Like Pride & Prejudice, Only Raunchier: Everyone Goes Home Happy in American Pie 2
Written: Aug 11 '01 (Updated Aug 12 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: Better than most sequels; stayed true to the spirit of the original.
Cons: Not as funny as the original... but really, what sequel is?
The Bottom Line: Better than your average sequel, it was much more entertaining than I could have hoped for. Alyson Hannigan, Eugene Levy, and Seann William Scott steal the show once again.
All summer, I’ve been flipping pages of quality contemporary literature while sipping iced tea on my patio, and yet nothing really inspired me to write. It took a silly teen sex comedy… forgive me, a sequel to a silly teen sex comedy, to push me to my keyboard and make me want to spread the news.
That’s right, unbelieving general public… American Pie 2 failed to disappoint. I must admit that I really enjoyed it.
But I did like its predecessor, so perhaps I'm biased.
Generally, the best that I ever hope with sequels is that they fail to disappoint. I don’t except them to be great; I just hope that I won’t want to exit the theater in disgust. With American Pie 2, I wasn’t at all disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. While I didn’t find the film as fresh as its predecessor was when I first viewed it, American Pie 2 is bawdy and fun, while still retaining the underlying sweetness of the first film. There were a few too many cornball moments, but I was impressed to note that the characters we met in American Pie seemed to have developed in a way that would make sense in the real world. The gang is back, and they’re just typical college students, trying to adjust to their first summer back at home.
By the way, while I promise to not reveal any spoilers about this film, I do assume that my audience has seen the first film, and I will discuss certain events that occurred in the original. If you haven’t seen the first film and don’t want it spoiled for you, please read no further. But c’mon… if you haven’t seen the first film, you really shouldn’t be considering seeing the sequel, now should you?
American Pie 2 begins much like its predecessor, with the unfortunate Jim (Jason Biggs) having an embarrassing sexual moment, thanks to an inopportune interruption from his parents. This time, however, it’s on moving out day on Jim’s last day of his freshman year at university. We soon find out that Oz (Chris Klein) has successfully managed a long-distance monogamous relationship with his former “goody-goody choir priss” Heather (Mena Suvari), but that uber-couple Vicky (Tara Reid) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) have gone their separate ways and have not kept in touch since becoming undergraduates.
Of the single guys in the bunch, only Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) has had much luck with sexual conquests during his first year away from home. But he’s still harboring an all-encompassing crush on Stifler’s Mom (Jennifer Coolidge), much to the dismay of chronic womanizer and general walking Id, Stifler (Seann William Scott).
Our luckless hero, Jim, has been striking out consistently with women since being unceremoniously dumped after prom by his date, the flute-toting band geek with a runaway libido, Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Even though it was Michelle who simultaneously made him her b*tch and made him a man, his heart belongs to the elusive foreign-exchange temptress, Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), who has promised to pay him a visit at the end of the summer.
Although this will sound silly, I would suggest that any fans of American Pie who plan on heading out to American Pie 2 take the time to revisit the first film. I did so, and it really made the sequel that much more enjoyable. Many moments are considerably more amusing if the first film is fresh in your mind, but the real payoff is that the filmmakers made a concerted effort to make parallels between the first film and the second. Once again, Stifler gets an uncomfortable moment at his own party, and he finds a way to get revenge on Finch by manipulating a situation to cause Finch some embarrassment. Instead of a sexual situation being broadcast unknowingly over the internet, there’s some invasion of privacy through decidedly lower-tech means. Instead of a bonding moment of honesty on the steps outside the prom, the boys bare their hearts on the beach.
Some may find this parallel plot structure to be a predictable re-hash, but I saw it differently. After all, they could have rushed a sequel into production, with a silly, over-the-top attempt at making the sequel more outrageous than the original, but instead, they stuck with what worked, and actually made the sequel a bit less shocking, in my opinion.
Perhaps the “everyone ends the film with the right person” thing is a bit silly and predictable, but Jane Austen did it all the time, and hardly anyone whines about that. If the Bennet sisters and the Dashwood sisters can all conveniently end up in the arms of right partner, why can’t the Pie boys enjoy the same fate?
Oh, and that’s not a spoiler… if people didn’t end up in bed, it just wouldn’t be American Pie 2.
Once again, a few members of the ensemble cast still steal more than their fair share of scenes. Eugene Levy is a riot as Jim’s geeky, but always sweet father. And something about Seann William Scott as Stifler just slays me. He gets many of the film’s best one-liners, and his face-scrunched, straight-forward and honest delivery is dead on. Stifler gets to say all the things that the other guys are thinking, but were too well-brought up to mention. He gets a larger role in this film, and there’s plenty a tension in the air due to the Stifler’s mom / pool table situation of the first film.
But the true scene-stealer of American Pie 2 is Alyson Hannigan as Michelle. We get to see Michelle in her element… she’s now a counselor at band camp. In many ways, she’s the female equivalent of Stifler; though she's more mature and thoughtful, she's prone to saying exactly what's on her mind. She gets to be straightforward and honest and say things that no one else can quite admit. Hannigan has a talent for comedic timing, and knows just when to play her role straight, and just when to unleash the wackiness that is sexually confident, but socially awkward Michelle.
While in the original, the girls held all the cards, the balance of power has leveled out a bit for the sequel. There’s more supply, and less pent-up demand, so to speak. As a result, most of the female roles are smaller, and the focus of the film has shifted to the boys. This is actually a good thing, in my opinion, as much of the film is devoted to allowing the four main male characters to figure out who they really are. They may think that they’re on a quest for sex, but the sequel has them learning (as Oz did in the first film) that there may be more to be seeking out there.
I’m not ashamed to say that I liked American Pie 2. It may not be the most intellectually challenging film of the summer, but it delivered more than I expected. It even had a cool Afghan Whigs song from the 1969 album in the background during a key party scene. Which is more than I can say for most of the other lackluster fare that Hollywood delivered this summer. No one’s going to get an Oscar for this one, but I went into the theater hoping to see something entertaining, and American Pie 2 delivered. Yes, it was corny. And predictable. But it was also funny and sweet, and definitely worth the cost of admission.
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