Teens nowadays may be all about the Apatow movies (“Knocked Up,”
“Superbad”), but back in my day we turned to Jim, Kevin, Oz, Finch and the Stifmeister for our dose of raunchiness and shocking sexcapades.
It’s been nearly 10 years since we last caught up with the gang, and that’s in part what makes “American Reunion,” the fourth installment in the “American Pie” series, so much fun. Now adults in their 30’s, everyone returns to East Great Falls for the class of ‘99 high-school reunion.
The film gives a quick little catch-up showing where life has taken each of the five main guys: Jim and Michelle are married and have a 2-year-old son. Kevin is a house-husband. Oz is a famous sports newscaster. Finch has been traveling the world. “Morning co-workers and c***suckers!” greets office-worker Stifler – oh yes, the boys are back.
Brimming with nostalgia, the film is like a private joke the whole theater is in on, especially when one of the characters whips out his iPhone to show a YouTube video of Jim dancing half naked for Nadia in his bedroom.
And how could we forget Jim’s infamous sock, which makes a lovely little cameo during the traditional sex-gone-wrong opening.
The “American Pie” movies all follow a very similar pattern, with their signature type of humor – mainly the out-of-whack gross-out/sexual/spaztic happenings that cause us to be simultaneously cringing and cracking up through the movie.
These guys still play off each other so well that it is more than believable that a bunch of full-grown men would get back to their outrageous old antics.
Though true, some moments in the film attempt to create a commotion that play up unnecessary subplots that the movie may be better off without. Would anyone really buy that a hot 18-year-old is aggressively trying to lose her virginity to the much older Jason Biggs?
Undeniably better than “American Wedding,” “American Reunion” hit home for me more than the second and revived my love of the one that started it all – despite all of the shenanigans going on, the references to the ‘90s, rekindling of old feelings with first loves, and the reminder that it feels like no time has passed when true friends reunite carried American Reunion a long and heartfelt way.
And the reminder of the alternative use of a flute wasn’t too bad, either.