I was so excited when I heard there was going to be a new "American Pie" movie coming to theaters and reuniting the original cast. I saw parts one and two but skipped the third and all the direct-to-DVD sequels because I do believe in the law of diminishing returns.
Maybe I should have trusted that instinct.
"American Reunion" isn't that bad. It's fine. It has cute moments. It has funny moments. It just doesn't live up to the original, and that's really disappointing because I love the original.
I think "American Pie" gets a bad rap because it helped usher in the age of R-rated comedy raunch fests, a fact so many of the reviews I've read have pointed out. Focusing on the gross parts really minimizes what I think is a sweet, honest, heartfelt coming-of-age story.
Sure, there are really horrifically gross parts in the original "American Pie" (I watched the "unrated" version once and will never do that again) and a major theme of the movie was the quest to lose one's virginity, but most of the movie is about four friends dealing with growing up, moving on and, most likely, growing apart.
I had just graduated from college when the first movie came out and could relate to those issues. The older I get, the more I recognize that life is mostly made up of transitions, of learning how to leave people and situations behind. And it ain't always easy.
To deal with this, the friends in the original "American Pie" make a pledge to lose their virginities before graduation, and in the process, they fall in and out of love, make new friends, take risks, and see their worlds grow a little bigger. They make some huge mistakes along the way, but they mostly remain decent, loyal, respectful guys.
One of my favorite parts about the original movie was how, underneath the ridiculous slapstick, sex was dealt with in a pretty honest way. It is awkward. It is a big deal. It can change everything. Through the four couples the movie follows, we see all of that play out.
"American Reunion" brings the four friends back together, each one now struggling with the truth of their 30-something lives. They're not all that miserable, but they're not all that happy either, so maybe going back to where it all started will somehow fix everything.
I wasn't expecting major revelations and breakdowns from "American Reunion," I know it's not "The Big Chill" or even "Beautiful Girls," but I was looking for some of the same heart the original film had in dealing with the frustrations of getting older and finding yourself drifting further and further from the life you dreamed up when you were a teenager, including the friends you hatched those schemes with.
The film didn't feel like it was made to tell any story in particular, really. Instead, it seemed like "a gift for the fans," a film like Kevin Smith's "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back" that's more about tying up some loose ends and tossing back to various in jokes. Sure, it was fun to hear Alyson Hannigan say, "This one time, at band camp" again, but the movie needed more than that to live up the original.
I know it's kind of ridiculous to be this disappointed in a movie, particularly an "American Pie" movie, but the original was a film that stuck with me way back when, that still means something to me now because of the when it came from. Maybe I thought because I grew up, the "American Pie" universe would have grown up a little, too, and better tap into what the class of '99 is going through now the way the original did then.
It's foolish, I understand, but I have this habit of expecting pop culture to deliver.
No comments:
Post a Comment