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A Universal release. Written by Adam Herz; directed by Jesse Dylan; starring Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott and Eddie Kaye Thomas. Released to DVD on January 1, 2004.  American Pie 1 and 2 are an anathema to me. Crude, irreverent and often more interested in being funny than advancing the narrative, the two films are also some of the warmest and most honest portrayals of teenagers and college students in recent years. The films succeeded as they did because you genuinely liked the characters. You could relate to them and because they felt real, something that no sit-com teens ever do. And then came American Wedding, the latest and hopefully last installment of the American Pie series. Jason Biggs leads the cast of former Pie members playing the always-down-on-his-luck Jim. Engaged to his high school prom date and college girlfriend Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), American Wedding, as one might safely assume, focuses on the time before Jim and Michelle's impending nuptials. Surrounded by his friends Finch and Kevin (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas respectively), Jim deals with the minutia that surrounds a fairly expansive and expensive wedding ceremony, from the return of the delightfully odious Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott), to ensuring he makes a good first impression on Michelle's parents (Fred Willard and Deborah Rush).  There are parts of American Wedding that are truly amusing; there is quite an inspired sequence featuring Jim's attempts to bond with Michelle's parents in his living room while Finch, Kevin and Stifler are hiding strippers in the kitchen that rivals American Pie 2's lesbian sequence in terms of setup and payoff and humor. The majority of the material, however, falls flat. Not sure whether to be an over-the-top gross-out flick or an over-the-top sentimental film, director Jesse Dylan attempts bring both styles together with little if any buffering; what I watched was really disgusting, really sappy or a weird combination of both. American Wedding has its moments in the sun, but didn't contain anywhere near enough substance, humor or wit to out weigh the near overload of downright foul gags and overly special emotional moments in the film. | |||||
