Bland, non-funny trailer. Surprisingly little hype. My decision to go to the cinema and see American Pie 3 was really based on the fact that I LOVED the first two, laughed an awful lot at them and thought the casting was spot-on. I remember going to see American Pie 2 and expecting to be disappointed, and then it was so much more fabulous when I wasn’t, it was still funny, still romantic, still well-written and still boasted that irreplaceable chemistry and quality of the cast.

Even before I got to the cinema for American Pie 3, however, I once again expected a great disappointment. I somehow didn’t imagine a film which is essentially about a wedding could still be so naughty and so packed with, well, frankly, adolescent humour. There seems to be a discrepancy over the title, to begin with. On the TV advert and website it appears to be named American Wedding : American Pie 3; on the cinema listings it is labelled American Pie : The Wedding. Maybe it’s just me but, coupled with the lack of hype and mediocre trailer, it smacked of a rushed job, something that was not polished and could not contain the finesse of its predecessors.

THE WEDDING PARTY

Jason Biggs returns in this film to play the naïve, accident-prone perv Jim Levenstein, along with the fabulous Alyson Hannigan of Willow fame as his nympho girlfriend Michelle and the perfectly-cast Eugene Levy as Jim’s bumbling, embarrassing dad.
Kevin, played by Thomas Ian Nicholas, is back, though doesn’t have as major a part as in films 1 and 2, in fact he kind of fades into the background and doesn’t have his own story at all. If you particularly liked him in the other films, it’s a bit of a shame but I didn’t mind. I’m glad to say that Seann William Scott, despite the many other projects he’s been in since the original American Pie (such as Final Destination and Evolution), is back as the irrepressible and hilarious Stifler, seemingly twice as juvenile as he originally was even though he is now the high school coach! Stifler alone would not be half so amusing but for the presence of old enemy Finch, played by Eddie Kaye Thomas; their rivalry reaches new heights in this film (see later in the op.)

The film is given a new, and some might say fresher, feel as some of Jim’s old friends are no longer around. No sympathy-comedy for Sherman, no sign of the cosmopolitan fantasy figure Nadia, no mention of Vicky and Jessica, two of the main female parts in the original film. Something I noticed as soon as the film went into scene 2 was that 2 of the main gang, Oz and Heather, played respectively by Chris Klein and Mena Suvari, are absent and don’t appear to even know their old friends any longer. Both these actors have moved on to greater things, Chris Klein having starred in We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson, and, of course, Mena Suvari in American Beauty. But, excuses aside, I found this disappointing – I loved their love story in the first film and enjoyed Oz’s transformation from jock to sensitive guy. Not only that, but not a mention, not a sideline, no reason given or excuse made for why they don’t come to Jim’s wedding. To me this doesn’t seem credible, as the film is set only 3 years after American Pie 2, and I’m sure they would have been given an invite!

However, a welcome addition comes in the form of Michelle’s sister Cadence played by January Jones. Not only a bit of ‘eye candy’ for all the male watchers out there, she brings a more grown-up feel to the film and is at the centre of the best storyline in it.

HOW IT STARTS OFF

5, 10, 20 minutes into the film, I have to be honest, I sat waiting to laugh, chuckle, or even be mildly amused. Disappointed that some of the old main characters weren’t in the mix, and not entertained by a bit of a bland storyline (which has been done before – and better – in the form of Meet The Parents with Ben Stiller and Robert deNiro, not to mention Father of the Bride with Steve Martin) I finally felt let down by this set of films. Basically, as you can imagine by the title, Jim proposes. His dad ends up getting involved, Michelle gets up to her usual ‘tricks’ and it inevitably all goes wrong…but isn’t funny. Brief heartwarming moment when she says yes. Hm. We then move on to the aforementioned classic plot of prospective son-in-law keeps making an a*se of himself in front of his future in-laws, ‘helped’ along by Stifler and the Flahertys’ family dogs. Every time this happened to Greg (Ben Stiller) in Meet the Parents, I cried with laughter. Unfortunately, while Jason Biggs does a brilliant job as usual as the hapless Jim, his future father-in-law is no Robert deNiro. Again, not funny. By the time we started to hit a string of disasters such as Michelle not being able to get the dress she wants, I was fading fast and thinking ‘I expected better from these guys.’ Good job I was armed with Baskin-Robbins ice-cream or I might have given up and walked out.

SAVIOUR OF THE WEDDING…AND THE FILM

From the very first thing that goes wrong, the unlikely hero of the film comes into his own. Yes, Steve Stifler, the Stifmeister himself, turns both the film and Michelle’s luck around in a peculiar but show-stopping scene where he gets involved in an impromptu dance-off with a friend of the dress designer Michelle dreams of! I sat up in interest at this point – and then it got even better.

