American Pie : Marions-les !

Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are getting married. We get introduced to Michelle's family (Fred Willard, Deborah Rush, January Jones). The gang is back. Sadly for Jim and Michelle, so is Stifler (Seann William Scott). He insists on butting in on their lives. If only Jim doesn't need Stifler to teach him how to dance.

It's one outrageous setup after another. Certainly the humor level is the expected level we've come to love from the previous two movies. There are some missing actors like Chris Klein and the girls. The franchise is resting on much fewer hands. It is mostly Stifler going crazy and embarrassing Jim at every turn. Without the rest of the cast, this is too much Stifler. It becomes a slapstick sitcom with much of the heart missing.

It was lacking some ingrediants, or cast members, but only an AMERICAN PIE movie could make good of that issue.Its had a great soundtrack, like the others It is hard to say which AMERICAN PIE installment is the best cause there all just one outrageous saga. This is a great (supposed) finish to the AMERICAN PIE series. Id say AMERICAN WEDDING had more laughs that both its predeccesors, even though i never thought that would be possible. It also was a little sweeter. Id consider it more of a Wedding cake. if you liked the first one and second, or at least one of those two, u like this one equally or better. AMERICAN WEDDING delivers a super slice of guilty, raunchy pleasure. You laugh and laugh, and still laugh even the 20th time u watch it...

Despite an embarrassing scene at a restaurant, Jim proposes to his long-time girlfriend Michelle. For their wedding Jim enlists the help of Finch and Kevin to make everything smooth – and keep Stifler out of the way. However a ceremony is hard work and is made harder when things just always seem to go wrong and when Stifler seems to be determined to f**k the bride's sister – even if it means pretending to be mild mannered and polite.

Trying to think about this film or the series itself is like trying to argue with mud, basically you just need to accept that this is a silly, stupid gross out comedy that relies on poor taste jokes and unlikely set ups. If this is a problem for you then don't watch it. If you have accepted it and are watching it then it all comes down to, is it a GOOD gross out comedy with poor taste jokes? As much as I know I should be above it, I did laugh at the other 2 films and was happy to go and see this and, for the most part, I laughed at this. However this was the weakest of the three and the silence in the cinema was quite often uncomfortable – usually silence in a cinema is a good thing, but this was often an uncomfortable `I should be laughing more' type of silence.

In my review of part 2 I said `lets not do a 3'. Watching this I'm sort of glad they managed to do it but I can see the strain despite their best efforts. The main set up sequences are gross and funny but the gaps between are where the silence comes, there ain't enough comedy to cover the whole film. I'm not talking about the sweet stuff near the end, I just talking about all the scenes between the banner scenes. Plus the sequences are very forced at times (many you can see coming for miles), but this isn't too bad as they still manage to be hilariously gross! For those who like the nudity (and who didn't like the bi-sexual teasing scene from part 2?) there is a long sequence of strippers with large fake breasts, if that's your thing (I'm a man, so yes!) which is funny but also serves up the mandatory t&a. There are also some scenes that are TOO forced – eg the dance in the gay bar is funny but is too long and feels like a good idea with average delivery.

The film bravely loses something like half the cast and makes the film better in that regard. In fact Kevin has so little to do that they could have lost his character all together. However this is offset by the change to Stifler. In the first 2 he is obnoxious and rude but he is also the brunt of more jokes than he is the punisher. In the first half here, he is very rude and annoying and you hate him for how he treats his friends. That makes all his early antics hard to laugh at because now all you can see is a jerk hurting people. In the second half this is less of an issue as he changes a little and gets what's coming to him (and how!). I have a theory that Scott knows he has been pigeon holed in this role and is desperate to get out of it – in fact when I saw Bullet Proof Monk I did think to myself that he is just playing a kung-fu Stifler. Knowing this I think he played Stifler at full volume so that his next role would be nowhere near this performance. Thus he has a weird crazed sneer on his face, he is ultra cruel and rude and is a real jerk – hard to laugh with (but luckily still easy to laugh at).

The rest of the cast do quite well. Biggs manages to make more of his role than the victim and is sensitive when he needs to be – I think it will be hard for him to shake off Jim (pardon the pun) but he shows he can do acting when he needs to. Hannigan's innocent girlie voice is a little grating now and doesn't sit with her image as a woman – it suited her to be a geek. Luckily she doesn't have that much to do after the funny opening scene. Thomas is OK but Nicholas just kind of hangs around with a half smile of his face and nothing to do. Levy is still brillant as Jim's Dad but misses his `awkward moment' relationship (which they give him with Michelle to repeat it). Jones is eye candy and the return of Stifler's Mon (forget her name) is pointless and a mistake that is happily kept to a few moments.

Overall this is as poor a film as you expect – rude, in poor taste, lacking a strong plot or performances, but none of these things are really fair comments as the film still manages to be funny. The character of Stifler makes the first half very hard to enjoy and there are too many bits that don't work or where I didn't laugh but I still laughed. Many viewers will feel that the series has simply fizzled out despite it still being funny.

American Wedding is exactly the type of ending that suits the American Pie trilogy. It's not like the typical TV sitcom where it's feel good and lacking on humor. The traditional gross out honest humor is still present. Unfortunately not all the characters are due to scheduling conflicts.

The directors do a good job of covering the absent characters by simply not mentioning them but there lack of presence is felt. Oz isn't present during Jim's speech with the best men. Michele is the only returning female lead. Even some of the returning characters play a smaller role. Kevin is almost not seen in most of the film. He serves very little important role and is more in the background. Finch and Stifler seem to be the lead story, at times more than the wedding itself. It does work to create a funny story.

The story is well wrapped up and that hopefully means that no additional and poorly conceived sequels are made. There seems to be three rules that follow in all of these films.

1) Jim does something bizarre sexual act that embarrasses him.

2) Stifler ingest some bodily excretion

3) Finch has sex with Stifler's Mom

Obviously they've hit Stifler with about every funny excretion. The only options left are blood, pus, or earwax. Rule #2 is going to be hard to follow.

I loved the first american pie, but was so dissapointed with the second. it was too direct, lacked creativity, and got old. (sorry to anyone who loved it). but ii was delightfully surprised with American Wedding. The sexual jokes flowed much better, it was all situational as opposed to 'hahaha look at my wang', and in general just got more laughs. It is a great movie to see in the theater while your in the mood for something like that, and a lot of fun. although half the original cast is now gone, the remaining few are a good mix for the last of the american pie trilogy. stifler is kinda crazy and unbearable in the beginning but bear with it, it eventually works with the story and gets better. This is such a cute movie.. and yes i use the word cute. Its hilarious, but not so over the top that it looses the sweetness of it, being the fact that the main point of this movie is the wedding of jim and michelle. What a great, mindless piece of entertainment!