It’s time for another round in the American Pie ring. This time, there’s no sign of the Pie - this is simply American Wedding.

However, if you thought the gang we’ve come to know after two movies would grow up and behave because there’s a wedding on, well, you’d be half-right.

The first thing to note is that not all of the cast is here. Oz, Heather, Vicky, Jessica, Nadia, Sherman and Stifler’s brother don’t show up for any of the film. Is this a good or a bad thing? Keep reading.

THE BASIC PLOT

Jim & Michelle (Jason Biggs & Alyson Hannigan) have been going out for over three years. So after a slightly embarrassing incident at a fancy restaurant, Jim pops the question & recieves a pretty immediate and very enthusiastic yes.

So now they’re engaged, its time to start planning the wedding. Michelle wants the traditional cost-explosive wedding a lot of girls dream of, and Jim is prepared to give it to her, even though its going to take some doing.

Will Michelle’s wedding be everything she’s ever dreamed of? Will Stifler sleep with the bridesmaid? Will the wedding happen without any problems? Yeah, right.

WHAT I LIKED

This film keeps up the laughs we’ve come to expect from the franchise, and brings them to us right from the start. As always, there’s some kind of incident involving Jim’s penis. Yes, I realise there was one of those in the other two Pie movies as well, but the whole cinema laughed - not just me.

Actually, the whole cinema laughed in unison pretty much throughout the movie. You could always tell where the jokes/funny incidents were supposed to be, and the writers have delivered. There’s no need to give away the laughs - you’ll know when they’re supposed to be.

Some of the cast cutting was appropriate. There was no need for Nadia to show up this time around. Her feelings for Jim probably would’ve just ruined the wedding, if not the whole movie. I also think having less characters was good because a lot of the other movies were spent developing the characters and not spending as much time as they could on the plot.

There’s some new characters introduced here as well, which probably brings the number back up to around what it was in the first two, but it doesn’t seem like the new ones needed to be developed, they were fine as they were.

Take Michelle’s family for example. Her dad (played brilliantly by Fred Williard) is already a complete character by the time we meet him. Williard uses this to his advantage, delivering a hilarious performance without using many jokes.

To the audience, Michelle’s sister Cadence (January Jones) is bridesmaid. To Stifler, she’s, well, the phrase “fresh meat” springs to mind. Initially, he just wants to sleep with her because he thinks she’s hot and he’s, well, Stifler. That’s just what he does.

However, in a surprising turn of events, Cadence somehow manages to bring out the best in Stifler. By the end of the movie he wants to sleep with her because he actually likes her. It’s about more than sex!

Jones may be new to the Pie gang, but she’s a great actress and has been given some of the best scenes in the movie.

Jim also helps to bring out Stifler’s sensitive side. Those that have seen AP 1 & 2 will probably be surprised to learn he has one, and its for this reason that I could write a whole essay on the topic, but I won’t. So how does Jim do it? Let’s just say Stifler’s past is brought out.

To give him his due, Seann William Scott is a lot better as Stifler in this movie than he was in the other two – probably because he’s actually got a decent character to play this time around.

For example what Stifler does to make up for his mistake with the flowers isn’t exactly the Stifler we’ve come to know, but in saying that it doesn’t surprise us.

The storyline here is a lot better than AP2. From what I can remember of AP2 – having only seen it once – it was basically more of a whole lot of little gags rather than a plotline.

In American Wedding however, there’s a lot of definite plotlines but none of them distract from the major one – Jim & Michelle preparing for their wedding.

As for the rest of the acting, Eugene Levy as Jim’s dad definitely doesn’t disappoint. He’s a bit more clued in as to what his son is up to in this one, but still manages to deliver the same brilliant performance we saw most notably in the original. (As memory serves, he didn’t get a lot of screen time in AP2.)

There were some really good performances all round. I’m not sure how new character Bear (Eric Allen Kramer) fits into the story, but he acts (and dances) his @ss off. Don’t miss the scene where he first meets Stifler!

