 |
 |
| Directed by Paul Weitz; Starring Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Mena Suvari, Alyson Hannigan, Tara Reid, Shannon Elizabeth, Eugene Levy, Natasha Lyonne, Seann William Scott, and Chris Owen |
Called the return to teen sex comedies, American Pie serves more as a return to the boring dreck that came out this Spring in teen films like She’s All That. It is neither funny nor sincere (a stupid asset Roger Ebert found in it).
American Pie did remind me of the film that everyone referenced it to: Porky’s. The thing is that I hated Porky’s and its sequels, as well as creator Bob Clark’s Baby Geniuses. I did not hate American Pie as much as Porky’s, but I did find it to be worthless.
American Pie more or less is about the pact made by four friends. The pact is that all four of them will lose their virginity by the end of this, their senior year. The main friend seems to be Jim, a down on his luck fellow with a crush on the foreign exchange student Nadia (Elizabeth). Another is Kevin (Nicholas), who seriously ruined his relationship with girlfriend Vicky (Reid) by wanting a little more than third base. The jock of the group is lacrosse star Oz (Klein), who has made a reputation as a ladies man, so he must join the glee club to show his softer side. There he finds a relationship with Heather (Suvari) by becoming her duet partner. The fourth is Finch (Adams), who more or less sits back and lets the girls spread nice rumors about him. Finch is easily the most interesting of all the characters in the film, yet he is one of the least filmed. Well the four have less than astounding luck for a while until the film culminates at the senior prom (ARGH!; I said if I saw one more senior dance this year I’d scream).
The film does have its funny points, mostly involving the always funny Eugene Levy as Jim’s father and Alyson Hannigan as the school nerd obsessed with band camp. In fact those two performances could actually make an enjoyable film if there wasn’t any pointless parts between (may I remind you that I thought Hannigan saved Dead Man on Campus from the dreaded F rating). But all in all the film is boring. All the young cast set forth poor jobs, especially Nicholas who still suffers from being remembered for Rookie of the Year. The only time the script really shined was when it came from the two aforementioned performances and when it centered around the Finch character and Vicky’s friend Jessica (Lyonne). My rating is a little higher than it normally would have been if it was not for a few kudos that I found in the film that made it almost worth seeing.
