The gang is back. The East Great Falls High School class of 1999 returns in the wild comedy “American Reunion,” the eighth installment in the “American Pie” series.
In the film, the original characters are adults. Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs) is married to band geek Michelle Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan) and has a two-year-old son. Chris “Oz” Ostreicher (Chris Klein) is a sportscaster and former contestant on “Celebrity Dance-Off.” Kevin Myers (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is married and emasculated by his wife, and last, but not least, Steve Stifler (Sean William Scott) works a mind-numbing temp job.
The directors of the film, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, are new to the series and are both veterans of the “Harold and Kumar” movies. This explains the cameo appearance by Neil Patrick Harris. However, the directors worked with original writer Adam Herz and were able to successfully get into the minds of original directors Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz to deliver the witty, quintessential jokes and typically colorful characters “American Pie” is known for.
Though the film resonates with “American Pie” fans, many current comedic filmmakers such as Judd Apatow create more humorous scenarios within their films, which “American Reunion” isn’t able to accomplish. The majority of the comedic moments were ones taken from the original film, and there were very few new ideas for funny scenarios. For example, a scene where Jim gets caught using a tube sock to pleasure himself exactly parallels a scene in the first movie. The same goes for the references to Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Stifler’s mom (Jennifer Coolidge). Though these jokes are funny, they also only correspond to the past film.
One moment that “American Pie” die-hards will enjoy is the introduction to a relationship between Jim’s dad (Eugene Levy) to Stifler’s mom. While Jim’s dad is drunk at Stifler’s pre-reunion party, he meets Stifler’s mom. The two parents have played major supporting roles in past films and are finally given the spotlight they deserve.
“American Reunion” is a major throwback to fans of the series, showing that each piece of “pie” tastes just as good as the first — even if it is the same old dessert.
“American Reunion” was directed Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and written by Adam Herz, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
