American Pie: Ancora insieme

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

My school was handing out tickets for a special screening for American Reunion tonight, I just got back from the screening. I was never a die hard fan of the American Pie series, but I've always found them to be quite enjoyable. I still feel the same way when I was watching this film. I'll be honest, I thought this one wasn't going to be any good and I thought it would be toned down, I'm glad to be wrong this time around. I'm not going to go much into the plot except that it's simply a reunion as all the characters are here to return, which it what you'd expect coming into this. It's just as sweet and crude as the previous three. Just like the other films, Seann William Scott is still the best part of the film. The rest of the cast did just as good as they did with the previous films. If you're a fan of the previous films, you'll still find something to enjoy. If you never were a fan, this isn't going to change your mind.

Caught a preview screening of this movie tonight in NYC. I am 26 years old now, so I was in 8th grade when the original came out.

Thought the first two were awesome but thought the third noticeably drifted away from what made the first two special.(A little too much Stifler).

For American Pie 4, when I saw the preview I was excited to see them all back together, but I didn't know what to expect. I know Hollywood loves destroying sequels and I didn't know how they were going to create a story line out of characters that really haven't been together in forever.

Fear not. I though this movie was almost as good as the original. Two hours of non-stop cracking-up, but none of it was forced. They brought back all the characters, but in a way that didn't seem thrown together or in-genuine. It was about 2 hours and 15 minutes long, but not once did I think this was dragging. They did a nice job explaining where everyone has been and it didn't really seem awkward.

The best part of it is, the story is about all 5 of the original guys, and their relationship with women and sex at their current juncture (31 years old). Each have their own issues (too married, have kids, hate their jobs, hate their lifestyle, etc.) and the movie is kind of about them all resolving their that over the course of a reunion weekend. It's the American Pie which is most similar too the first one. All the old couples from high-school (Oz/Heather, Kevin/Vicky, Jim/Michelle) re-hash their past feelings.

Another great thing about the film is that Stifler's character is written back in the style of American Pie 1 and 2, which I loved. His part is not over bearing like the Wedding. Kevin, Finch (and Oz) play much bigger roles than they did they did in the third.

There a couple new characters but none of them are annoying or take up too much of the story, all those parts are well cast. Jim's Dad and Stifler's Mom are hilarious on screen together. Jim's Dad is the funniest he has ever been- but again- not in an over the top way. All in all, it's a well-written, well-rounded film with some good plot twists. Tons of references too the old films. Literally, all of the obscure characters from the first two make an appearance at some point.

BOTTOM LINE: 9/10. If you are a fan of the American Pie films (especially 1 & 2) your going to LOVE this movie. Worth the $.

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

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?