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| American
Wedding Movie Review |
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Wedding balls are dangling in the latest
installment of the American Pie series, appropriately titled American
Wedding. Stifler is back. Kevin is back (barely). Finch is back. Jim is
back. Jim's dad is back. Jim's private parts are back. Band Camp is
back. Jim has proposed to Band Camp and the story revolves around their
upcoming wedding and Jim's impending bachelor party. As per usual, the
area below Jim's belly button and above his knees suffers humiliation
and abuse. There are a series of crude and rude jokes ranging from an
unfortunate poo-poo incident (did we really need to see someone eating
shit?) to a case of mistaken identity that is sure to give hope to
senior citizens around the world. Surprisingly, there is no lesbianism
(although there are enormous boobies).
In my humble estimation, American Wedding is a small step up from
American Pie 2. It does, however, fail to capture the magic of the
original movie. There is just not that emotional attachment to the
characters, to their families and to their friendships in this movie
that was felt in the first movie. The movie does not focus enough on Jim
(but we do get to see his hairy ass - and Finch's ass for that matter)
and focuses way too much on Stifler (no ass) and in my estimation, his
whole act has worn a bit thin. There are only so many ways you can hear
him tell someone to f. themselves or suck his knob before it starts to
get not funny. In a way, his character takes a step back from the first
two movies. He becomes almost an annoyance rather than the Stifler we
came to love. That is until the last fifteen minutes of the movie when
we see a different side of Stifler, still a crude Stifler, but at least
he does something different besides curse and try to get laid (what am I
saying, that sounds like me!!). There are actually a few sort of
"different" scenes with the Stiffmeister but he always seems
to have this stunned look on his face that makes you wonder if he
suffered brain damage somewhere between American Pie 2 and American
Wedding (once again, sounds like me?).
Nevertheless, that last fifteen or twenty minutes of the movie was
refreshing. It had that familiar feeling of American Pie that made the
movie such a hit. But that is not saying the whole movie was not funny.
American Wedding might not have the greatest flow, but there were many
laugh-out-loud scenes. I'm laughing now thinking of a few things that
happened (anything involving pubes is always funny). And the
introduction of January Jones as band camp's sister, Cadence, was sweet
justice. Not only was she easy on the eyes but she might have been the
best character in the entire movie. Stifler and Finch battle for her
affection to the point where Stifler is trying to be a sophisticated
intellect a la Finch and Finch is trying to be a crude vulgarity a la
Stifler. There are some absolutely hilarious moments along the way. And
don't worry about some of the old gang missing - Chris Klein, Shannon
Elizabeth, Tara Reid and so on. They were absent but not entirely
missed. In fact, Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) probably did not need to be
there either because I can barely remember him saying ten words in the
entire movie. Surprisingly, the Chinese guy that Stifler pissed on and
his buddy make it back into the movie. You figure they could of at least
mentioned some of the old characters. For example, "Too bad Oz
burned his balls off trying to have sex with a hot apple pie and now he
can't make the wedding." At least some kind of a mention. But none
of them even got a "kiss my ass".
Overall, I have to say that American Wedding is worth a trip to your
local cinema if you want a handful of genuine laughs. The movie starts
out with a bang but then it seems to drag for about twenty minutes. The
story-telling is a bit convoluted. And there are times when the movie
feels like it was quickly put together to cash in on the original
American Pie phenomenon. But it is a short, sweet movie and you will
have a good time. Just don't expect that cozy feeling of warm apple pie
that we once got from the original gang from American Pie. This movie is
more like Thanksgiving leftovers.
  
- 6.5/10
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Brendan Cullin - Senior Editor
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