Sometimes I really wish I could experience things for the
first time again. There’s nothing quite like seeing a hilarious comedy in a
crowded theater early in its run, especially when you are smack within the age
range of the target audience. I was 21 when American
Pie came out and I saw it three times that summer. Although I’m sure I was
much more likely then to enjoy a gross-out comedy than now, I was by no means a
sheep that followed the masses when it came to movies. I’ve always had more discerning
taste.
Now thirteen years later and eleven years after the first
sequel, the original gang is back together for a new installment in the series.
I’m a little bit nostalgic for that time in my life when I could more readily
laugh hysterically at that type of comedy so I decided to take another look at American Pie and see just how well it
holds up over time and to see if I’ve aged out of it. The good news is that the
things I originally thought were good about it still are. The bad news is that
it’s much harder to laugh out loud after having seen it several times and probably
also because seeing something amongst others aids in the overall emotional
reaction.
I imagine there’s a generation of teenagers and college
students now, many of whom have not seen the film and will seek it out ahead of
American Reunion, to be released next
month. I have little doubt that those young people will enjoy the original film
immensely given the right circumstances – it needs to be seen in a group. That
opening scene of Jim getting caught both parents while masturbating to a
scrambled porn channel has the power to generate painful hysteria, even if the
majority of people under age 25 will have little idea and zero experience of
partially scrambled cable channels.
I have a hunch that there are more teens out there who
self-identify with Jim, the awkward and sexually inexperienced anxiety-ridden
dork, than with his three best friends – Kevin, Oz, and Finch. The film works
in part because the screenplay by Adam Herz wisely makes Jim (played by Jason
Biggs) the central character of the four. His friends (Thomas Ian Nicholas,
Chris Klein, and Eddie Kaye Thomas, respectively) are a cross-section of high
school life. Oz (a shortened nickname version of his last name) is the jock,
Kevin is the popular kid, and Finch is the intellectual who studies Latin, uses
SAT words, and dresses like a college professor. Their plight is rather typical
of the American high school student – they’re all desperate to lose their virginity
before the end of senior year. After a big party thrown by Steve Stifler – the outlier
of the group played to hilarious perfection by Seann William Scott, who plays
lacrosse with Oz but is something of an embarrassment to everyone for his crass
and vulgar expressions – the four friends make a pact to help each other out in
their quest to have sex by prom.
Kevin is trying to make it all the way home with his
girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), but she wants the moment to be perfect. Her more
world weary and cynical friend Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) encourages her to just
do it because well, it’s not a space shuttle launch after all. Jim has somewhat
improbably (or not) attracted the attention of Nadia, a foreign exchange student
played by the much older than high school age, far too well-developed Shannon
Elizabeth. A ‘tutoring’ session in Jim’s bedroom turns into another one of the
most hilarious comic set pieces within the gross-out comedy genre. Oz doesn’t
have any strong prospects until he joins the vocal jazz group at school to
score with chicks who don’t know him. He befriends Heather (Mena Suvari), an
adorable “choir girl priss.” Finch just sits back and puts mini golf while
inexplicable rumors swirl regarding his sizable manhood, tattoos, and the time
he kicked Stifler’s ass.
What I always liked most about the film (besides the big
laughs) was the sense of character that Herz worked into his story. These guys
are stock types, but he provides them with real emotions and character traits. Their
relationship to each other is well defined. There’s a real sense of friendship
and camaraderie between them. My opinion on that hasn’t changed even if I find
it harder to laugh now. The bits are funny in theory, just no longer in
execution. That’s hardly the fault of the filmmakers. Directors Chris and Paul
Weitz set out to make a shock comedy. That’s exactly what they succeeded in
doing. The drawback is that shock comedy generally only works for one viewing.
After that, the characters have to stand the test of repeated viewings and
thankfully they do.
Interestingly, the two characters who I found to be the
funniest this time around were Jim’s dad (Eugene Levy) and Stifler. Mr.
Levenstein never tires of drawing Jim into some of the most awkwardly
uncomfortable conversations you could possibly imagine for a teenage boy to
have with his father. What’s great about Levy’s performance is that he doesn’t
play the man as completely clueless. He’s well aware of how embarrassing his
talks are because he himself is uncomfortable. He does it because it’s the
right thing to do and he only wants the best for his son. Stifler was the guy I
couldn’t stand the first time around. But now his comments are the only lines I
still laugh at. It’s Scott’s delivery that drives home his lines every time I
hear them. He’s absolutely convincing as the immature jackass.
The final character who is also good for some decent
laughs and a couple of the film’s best lines toward the end is Michelle (Alyson
Hannigan) the band geek who never tells a story that doesn’t begin, “This one
time at band camp…” I remember the commercials for American Pie (both the theatrical trailer and TV spots) all
featured that line followed by the immortal, “I stuck a flute in my…” The
commercials never revealed what was said, but the film delivers on the joke one
hundred and fifty percent. That’s the kind of thing that could have been a
total tease, but this movie had the balls to go for it. It’s a crude joke, but
one American Pie’s finest moments.
This may be one of those movies I’ve finally put to bed.
I don’t really see myself returning to it again, but that isn’t to say I don’t
like it. My attitude toward it is a combination of knowing it too well and
having outgrown it at this stage in my life. Better to leave it alone at its
warm place in my heart without spoiling it.
*Point of interest: look for a pre Harold and Kumar John Cho as one of the MILF guys at Stifler’s
party.
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