Review: American Reunion (2012)

“Were we just as obnoxious as these kids back in the day?”
– Kevin

SYNOPSIS: Jim, Michelle, Stifler, and their friends reunite in East Great Falls, Michigan for their high school reunion. – via IMDB

Well. Uhm, this is, hands down, my least favourite of the American Pie movies as they stand with the original members. I didn’t expect this to be good (I mean the older ones aren’t great, but they were a large part of my silly youth),  but I thought maybe nostalgia could save this one a little.

It straight up didn’t. The poster might hark back to the first of its kind, and the content may have tried at times, but it was desperate and a cheap cash grab. How Oz is suddenly back with a stray throwaway line about The Wedding, nope. Kevin is back, has a wife, and has a whole story arc with Vicki going.

We went through three movies with no real severe nudity (yes, there were boobs, but nothing too private. This movie? Show me Jim’s dick. Through a pot lid. Yes, that is exactly what I wanted to see for a cheap laugh. I know the others were also filled with crude, gross out humour, but this just seemed like a line crossed I didn’t need. I also did not like the creepy story with this young girl prostrating herself at Jim’s feet, and all these guys preying on young, high school girls. For reals. If you have been out of school twelve years, you should not be trying to make it with a sixteen year old.

What I did like though was watching Jim’s dad and Stifler’s mom chilling together and having a blast. There is also plenty things that do throw back to the originals, and for the most part, this is pulled off successfully. Stifler has another crazy party, and Jim’s dad is the life of the scene, hands down.

Yeah, I am bitching about this, and I sort of expected it to be weak, but I didn’t expect it to be as terrible as it was at the end of the day. This one can totally just be skipped. It is cringey and embarrassing, and not in the sort of forgivable way of the old ones. I still maintain I don’t know how those would be received if seen for the first time nowadays and no youth to help it along.

Review: American Pie (1999)

“No longer will our penises remain flaccid and unused! From now on, we fight for every man out there who isn’t getting laid when he should be! This is our day! This is our time! And, by God, we’re not gonna let history condemn us to celibacy! We will make a stand! We will succeed! We will get laid!”
– Kevin

SYNOPSIS: Four teenage boys enter a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. – via IMDB

See, this was one of those movies for pretty much every coming of age teen in my youth (except Natasha – how the heck did you miss this train?!), and it is a movie I have seen more times than I care to mention. Now, granted, I haven’t seen these movies in years and years and thought it was time to revisit them.

Now, while American Pie is nostalgic as all hell, I also look at it totally differently than I did when I was a rugrat and it came out. It is fun but it is so silly, and such a ludicrous concept that losing your virginity is the be all and end all in your life – though this is also a common teen movie trope. Growing older and wiser in my years (har har har), I have naturally learnt that there are more important things about. Not when you’re a teen though, I guess.

Jason Biggs is totally the perfect guy to play Jim. He is awkward, he is weird, he nails down that vibe and rolls with it. Seann William Scott own Stifler, he is such a total asshat! Finch is a character that I truly enjoyed – uptight, total oddball, but works. Even as a teen he made me laugh, he was just so different from the lot. Eugene Levy is perfectly embarrassing as Jim’s Dad. Alyson Hannigan will forever be “This One Time At Band Camp” Michelle for me, no matter how much How I Met Your Mother I have seen. Needless to say, American Pie touts a range of characters you will remember for years after as they were presented here. *cough cough* Jennifer Coolidge Stifler’s mom.

American Pie really goes for that icky, gross out humour and tons of sexual humour, and I am not really sure how someone who didn’t watch these movies when they came out, or is a lot older, will feel about them. Me? I still have fun, but that is also quite likely fuelled by the nostalgia. Blink-182 (pre-Tom departure) also has a guest appearance, which is quite amusing. This is not to say that the movie is without flaws – seriously, the story is all over the show, the writing and directing is messy at times, and it is definitely clunky.

All that being said, American Pie is nostalgic, silly, and features some gross out humour and is quite raunchy. Uneven but fun, I still think this is worth the watch, though I have no idea how it will work out for people who have never seen it before.

Review: Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)

“I’m here to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
– Elle Woods

SYNOPSIS: Elle Woods heads to Washington D.C. to join the staff of a congresswoman in order to pass a bill to ban animal testing. – via IMDB

Really?! Really?! WHY?! That’s all I really have to say on this matter. Legally Blonde 2 is everything you expect from Hollywood and their bout of sequelitis (thanks again, Tom). This is such an unnecessary movie, one that goes out of its way to reuse to much that made the first one good, and instead of it carrying the same charm with it, it just falls flat. Luckily it is not as offensive as The Princess Diaries 2, because that was such an abomination.

I particularly resented the whole animal cruelty, save Bruiser’s mom thing. Yes, I know how cold that sounds, but it was such a stupid, shallow plot to base this whole movie on. Yes, the first is fluffy, but Elle going to Harvard, learning to be herself and doing well for herself, was one thing. This? I just don’t even know what this was even remotely about, except annoying. There were things I liked, like seeing silly Elle again, Paulette being that inapproprialtely weird friend, and her courier still being around. Also, Bruiser’s outfits still reigned supreme. Aside from that, I hated the shallow rehashing of things, the silly “coincidences”, the ridiculously unbelievable way that the characters interacted, and have I mentioned the excessively stupid main story of the animal right’s bill just to get Bruiser’s mother invited to Elle’s wedding?! I am not even joking. What a useless plot device.

This movie was definitely quite a painful watch. It had moments where it tried to break through and be its predecessor, to bring the goods to the table, and there were times it succeeded. Mostly, however, it was just messy and overly ridiculous. Overall, Legally Blonde 2 is a pretty meh experience that has some heart at times, but is totally annoying at other times. Typically unnecessary sequel that we could have done without.