Steve says:

As a rule, teen comedies should be forced to carry a compulsory rating of NF-17 (Not Funny to Those Over 17). The idea of a teen sex comedy appealing to a broader demographic is virtually unheard of. (I suppose this explains why theaters don’t have “early bird specials” so that seniors can see the latest Freddie Prinze, Jr./Julia Stiles epic).

A happy exception to this rule was the 1999 hit, AMERICAN PIE, which had a loopy sweetness about it that rendered nearly all of its characters loveable and transcended audience age barriers.

The original AP charted the course of five high school seniors in a race to lose their virginity before graduation. It’s a simple enough premise and not all that original, harkening back to 1983’s LOSIN’ IT, which featured a callow Tom Cruise in a third-banana role as one-fourth of a carload of teenaged horndogs on a road trip to Tijuana with the goal of getting laid. Or, reaching even further back, a distaff version of the tale, 1980’s LITTLE DARLINGS, in which Tatum O’Neal and Kristy McNichol were in a race to give it up. Neither of those films is particularly memorable, chiefly because they sucked blue swamp-water.

But AMERICAN PIE found the way to sell us the story -- make the characters relatable. Not one of them is cool, though they all desperately want to be. That would describe the majority of us in our formative years, leading us to bond with these geeky characters and share in their angst, even though it’s been some years since we lived through it ourselves.

When AMERICAN PIE achieved the enormous success that it did, the Lucas Law took effect. Named for director George Lucas, whose STAR WARS spawned a plethora of blockbuster sequels, the Lucas Law decrees that, when a film passes the $100,000,000 mark, a sequel is mandatory.

In most cases, sequels don’t work because the story that was told is over. Sometimes, as with the four LETHAL WEAPON movies, there are differing stories to tell, using the same characters. But usually, if a sequel differs too much from its forbearers, it will fail. Also, it is almost axiomatic that sequels to successful comedies will suck like a Hoover. (Witness CADDYSHACK 2 or REVENGE OF THE NERDS 2).

All this brings us to AMERICAN PIE 2, which I’m happy to report does not suck at all. While it would be a stretch to say that it improves on the original, the fact is that AP2 does manage to recapture the goofy/sweet spirit of its progenitor. It has far more laughs in it than most films that call themselves comedies.

An essential ingredient to a successful sequel lies in the producer’s ability to reassemble the original cast. Usually, this isn’t possible because one or more of them has become a star and is either not available or not affordable. But the AMERICAN PIE producers were savvy enough to contract everyone to a sequel before the first movie was even made. Given that, it looked as though Mena Suvari’s AMERICAN PIE 2 role was filmed in about two days.

Another essential creative ingredient from AP1 is writer Adam Herz, who shares story credit here with David H. Steinberg. Herz has managed to come up with matching set pieces for each of the original film’s most memorable moments, such as über-jerk Stifler (Seann William Scott) drinking the beer with the -- ahem -- “stuff” in it. In AP2, the Stifmeister is the unwitting target of a random “golden shower.” (It’s funnier than it sounds).

This story, like the first one, is about a bunch of guys trying to do the nasty. But it’s just different enough, charming enough and funny enough to make it worth sitting through all over again. There is even a quick cameo appearance by an apple pie, though this one is not used as a sexual partner.

Eugene Levy makes a welcome return as a boomer dad who is so nerdy that he’s borderline cool.

Jason Biggs is back as Jim Levenstein, the dorkiest of the bunch, who still lusts for his Ukrainian goddess, Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). He is aided in his quest by band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Hannigan’s performance is a wonder in that she takes a character with whom not many of us would want to be trapped in a room for more than five minutes and manages to endow her with sweetness and, yes, even sexiness.

The first AMERICAN PIE has a place on my DVD shelf, so I approached this retelling of the tale with great trepidation. If you didn’t like the first one, you won’t like this one and probably wouldn’t even consider going to see it anyway. But if you were a fan, you’ll like this one at least as much. I did.

Patty says:

What a groaner.

I laughed my butt off in AMERICAN PIE, but the sequel was about two apples short of a turnover. After coming home from their first year of college, Jim (Jason Biggs), Oz (Chris Klein), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Stifler (Seann William Scott) and Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), try to recreate their senior year of high school by renting a house at the lake for the summer. Oz, separated from his heartthrob, Heather (Mena Suvari) had his character completely written out of the script. Nobody told him, evidently and he showed up for filming anyway. His performance was as flat as his storyline. Heather made phone calls from her exchange program in Europe , but the only thing getting exchanged between these two was empty dialogue. Their attempt at phone sex made Kermit and Miss Piggie’s romance look steamy. And Mena, lose the red hair, babe.

Finch is still obsessed about Stifler’s mom. Mom stays evasive (thankfully) through most of the movie and Finch finally decides to move on with his life just about the time Mommy Dearest shows up for the climactic finale.

Stifler is still obnoxious. I suppose one could believe that a young man can be so thoroughly and predictably uncouth and still get laid eventually. After all, I’m sure that even car salesmen get sex occasionally.

Kevin and Vicky (Tara Reid) do the “we’re broken up now but still have great sexual tension on screen” dance for most of the movie. Somehow, I don’t really believe that they are interested, but it keeps Vicky in the story line.

The redemption in the film was the return of geeky Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) who….yep, you guessed it…is in BAND CAMP and comes to Jim’s rescue. Jim’s feelings of sexual inadequacy from last year linger (the pie doesn’t count as a notch on his headboard, evidently). Michelle agrees to help Jim practice for the return of the lovely and slutty, Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). Jim’s masturbation scene was a sticky number and he got pretty uptight about it, but he and Michelle were able to glue their relationship and all ends well. Alyson Hannigan and Jason Biggs were the most believable members of the cast, in my opinion. Either that, or their characters were the most fleshed-out by the writers. Jim’s Dad, played by Eugene Levy, was worth mentioning because of his performance. I’m sure if I look up the word “geek” in Webster’s, Jim’s Dad’s picture would be there.

The film was not funny. Sure, there were some trite but cute scenes (super glue, band camp performance, Stifler gets a golden shower (you have to see it), etcetera. The scenes just weren’t funny. The bits were sophomoric, the characters were predictable and the repartee was not snappy. This American Pie sequel morphed into a film that would appeal to fifteen year olds who have graduated from last years fart jokes and are now amused by anything remotely sexual. It’s a training film for the hormonally unbalanced, and frankly just not that entertaining for the rest of us who have already graduated.

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