Because as well as the main plot outlined above involving Jim and Michelle and more of their bad luck, there is a highly funny, almost ingenious sub-plot. Michelle’s sister Cadence turns up to be her maid-of-honour. And both Stifler and Finch fall in love. The hatred between these two (following Finch’s escapades with his older lover, Stifler’s mom, in the other 2 films) builds up to something almost tangible as each tries to beat the other at his own game. I don’t want to spoil it but, suffice to say, we see a different, more gentlemanly side of Stifler, and in return a more moronic side of Finch. Neither façade is believable to the American Pie watcher, but Cadence believes it at first and likes both for different reasons, which makes their bitter rivalry even worse. Some brilliant scenes, quips and lines between these two actors ensue, harking back to events in film 1 and 2, and seeing them trying to make each other look bad. This battle of wits reaches top pitch when Stifler loses the ring that’s been entrusted to him by inadvertently feeding it to one of the Flaherty dogs, and to avoid looking bad has to go above and beyond the call of duty to retrieve it. Cadence eventually begins to see the cracks in his candy coating, and nice, decent girl that she is, has to make a final choice between her two romeos…who will she choose? I’ll let you find out!

The fact that Stifler falls in love, Finch is finally over Stifler’s mom, and towards the end they call a truce, really gives the impression that they are finally growing up, which is undeniably great character development that helps to give the film more of a point, rather than it just being another wedding-from-hell movie. I actually also really liked this new side of Stifler, which enables him to save everything that goes wrong and somehow seem more human, more warm and more likeable – making me feel more sympathetic towards his case, which definitely lent Cadence’s Finch-Stifler dilemma more tension, as I genuinely wasn’t sure who I wanted to win her over! I did think the best man won in the end though. (Get it? Best man? Groan…ok, I’ll lay off the bad jokes!)

THE AMERICAN WEDDING

So finally, we get to the end of the film, and the end of the American Pie trilogy. Not only do we see a fantastic, touching wedding (admittedly not without its doubts, problems, hitches and so forth) – and I’m a sucker for a good wedding in a film – but we get an insight into how much Jim and Michelle have both grown up as well, when they see that there is more to love than just ‘boning’ and also their lustful feelings are ‘perfectly natural and normal’ in the words of someone we have learned a lot from over the films! All the ends are tied up (except for the glaring problem of where Oz and Heather disappeared to – off the face of the earth as far as I can gather from the silence of the others) not just from this film, but from the other two, and we see a few familiar faces pop up for the wedding that just round it off nicely (but I won’t spoil the surprise). The tying-up of these ends suggests that this really will be the last of this series which is kind of sad, but then we leave the characters we’ve loved happy and set for life, which is kind of wonderful. It’s a real strong point of the film.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

The film is rated a 15 over here in the U.K. and it’s showing at cinemas NOW pretty regularly throughout the day. It’s R-rated in America, however, it’s not as explicit as 1 or 2 but there is quite a bit of heavy swearing in it and one scene in particular which is fairly disgusting; if you are sensitive to this kind of thing it may well not be for you, whatever your age. You can find out more information about the movie, the cast and crew, the production of it, etc at www.americanpiemovie.com.

A SPECIAL MENTION…

…goes out to the inspired soundtrack, which mixes personal favourites like Badly Drawn Boy and ‘Laid’ covered from the original by Brit band James, with a cleverly-chosen cacophony of modern and eighties songs. It was one of the best things about the movie, and if I didn’t already have most of these songs, I’d buy it!

MY FINAL VERDICT

Bad points – characters inexplicably disappear, slow to start, Jim/Flahertys storyline has been done before – with more style, you really need to give it a HUGE chance and the benefit of the doubt for the first half hour.

Good points – remaining cast still excellent, we see more of Stifler, Stifler/Finch/Cadence storyline is hilarious, January Jones a good new addition, all the ends are tied up with style, CRACKING soundtrack.

If you have loved or even just liked the others in the American Pie series, I definitely recommend it. It’s not without its flaws but if you miss it you miss a load of laughs, a nice ending and some excellent scenes of that traditional American Pie ilk. I would also recommend it as a stand-alone movie if your sense of humour stretches to the toilet humour and blatant innuendo of this film, but you will need to suspend judgement at the start of the movie. Overall, I expected to be disappointed, and to begin with, my suspicions were right, but the film blossomed for me into a fusion of comedy, great character development and a worthy ending to a superb trilogy. I came away feeling good, on a high, satisfied with the conclusion and wishing it wasn’t the last one! I shall be quite sad to say ‘bye bye, American pie…’