SYNOPSIS: In the comedy American Reunion, all the American Pie characters we met a little more than a decade ago return to East Great Falls for their high-school reunion. In one long-overdue weekend, they will discover what has changed, who hasn’t and that time and distance can’t break the bonds of friendship.

It was summer 1999 when four small-town Michigan boys began a quest to lose their virginity. In the years that have passed, Jim and Michelle married while Kevin and Vicky said goodbye. Oz and Heather grew apart, but Finch still longs for Stifler’s mom. Now these lifelong friends have come home as adults to reminisce about—and get inspired by—the hormonal teens who launched a comedy legend.

REVIEW: Having ignored all other follow-up releases of this franchise, since the original, I enthusiastically settled on watching American Reunion, primarily because of a very promising trailer and the reunification of most of the original cast members. On the outset, the movie wreaks of just being an extended version of the trailer. Moreover, the disappointment grows deeper. Writers Adam Herz, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg and Directors Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg could have taken this great opportunity, of having assembled most of the original cast members, to make this follow up relevant and competitive with today’s comedic trends. The heavy dependence on comedy that worked for the original movie thirteen years ago, emanated throughout with lots of emphasis put on revisiting almost everything that made the original flick a game changer. This includes having the “Stifmeister” (Sean William Scott) character dominate with his obnoxious one-liners and having scenes from part one replayed. Basically, this approached did not work for me and the film could have had a little more “2012” appeal, by incorporating new and innovative ways to show the more mature hilarious versions of the characters.

Despite having the appeal of a Where Are They Now? VH1 special, the movie did produce quite a few LOL (laugh out loud) moments that had the audience seemingly gasping for breath, at times. Admittedly, I occasionally found myself really enjoying a few good laughs throughout the movie and found that all was not lost in characters such as the Eugene Levy’s character as “Jim’s dad.” As would be expected of the veteran comedy actor, Levy has been consistent with his flavor of comedy in the series and truly contributed to the laugh out loud scenes in the movie. 

Overall, I think that Producers and Directors of this installment of the series missed a golden opportunity to capitalize on the round up of the original cast and could have shown a bit more creativity in the plot, dialog and relevance. Furthermore, my being invited to review this movie in a theater that seemingly had no surround sound and only one speaker turned on for the audio, really took away from the overall experience of the screening. In my opinion, movies have certain aspects of appeal and one of them is a sound track. It was quite unfortunate that my fellow screeners and I had to endure the entire one hundred and fifteen minute movie on what seemed like a single speaker playing right beneath the movie theater screen.

American Reunion has a “wait for the DVD” appeal and deserves three and a half stars.
 

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