassing mishaps along the way, one famously involving a warm apple pie.

"American Pie" set a new bar for teen comedies. Every teen comedy since has tried, and failed, to top the scene where Stifler unwittingly drinks a beer with a load of semen in it.

Though "American Pie" is famous for its numerous gross-outs, the movie is good, and not just gross, because we come to identify with the characters, and the humor rises naturally from the situations. The scene where Stifler slips laxatives into Finch's mochaccino, causing him to make a desperate dash for the nearest toilet, is funny not because fart sounds are humorous, but because the film already established Finch's aversion for public restrooms.

The Stifler character was especially believable. When Heather (Mena Suvari) asks out Oz (Chris Klein) in front of the lacrosse team, Stifler proceeds to make lewd gestures. Heather misinterprets this as Stifler making fun of her, when Stifler was really just trying to embarrass Oz. When I first saw the film at the age of 16, I thought, That's pretty much how high school boys act.

The acting is serviceable. Eugene Levy, who plays Jim's dad, and Seann William Scott, who plays Stifler, are totally convincing in their roles. (Toward the end of the film, watch Stifler in the background check his beer before he takes a sip.) Others, however, give flat performances, especially in dramatic scenes. However, since these scenes take back seat to the comedy, and few of the jokes fall flat from the acting, the mediocre performances don't hurt the overall effectiveness of the film.

Another criticism I have of the film is one that pretty much applies to all Hollywood films, and that is that the kids are too rich. You can usually tell who the poor kid is in a Hollywood movie because he's the one who's not driving a late-model car. His family will still live in a two-storey house. Every student in "American Pie" (except for Oz, the only one shown to have a job), lives like the richest kid at my high school.

Overall, "American Pie" is an enjoyable comedy that will continue to be the standard against which all teen comedies will be judged. I recommend the unrated version. While scenes in most unrated or extended editions were cut from the theatrical releases for good reasons (i.e., they were tedious), the theatrical version of "American Pie" was really a sanitized version of the better, unrated version.

American Pie starts right off with shock value, and while the film relies heavily on it, there's plenty of story and exceptional performances to hold your interest. I attended a sneak preview of what I was told was a rough cut of the film, although there was only one scene that looked unfinished. The underlying story here is that of four high school senior buddies who have made a pact with each other to get laid before they graduate, specifically at the prom. The problem is, only one of them has a serious girlfriend, and she can't decide if she's ready for sex. But where the film really makes an impact is in it's numerous masturbation related scenes. There is one scene particularly early in the film that should test your stomach for the rest of the film's humor. Now while the film may not sound like it has good morals, there is one repeated underlying message, and that is to do what you like and not what you feel pressured to do. Unfortunately, this is NOT the kind of film its target audience should be seeing. At times it makes getting laid seem like the most important part of high school. The strength of the film lies in the fact that everyone who went to a public high school can relate to some aspect portayed here, and in the strong and well-timed performances of the talented cast. If you're mature enough to appreciate the film for its sheer comical performances, then you should really enjoy it. But if you don't like "toilet humor", then you might not find anything appealing with this one. Definitely not a date movie.

The director and the writer, Paul Weitz and Adam Herz respectively, will do anything for a laugh -- that's good, as it turns out, because this movie has a great many laughs in it. There's not much of that restricting, suffocating "logic" stuff around, but "American Pie" is immensely enjoyable. I mean, almost none of the things that happen in this film would ever, ever come to pass in real life, but it doesn't matter.

For starters, the characters aren't all one-dimensional. Thankfully, they're two-dimensional, so right away it has an edge on 60-70% of all the movies ever made.

Moreover, it's heart is in the right place. Most high school movies these days are all about cruelty and malice, especially towards (and among) the women. Not the case here. This is the first conventional high school movie I've ever seen that made me smile so much (I say conventional because "Rushmore" still trumps every one of them).

Furthermore, it's very funny. I wouldn't dare give away any of the really great gags (we've all seen the trailer -- that's not the one I mean), but I'll say this: Weitz and Herz are extraordinarily skilled in audience manipulation, which is to say that they know how and when to spring unexpected surprises upon us. They also know how to use foul language for punch, rather than punctuation.

The soundtrack is another positive. It's all about joy and high energy -- even music from Third Eye Blind and Barenaked Ladies that suffers from radio overplay fits the mood appropriately.