As far as missing characters go, I’m glad there’s no Sherman, Stifler’s brother, Heather or Vicky. They never really added anything to the storyline (except that really annoying storyline from the first movie about her wanting Kevin to say “I love you” before she’ll sleep with him) and were pretty much 2D characters.

I think the good thing about this one is they end it in a pretty good place. I hope this doesn’t spoil it for anyone, but they the wedding is pretty much the final scene. There’s no honeymoon or any of that here.

Also, that’s a pretty good way to end the trilogy. We don’t know for sure that it has finished, because the possibilities are endless (American Honeymoon etc), but I think now that Jim’s married he’s gonna be a lot more responsible and the movies wouldn’t be the same.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

In other words, time for my gripe on missing characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of Oz (Chris Klien) and Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) in the previous movies. Not only are they absent from AW, there’s no mention of them whatsoever.

I think Jessica could’ve fitted in well to this movie, as a wedding consultant or whatever. She was the only teen member of the Pie gang that bared any resemblance to being wise and I think she was a lot more mature than some of the others.

As for Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), he plays such a minor role in this film that he didn’t really need to be there. I’d have preferred to see Oz back – Chris Klien was always the better actor of the two.

Then there’s Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Stifler’s Mom (Jennifer Coolidge). I’ll get back to Mrs Stifler later, but Finch was a real pain in this film. He also falls for Cadence and reverts to Stifler’s level to win her over, where Stifler acts like a nice, intellectual guy.

American Wedding quite clearly shows that Finch is no Stifler, and he should not even attempt to act like it. We also see Stifler try to act like Finch because he thinks that will get Cadence into bed. So, basically Finch and Stifler are partly interchangeable. What the f*ck? Where’d the writers come up with that idea?

It doesn’t work because the characters still have classic elements about them that are theirs alone. Because of this, they both end up acting like half-Finch-half-Stifler and its just too weird to pull off successfully.

Yes, Stifler’s Mom shows up. (Just so you know, I object to using that word. Here we speak English, so its spelt Mum. I’ve spelt it that way all my life, I will continue to and its only because the character’s name is Stifler’s Mom that I’m forced to spell it that way this time. End rant.) What she wants is what happens in every American Pie film – the running theme of her and Finch. If they’re going to cut cast members who actually could’ve done something more than what they’ve done in previous films, why leave in a character that does nothing?

The character of Bear, despite being well acted, wasn’t exactly unnecessary, but I can’t really figure out why he was there. I think he had some kind of a crush on Stifler. It’s not explained that well and if it was I probably would’ve included in the “What I Liked” section.

In AP1, we see Oz and Stifler playing Lacrosse. What I liked about this was its originality. If they had to be playing sport, at least it wasn’t some kind of football. So what happens in AW? We find Stifler coaching a high school (or maybe college) football team that he (affectionately and otherwise) refers to as “my f*ckers”. What I liked about the lacrosse was its originality. Now we’re back to some form of football, a sport that the world has been bombarded with in many forms. This is a really minor gripe, but it still annoyed me. Besides, why is Stifler now coaching a football team when there’s never been any mention of him playing or having any interest in the sport?

For a bride, Michelle hasn’t been given a lot to do. She accepts Jim’s proposal, has a bit of trouble writing her vows, then marrys him. In AP1 she stole the movie with that one infamous line, then had a major part in AP2 and performed well with it, so it would’ve maked sense to give her a bit more to do, seeing as the scriptwriters etc would’ve known that Hannigan’s a talented actress.

IN CLOSING

When all’s said & done, it’s really just more American Pie. It’s not brain surgery, its entertainment. If you like the first two, I’d almost guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself. Even if you didn’t like them, chances are you’ll laugh at this.

However, if you’re looking to see all the Pie gang back in action, I wouldn’t bother because they’re not all here, and the ones that are have changed a bit. They’re still the same classic characters but they’re a bit more mature and grown up.

As a point of interest, does anyone know what kind of prop they used for Stifler’s “chocolate truffle”? Surely they wouldn’t actually have him eat what it looks like.

Go. See It. Laugh.

Recommended:
Yes