Women beware. The boys are back in town: Stifler, the raging hormone, Finch, the overly mature bowel king, Oz, the sensitive jock, Kevin, the boyfriend, Jim, the pie molester and the bed-wetting Shermanator have officially returned. Fresh off of their first year of college, the gents of the original American Pie have reconvened for a summer of unprecedented hometown debauchery. Or so they thought. American Pie 2 takes place exactly one year after the original, so where the characters of the first had just graduated high school, in the second they are now prospective college sophomores. As anyone who has ever gone to college and returned home for summer knows, your hometown is not, and will never be, the same.
The one aspect of the original American Pie that I found so appealing, and consequently so hard to duplicate, was its sense of sincerity. Yes, characters and situations were over the top and at times cartoonish, but there was a genuine sweetness to the proceedings that so many movies, not just teen comedies, lack. Much to my surprise, American Pie 2 contains an equal amount of sincerity, heart and, of course, the prerequisite gobs of gross out humor (wait until you see what happens to Stifler in this one!) and sexual innuendo.
After returning home from college, the boys quickly realize that life isn’t what they thought it would be. The party at Stifler’s is a mere shadow of the one the previous summer (a thought given credence by filming the party almost exactly the same as the first). But it’s not the party that’s different-it’s the people at it. So it’s off to the beach where they rent an enormous house, work as painters, and engage in the usual shenanigans that get them in their unusual situations, including an uncomfortable-to-watch super glue scene, a lesbian house and, for Jim, a trip to band camp to visit his prom date Michelle to find out whether he is truly a terrible lover.
Which brings me to the ladies of American Pie. Although they didn’t exactly have starring roles in the first film, they are virtually non-existent here. Vicky (played by Tara Reid), Kevin’s old flame, has approximately five minutes screen time, as does American Beauty’s Mena Suvari. Natosha Lyonne, so perfect in Slums Of Beverly Hills, has even less on-screen time. In the case of Suvari, this could be the result of a full acting schedule and career. As for the others, (with the exception of the almost leading Michelle), it seems as if they signed on only to collect a paycheck and participate as little as possible in the proceedings. A shame, really. Their presence is sorely lacking in this movie. And Tara, don’t you think you could use all the screen time you could get after the complete failure of Josie And The Pussycats?
Regardless, though, this is a truly fun movie in a summer of completely uninspired blockbusters (Pearl Harbor, anyone?). I could say more, but by listing the jokes I would be telling you much of the plot and the laughs. Watching Jim develop from acceptance to geekdom, Finch from boy to Buddhist, Sherman from loser to big winner, and Stifler from unabashed party boy to, well, even more of an unabashed party boy is one of the best times I’ve had in the theater all summer. And I don’t even have to mention Jim’s dad, played brilliantly once again by Eugene Levy. If you didn’t like the first, don’t bother with this one. If you did, however, go immediately to your local movie theater and see this flick. You’ll be glued to the screen.
+ marc ruppel
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