American Pie 2

D

I saw this after the third installment came out and got some good reviews. I saw the first American Pie on DVD and wasn't that impressed with it. It was pretty much a low budget high school party movie. It had a couple of funny parts in it but the only character that was memorable was Jason Biggs' Jim whose father was played by Eugene Levy. I guess I was bored when I watched it or maybe DVD's had just come out because I listened to the commentary by the two brothers who directed and produced the movie. It was fun to listen to these two guys as they talked with admiration about the cast, about their own mistakes as first-time directors, and how embarrassing it is to everyone to film a scene about something disgusting. The commentary was actually better than the movie because these guys made it seem like it was a lot of fun making the movie and that somehow gave a bad movie some heart.

It's no surprise really that American Pie 2 is just as bad as the first movie. In some ways the movie takes a higher road and you feel a little more empathy towards the characters who all return in one way or another. Roger Ebert suggested in his review that the first movie contract may have locked the cast into a sequel though that seems surprising for such a low-budget production. But, sure enough, everyone from the first movie is here again even though some of them seem like contractual obligations. Mena Suvari appears in only a couple of scenes and then on the phone, like Suzanne Somers in Three's Company when she was in a contract dispute and would only show up via the phone. Stifler's mom has more of a cameo than a role as does Shannon Elizabeth.

The movie feels very mechanical and, watching (part of) the commentary, I think I figured out why. They didn't get the original director and producer, but the assistant director from the first movie (I guess everyone had a contract to return but the Weitz brothers). While the director and producer bounced off one another here it's just one guy (to me that's rarely a good thing in a commentary; I'd rather see a commentary that has all of the interesting things someone has to say about it but not spread out over the whole movie (why not just skip around?); Terminator 2 did this very well). It just doesn't feel like a couple of lucky pranksters getting to make a movie this time. It's just people returning because they all got the job. That's over analyzing a bad movie, but it kind of shows.

Also, this was the "unrated" version. They've added scenes to the original movie that might make you think there's more nudity and gross-out scenes than the original release. To give you an example, they add a scene with the cops outside the house talking before they go in and break up the party. Watch out! Might get a NC-17 for that. In another scene two high school kids ask if one of Stifler's friends really nailed his mom and he throws them out of the house. So don't be taken in by that.

So while the first movie wasn't very good, this one isn't any better and feels more like a movie by a committee of studio executives. I'll give it a D.

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