Hollywood has a penchant for killing the sequels to a successful storyline. When American Pie 2 and 3 came out in the theaters, lot of people were disappointed because the sequels were juvenile and fell flat since the humor was too obvious and dumb. But not with American Reunion. American Reunion is awesome, to say the least!
The American Pie franchisee first came out in 1999 when I was in college. A teenage sex comedy, given a relatively cost effective formula loaded with nudity and toilet humor, that exploded at the box office and made everyone sit up to take note which of its cast members would go on to make it big. The film spawned two more films that would culminate in a wedding, before going direct to video in the many spin offs like Band Camp, Naked Mile, Beta House and Book of Love that had very little links to the main characters. But after 13 years the original cast have come back, for a final reunion, which is enough reason to make this sequel a blockbuster at the box office.
American Reunion finds the original cast living life over ten years after the original film. Jim and Michelle are having a few marital issues and raising a kid. Stiffler is working a job as a temp, dealing with an Indian boss who is a pain in the right place. Finch has become a mystery of sorts. Oz is a big shot sportscaster with a supermodel for a girlfriend. And Kevin is a stay at home husband, slash architect. The group returns for their high school reunion and reconnect with each other and their fellow classmates. American Reunion is a nostalgic trip down the memory lane for all those who grew up on the American Pie franchisee, for them it was like their Ridgemont High. But nostalgia only goes so far and there's really nothing to cling to here in terms of something these characters are working for, there's no strong central plot like the guys losing their virginity. Rather the whole movie revolves around the up coming reunion, an event which doesn't seem to have much effect on the direction these characters take, there's never a real sense of character growth. Instead, you're just hanging out with the boys again, watching them get into trouble.
But this is okay. It's okay because the movie is funny. Much of what happens resembles the kind of humorous situations from the other films. There are some truly laugh out loud moments and the surprises will have you howling. There's also the return of the evergreen favorite, Jim's dad (Eugene Levy), now a widower but still finding time to talk about sexuality very openly to an always embarrassed Jim, and that of a slew of supporting characters from the earlier films that I will not name to contain the surprise. A special mention for the Stifmeister who is, as usual, upto no good.
And in the end, like the Stifmeister, we as the audience learn an important life lesson. It's that we can't keep reliving our high school days, our past, the best days of our lives. We must move on, and finally become adults. The best days of our lives our over; American Pie is over. And yet we have saved the best piece for last.
