Ahhhhhhhhh its good to be back, and what better way than to review a movie eh? So instead of all the usual gubbins at the start of my reviews about how I got to see the movie lets just say this - yours truly and my house-mate decided last night to go see American Wedding, I felt Old in the cinema and I’m only 23 and it was absolutely hilarious. But to find out why I thought it was hilarious you’re going to have to read on aren’t you?

** Storyline**

Most of you must know the thesis behind the American Pie movies by now - they’re full of Dick and Fart jokes, and are always about ‘coming of age’ so to speak - and American Wedding is no different. As most people should know by now from the trailers we start the movie with Jim (Jason Biggs) trying to pop the question to Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) at a restaurant, he gets nervous, she thinks he wants to add more spice to their relationship so hops under the table for a little ‘oral pleasuring’, Jim’s father turns up and much hilarity prevails - the end all of this scene being - the movie is going to be about Jim and Michelle’s preparations for their wedding, and we’re going to have some fun along the way - but no more storyline shall be told by yours truly - I’ll leave that to you for when you go to see the movie.

Needless to say though that throughout the movie although its mainly there to give us one-liners and gross-out scenes there's always a sense of getting somewhere in the story, and by the end its a worthwhile effort.

** Cast **

Some of the old favourites are back, but no Tara Reid?, Shannon Elizabeth? or even Chris Klein? tsk! but the rest are there - namely Alyson Hannigan as Michelle, Jason Biggs as Jim, Sean-William Scott as Stiffler, Thomas Ian Nicholas as Kevin and Eddie Kaye Thomas as Finch, along with a few additions:

Jason Biggs (playing Jim Levinstein): Biggs reprises the role that made him famous, if not infamous (remember the pie-f**king scene in American Pie 1?) in the hapless Jim, he still boobs around the screen making an idiot of himself and he still gets to be naive in the ways of the world, whilst all the time growing up.

To be fair it’s a tried and tested method that the men behind the American Pie series have with Jim, so why change it? and luckily they haven’t he's as daft as he ever was, and still as humorous. There’s the standard gross-out scene, mushy stuff with Michelle and the all too famous ’chats with Dad’ and Biggs has a brilliant approach to them, so 10 out of 10 for effort on this part.

Alyson Hannigan (playing Michelle Flaherty): Finally she's shaken off the role of Willow in Buffy, now she just needs to shake off the role of Michelle in this trilogy, Hannigan is in danger of being type-cast if she's not too careful as the ’girl next door with a minx-y side to her’.

But she’s woefully under-used in this film, as the whole movie seems to focus a lot more on Stiffler than anyone else, however what we do get to see from her is pure gold, the ’temptress’ under-neath the Band Geek is all there to be seen, and of course the character is just that little bit older now, and it shows, its hard to say as she gets so little screen time and most of the time its serious scenes she’s involved in, but in a nut-shell she is good at the part she’s playing.

Sean-William Scott (playing Stiffler): Same old, Same old and my lord its still to this day as funny as ever, now Scott isn’t in danger of being type-cast he has been type-cast, look at Road Trip, Dude Where’s My Car, and this trilogy - all of those movies have him playing........ a jerk who’s after women and that’s it and he’s no different here.

This time around you find Stiffler being an even bigger idiot around his friends and also scarily the coach of East Great Falls High School Football Team, at the start of the film I honestly thought they were building him up as the evil entity of a film, he was nasty and not funny instead of just nasty-funny, but luckily this was soon turned around, and all I’ll say is look forward to the dance scene - Stiffler as a character is perfect for this type of movie and he proves it in this movie with a show-stealing performance.

Thomas Ian Nicholson (playing Kevin): essentially still just a bit part, especially with Tara Reid not being involved in this sequel so he’s stuck to occasionally hanging around in the back-ground and occasionally pointing out some gross-out moments, and to that I’m thankful.

To be honest this was the only character I ever had trouble liking in the first 2 movies, and what little of him I see here, I still don’t like he’s just well I don’t know what he is but it is but its wrong!

Eddie Kaye Thomas (playing Finch) Hurrah! S**t-Break is back! and this is the best role he’s had in one of the American Pie movies yet, with his on-going feud with Stiffler taking on a new high as we see the birth of ‘the Finch-meister’ all for the love of a girl.

But ultimately its still the same Finch that’s underneath all along, kind, quiet, intelligent and hating Stiffler and its still working, the scenes those 2 have together are perfection on screen - each trying to score points off the other and leaving the audience laughing like they’d seen a man get hit in the groin with a football, very, very funny, and bravo!

January Jones (playing Cadence Flaherty): A late-comer to the American Pie gang, is Michelle’s younger sister who is the object of Stiffler and Finch’s affections - she doesn’t have much to say and is very much like the role that Shannon Elizabeth played in the first film, just there to move the story along, what we do get to see of Jones’ acting is brilliant, it’s just that she’s not that greatly used.

Eric Allan Kramer (playing Bear): The series needed one eventually and now they have one - a gay man and a camp gay man at that, Bear is pure hilarity, taking a particular liking to Stiffler and basically camping up any scene he’s involved in.

Still it’s hard for me to do this character justice, what I’d say is just close your eyes and think of a Stiffler having a dance off with a huge man with spiky hair in a Gay club and you get the essence of Bear’s character - he’s been thrown in to mix it all up a bit, it’s just a little too late in the series for my liking.

** Sound-track **

They’re always good those American Pie Sound-tracks and this one is no exception, including Foo Fighters, Feeder, Avril Lavigne and American Hi-Fi it’s got a Teen-Punk feeling to it and has you singing along whilst the movie’s on-screen, and that's the sort of soundtrack you need for a teen movie, something to keep you up to pace with what's happening on screen.

** Location, Set Design and other stuff **

Well more like a write up to be honest, as its all your standard teen movie fare - house’s in the ‘burb’s’ the occasional bar and generally bumming around the city - American Wedding is good, nay its very good, myself and my house-mate spent most of the movie sat laughing like school-children, it was scary as I was obviously one of the oldest in the crowd but as soon as the movie got going I didn’t care one iota about that - American Wedding is the perfect cheer-up movie, and well worth the admission fee.