You can basically expect two things when you go to see an American Pie film. One. An all-encompassing amount of sex. Two. An all-emcompassing amount of sex-related jokes. Basically these two things are what American Reunion gives us. Jim (Jason Biggs), Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), Stifler (Seann William Scott) and all the rest (I'm too lazy to list them) all return home for their high school reunion. Sure some of them have relationship problems and Jim's Dad makes everything really awkward. But that's about it.
As I'm sure you must be aware if you ever looked in the 5.99 bin at your local Wal-Mart there are approximately seven separate films in the franchise. This is only one of four to feature all these characters and the rest were released direct-to-dvd. The film itself elicited two separate reactions from me. One was a couple of instances of genuine laughter (one involved Jim's Dad [Eugene Levy]) and a whole lot of head-shaking. I prepared for that by sitting in the back of the theater so no one would see my annoying non-frat boy reaction. Unfortunately I was informed after the screening by one of the individuals in my party that he could see it several times.
There are really only two types of jokes in this film. There are the bad jokes that become good by one or two actions and the good jokes that go too far. I'm going to go ahead and reveal what the other joke was. You know the one that redeemed itself and then went too far? After being humiliated by a trio of high school punks, Stifler seeks his revenge. He ties their jet skis to his truck and silently sneaks to their icebox, opens it, and evacuates his bowels into it complete with nasty sound effect. He runs off and, true to formula of a collage party film, high school punk #1 opens it and sticks his hand into it to get a beer. The thing is that excrement jokes, in and of themselves, are not funny and the act of covering someone in said excrement is also not funny. Now, you may say, "Joe, why when you were so annoyed by the same effect in Joe Dirt and Fast Five do you give American Reunion a pass?" The answer is simple. While performing the act Jim asks Stifler, as any rational person would do, what he is doing. Stifler smiles and, silently, informs him what he is doing sitting on the icebox with his shorts around his ankles. That was what I laughed at. Then they had to ruin it by showing the contents on high school punk #1. From the looks of it methinks Stifler needs to eat more yogurt with live and active cultures.
The problem is that the franchise has been raucous and bordering offensive since the very beginning. With each passing film I fear the filmmakers must up the ante on how far they can push it. Why? This is what the audience expects. At this point the audience expects to see a man's penis behind a clear pot lid.
You know what I would have loved? If for once, just once, not everything works out for these people. Can't one of them get hit by a car and not walk away from it? Can't we end the film with them sitting on the sidewalk realizing their life sucks? Why does everybody have to get laid by the end?
★
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