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American Pie 2
***
Cinema
Releases - October 12, 2001
Certificate 15. 104 minutes. Directed by J.B.
Rogers. Written by Adam Herz; from a story by Adam Herz, David H. Steinberg;
based on characters created by Herz. Starring Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas
Ian Nicholas, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Shannon Elizabeth,
Alyson Hannigan, Natasha Lyonne, Mena Suvari.
There is a scene in "American Pie 2"
in which a guy thinks he's having champagne poured over his head
by a girl he's been chatting up, and he's actually being pissed on from a
balcony. There is a scene in which a guy is having sex in his college dorm
room, and finds himself interrupted by his father, then his mother, then
the girl's father and mother. And there's a scene in which a guy, um, welds
himself to himself when he's, um, fiddling around 'down there', because,
um, he thinks he's grabbed the lubricant and it's actually a tube of
superglue.
I list all this so you'll know whether or not
this is your kind of movie. Some people just don't get this stuff. Most of
us think that when it's done well, it's funny. I have seen countless movies
that clumsily attempt to imitate "There's Something About Mary" and the original
"American Pie" -- gross-out humour has penetrated Hollywood thinking so far
that it's everywhere you look, from Adam Sandler pictures like "Big Daddy"
to slapstick such as "Say It Isn't So" and even the kiddie flick "See Spot
Run". It's kinda comforting to see a movie like "American Pie 2", which has
a lot of flaws but at least knows how to do this sort of thing
properly.
The original "American Pie" featured Jason Biggs,
Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Seann William Scott and Eddie Kaye Thomas
as a bunch of high school seniors on a mission to lose their virginity before
the end of prom night. It featured two unforgettable comic set pieces, one
of which saw Biggs caught screwing an apple pie, and one of which saw him
suffer premature ejaculation twice while everyone in town watched
him over the internet. In this sequel, the guys are back home from their
first year of college, and determined to consume as much booze and sex as
possible over the course of summer break.
You can't go very far in terms of meaningfully
evaluating this kind of movie. It's done with good timing and charming actors,
and so if it's your kind of thing, you'll enjoy it. That's about it. I gave
the original movie only two and a half stars, because I didn't like the way
it pretended to have a heart while toasting jocks and mocking nerds; in general,
though, I will admit that it was a funnier and more innovative picture than
this one, which I'm rating at three stars. Both movies have a lot of
laugh-out-loud moments, and after all the clumsy gross-out crap we've had
to suffer over the past few years, they're like a breath of fresh air. Adam
Sandler pictures might play the notes, but the "American Pie" flicks know
the music.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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