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| American Wedding DVD Review |
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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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American Wedding
(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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January 6, 2004
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| Length:
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104 mins.
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| Rated:
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18A
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.35:1)
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| Audio:
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Dolby Digital 5.1 English, Dolby Surround French, Spanish
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| Subtitles:
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French, Spanish, English Closed-Captioned
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| Extras:
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Feauture Commentary with Director Jesse Dyland and Seann William Scott, Feature Commentary with Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Featurettes: "Enter the Dominatrix: Inside the Bachelor Party", "Grooming the Groom", "Stifler Speak", "Cheesy Wedding Video", "Nikki's Hollywood Journal", Cast and Filmmaker Bios, Credits
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American Wedding is the third (and supposedly final) chapter of the American Pie series. Jim and Michelle are getting married and the gang gets together for the wedding. Well, some of the gang anyway. Gone are Oz, Vicki, Heather and Nadia. Oh, and sadly, no Sherminator either. Back are Stifler, Finch, Kevin (with barely any lines) and Jim's dad. We also get some new characters too--Michelle's parents and hot little sister, who becomes the object of desire for both Stifler and Finch. It doesn't matter that half the cast of the original is missing. This movie was all about Stifler, and everyone else was window dressing.
The Stifler factor is the best and the worst thing about American Wedding. He easily has the funniest parts of the movie, and lot of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. But the rest of the cast gets lost in his shadow. I could probably count on my hands the number of laughs in this flick that didn't involve Stifler. I also felt at times it seemed like Seann William Scott was going overboard with the character, as if he was doing a Stifler parody at times.
As for the DVD, there are enough features to keep any fan of the series satisfied. The movie is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a 2.35:1 widescreen transfer.
There are 2 versions of the movie on the DVD. The rated version is the one that appeared in theatres. There is also an unrated version that was specifically designed for the DVD, which features about 25 minutes of extra scenes. The jewel of the unrated version is the extended bachelor party scene, which is easily my favourite scene in the movie. The unrated version also has a brief introduction from writer Adam Herz, where he explains what was included in the unrated cut vs. the theatrical release.
There are 2 feature commentaries on the disc. The first has Seann William Scott joined by director Jesse Dylan. It's a fairly entertaining commentary, mostly dominated by Scott talking about Stifler. He also seems to give props to Fred Willard (who played Michelle's dad) every time he came up on screen and cracks up at all of his lines. The second commentary has more of AW's stars--Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Thomas Ian Nicholas. This commentary wasn't so good, and you really get the impression after listening to it that they goofed around a lot on the set. The only interesting tidbit I picked up from this one was that there was supposed to be a commentary featuring Herz, but it's nowhere to be found on the disc.
There are 12 deleted scenes on the disc, with the first 9 being introduced again by Herz, 2 more introduced by Scott and the last with no lead-in. A couple of them made me laugh, but you can see why the cuts were made. They just would have ended up bogging down the movie. There is also 6 minutes worth of outtakes, mostly involving the cast cracking up on their lines.
There's 5 featurettes in total on the DVD. 'Stifler Speak' just walks us through how Scott and the writers set up the Stifler character and the vulgarities he spews at everyone. I found it cool how the director lets Scott try a whole bunch of different lines until they feel they've nailed the right one.
'Cheesy Wedding Video' is exactly that, a short and useless video about Jim and Michelle's Wedding. 'Grooming the Groom' is about the scene in the movie where Jim decides to shave himself south of the border for his wedding night. It's funny to see how the special effects people assembled so much hair for the scene, and how Biggs so freely walks around with his pants down.
The next 2 featurettes both involve the lovely Nikki Ziering. 'Nikki's Hollywood Journal' is a look at Nikki's preparation for the Hollywood premiere of American Wedding. We see how much work it is for her to look as good as she does, getting up before 6am to hit the gym, then going to have her skin fixed for any potential blemishes. We then follow Nikki on a mini shopping spree, see her get her hair and makeup done and then finally get to see her walk the carpet for all the adoring fans.
'Enter the Dominatrix: Inside the Bachelor Party' is my favourite feature on the disc. We get a detailed (and unrated!!) look at the shooting of the party scene. It made me wish I could have been there myself as we see the cast and crew seem like they're having a genuinely good time.
While American Wedding probably has a little too much Stifler and ultimately came up short of the lofty expectations set by its predecessors, it still has its moments. The disc has enough features to satisfy the biggest American Pie fans. In fact, the extended bachelor party scene will make it worth the purchase alone.
| The Movie: |
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7/10 |
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Extras: |
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8/10 |
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