Release Date: August 1, 2003
Starring: Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, January Jones, Eugene Levy
Directed by: Jesse Dylan
Written by: Adam Herz
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: R (sexual content, language, crude humor)
The first scene of American Wedding, which viewers will recognize from the trailers, involves two of the mainstays of the American Pie franchise, Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. Jim intends to propose marriage to Michelle in a roundabout way, but she misinterprets his designs and eagerly climbs under the table to give him oral sex. Eventually they are exposed, both figuratively and, some might say, literally, and with that, American Pie 3 is off to a roaring and raucous start.
That start is indicative of where the American Pie movies have gone since the first was a smashing success in 1999. That movie was about four guys in their final year of high school all looking to get laid for the first time. It’s a traditional and familiar teen movie plot that was rescued by the candor of Adam Herz’s screenplay and the direction of comic veterans Chris and Paul Weitz (About a Boy). By chapter three, the theme of the films has shifted from four guys hungry for sex to four guys falling and stumbling into various embarrassing displays of sexual and bodily misconduct. It’s what they deserve, some might say, but in truth this new philosophy resembles something the Farrelly brothers, the movies’ resident gross-out comedians, might’ve passed on in search of their next big project.
One problem with the film is that the characters seem like they should’ve outgrown public embarrassments like those found in American Wedding -- which range from pubic hair being spread over the side of a wedding cake to a young man resentfully consuming dog poop. They are, after all, no longer in high school or even in college, and instead have moved into the real world. Jim and Michelle are engaged to be married in the first scene, and the rest of the film involves preparations for the wedding. Jim’s high school buddies Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) lend a hand, and the onetime school bully Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott) won’t be turned away, either. Things are further complicated for the guys when Michelle’s beautiful and available sister Candace (January Jones) comes into town for the wedding as well.
It seems as though these characters can still find their way into the movie’s disgusting mishaps because they’ve been exaggerated for this third installment. Biggs credibly reins in his neurotic Jim to a close approximation of the main character from the first two films, but his friends are far and away magnified versions of the comic types they represent. Thomas, as Finch, the philosophical braniac, is even more esoteric, although he does get to have a bit of fun dropping the smart act and pretending to be as coarse as Stifler later in the movie. Nicholas, as Kevin, doesn’t have much to do other than act cool, and his character feels substantially underused.
Scott, as the bully Stifler, is even more obnoxious and overbearing than he was in the previous two films, and there are times when it seems as though he’s going to be forced to play the bad guy. Just as confused is Eugene Levy, who plays Jim’s dad; he’s once again required to pop into scenes at awkward moments and extol the virtues of love in equally awkward ways, but he seems to be hoping there’s more to the character than that (consequently he’s simply not as funny). Truthfully, Herz’s script really can’t decide what it wants to do with these characters, but as far as it’s stretched some of them -- such as Hannigan’s Michelle, who, as the “band camp” girl in the first American Pie was nothing more than a minor character until two sequels got made -- they now seem surprisingly durable enough to withstand a fourth movie.
If the content in American Wedding is just as raunchy as it was in No. 2 and more so than in the first film, then the jokes are at least more original, perhaps because of the setting -- the last half of the movie takes place at a grand resort hotel where the wedding and reception will be held. In the first sequel, the cast went to the beach in what the creative talent obviously thought would provide some new material, but many of the jokes were simply recycled from the original with small changes. Here, the material is slightly fresher. No more accidental Internet sex broadcasts and no more embarrassing sexual encounters with countertop pastries (unless you count the pubic hair/wedding cake joke). Instead, for instance, the audience is treated to a funny scene in which Jim must explain away two striptease dancers and his three half-clothed buddies -- who were throwing a pre-bachelor party party -- to his soon-to-be in-laws. Who, typical of the film and the franchise, just happen to walk in on the outrageous scene.
Some of the new material also comes with the introduction of Michelle’s sister Candace, played with the right amount of preen and sex appeal by series newcomer January Jones. Her character allows for a subplot that adds a more human side to Stifler, even though Seann William Scott seems to be having a lot of fun hamming it up as the movies’ most popular jerk. But Scott has branched off into other films, showing directors and writers that he has more than a little talent to work with, and he does well with the additional space in his role in American Wedding to become a bona fide part of the cast (viewers will note that he has taken the place of Oz, played by Chris Klein in the first two movies).
The business of movies aside, it would’ve been impossible to guess that American Pie would be followed by two sequels, because as enjoyable as it was, it was fairly self-contained. Most Hollywood sequels are completely unnecessary. This one is no different, so the best that such movies can hope to be is decently entertaining, and American Wedding fits that bill. Though it starts off a little rough, it picks up steam as it moves into the second and third acts, and the requisite feel-good ending is made even more sentimental because it involves a wedding. Viewers will thus leave the theater feeling good about themselves and the studio execs who greenlighted this picture, which speaks well for both its receipts and the inescapable possibility of an American Pie 4 -- perhaps American Honeymoon?
-- Craig Roush (crr225@nyu.edu)