American Pie Review
By Roburado
The "American" Dreams
Hello again to all you readers of the reviews here at bigpicturebigsound.com. I've been invited to submit my thoughts on "American Pie." I'm stuck here in the Philippines, and I don't really know what is out in the theaters back home. I'll just say, "go out and see this film if it's still out." If not, see it as soon as it hits cable or your local video rental outlet.
I must say that I heard more than little bit of a buzz about this movie. (I'm sure that back home it was more like hype to rival a new George Lucas foray into digital effects.) Happily, I wasn't disappointed. After coming out of this movie, I couldn't remove the smile from my face. "American Pie" truly satisfied an unhappy expatriate's craving for a taste of home. Beyond that, this movie had me laughing my @$% off.
If you're a guy, if you've ever been through high school, you'll definitely find something in this movie for you. All the high-school archetypes are there. I'm sure you knew someone like each of these characters. Perhaps, you may even find yourself in one of the characters in this movie. I certainly did. I definitely like a movie that parallels my life in some way. It makes for a funnier or more poignant story.
Enough preface, now let's have a little synopsis. If you haven't heard anything about this movie, it's basically about a bunch of virgin guys who try to get laid. We enter their lives at the twilight of their senior year. The jock Stiffler (a wholly appropriate name) has big parties where everyone in school seems to get laid¾ everyone but our heroes, that is. At one of these parties the boys witness the apparent aftermath of the passage into manhood of a rather dubious character. Spurred by his success, our incredulous heroes forge a pact to encourage, aid, and abet one another losing their virginity before graduating. On their quest, the boys flirt with the fulfillment of various male fantasies. Unfortunately for the boys and for all of us guy viewers hoping to live vicariously, many of these fantasies don't come true. More often than not, the deal is never consummated. Whether fantasies are fulfilled or not, hilarity ensues. What we are left with are realistic resolutions to our heroes' conflicts. One thing that I appreciated about this movie is that our boys do change over the course of the movie. Instead of remaining an irredeemable bunch of children, they do mature.
Kudos to writer Adam Herz (making his feature film debut); to director & producer Chris Weitz & Adam Weitz (who previously collaborated on the screenplay to "Antz"); and to the cast. We've seen this all before, but the execution is brilliant. It's been said this movie is the 90's version of "Porky's." I don't believe that characterization does this movie justice. I think it's a lot funnier and a lot smarter. Along the way we have a post-"Something About Mary" look at masturbation. We have web-cams. We have exchange students. We have scatological humor. We have better dialog. We have some subtler humor. We have myths debunked. We have stronger, smarter, sexier female characters who even teach the boys a few things. We have maturation. We have¾ I shudder to say it¾ more heart.
