Anyone my age (21) or older is likely to remember that most 80's of genres - the teen sex flick. "Porkys", "Animal House", "Bachelor Party" etc. all relied pretty much on the same premise: A group of guys (usually a fat one, nerdy one and some jocks) all have a party or go on vacation in the hopes of getting laid and before they all finally do, lots of comical situations regarding overprotective parents, sex and scantily clad girls take place. But most of all it was an excuse for a lot of gratuitous tits & ass, as well as plenty of dick jokes. Then the late 80's began and things started to change. Everyone seemed to be making cheap sex comedies and so they all became pretty indistinguishable. AIDS reared its ugly head, political correctness came in, and so like the slasher film boom which preceeded it and the 'brat packer' boom which followed, the sex comedy, like any fad, pretty much disappeared. Teen films after that became a clothes-on affair.
Flash forward to last year and the Farrelly brothers comedy "There's Something About Mary" did for gross-out comedies what "Scream" did for the horror genre - it took a tired dead horse and reinjected it with new life by providing a new spin on the formula: an offbeat romance. Now we come to "American Pie" which can be basically described as 30% "Can't Hardly Wait", 60% "Porkys" and 10% "There's Something About Mary". Its funny, quite often hilariously so, and there's no doubt your going to leave the cinema laughing heartily. From the gratuitous 'fluid' joke, to the film's best (and most 90's) of gags involving the Internet, the comedy is at a very high quotient. But the trouble is that the rest of these jokes are predictable as they have been done before in those 80's movies, and this time there's nowhere near as much nudity to keep it interesting.
Also new to the formula is the surprisingly large amount of screen time devoted to the sickly sweet morality tales of the movie which would be fine on TV series such as "Dawson's Creek" or "Felicity", but are way too frothy and take up too much time here. In that way its very much like "Mary" with laughter coming in fits and spurts, but the quieter moments of "Mary" were far better than the ones in "Pie". This is the same reason why American mainstream comedies lack the edge of their foreign counterparts, this incessant need to have 'moral' characters and story. My favourite comedy of all time has always been "A Fish Called Wanda" mainly because the characters were so despicable and immoral. Performance wise the cast is good all around, the standouts being Eugene Levy as Jim's Dad and newcomer Shannon Elizabeth as the 'hands on' exchange student Nadia. Of the four main guys I think people will have a fave character depending upon which one matches their personality and 'social position' in high school - for me it was Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas). Cameowise the best comes from the always superb "Buffy" co-star Alyson Hannigan as a flute playing band member. Who is the best audience for this film? Adolescent virgin males in high school of course. Its a funny but sadly true expression about how much pressure is placed in high school for students to have sex or more importantly lose their virginity in order to fit in with their peers. For those who haven't lost it, its a fixation which won't go away and the older you are the more intense the desire and pressure is it seems.
For those who have lost it, the earlier and more unqiue way you did, the more respect you gain in some circles - though that rule doesn't always apply. I was treated like shit by other students, even though my first time was earlier, more unique and hell of a lot more fun than many of theirs (I welcomed my VERY early teenage years in with a bang). The one thing to realise, and which the film doesn't really cover, is that after high school everything changes and the macho bullshit competitiveness to fit in pretty much disappears - thus when you lost your virginity is no longer important, far more on your mind is who do you plan to do it with next (I had to say that line cause - well its true).
Still, the subject matter of this film is one which, no matter what point you are in your life, can likely relate to whether your living that time right now or looking back at it. Does it push the boundaries? Not really though it comes close to it. "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" is still the comedy of the summer because it not only pushed, it jumped right over the edge. The "Austin Powers" sequel comes in second thanks to the great characters, but "American Pie" comes in third with its great humour. If there had been a lot less 'soapy' moments and a smarter gag or two it would've been second, but its still an enjoyable laughfest.
