Director: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
Release Date: 2012
Running Time: 1hr 53 minutes
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 15
Format: Sky Movies
Synopsis:
Jim, Michelle, Stifler and their friends reunite in East Great Falls, Michigan for their high school reunion.
After almost eleven years, our favourite group of misfits return to our screens, one last time. This time, to attend their high school reunion. A lot can happen in eleven years. Irritatingly, it's hard to determine just how long it's been between storylines. One can imagine that potentially a few years could have passed. Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan) have a two year old boy, Jim's mother has passed away, Chris (Klein) and Heather (Suvari) have seperated, Kevin (Nicholas) has married and Steve Stifler now finds himself working for the world's bitchiest boss. Clearly a lot has happened over the past couple of years. Irritatingly, a lot isn't explained about has happened since Jim and Michelle's wedding, leaving audiences curious.
The film opens with Jim (Biggs) getting caught doing something he shouldn't be, only this time he's caught by his two year old son Evan. The same gag was used in American Pie: The Wedding which didn't work and felt very repetitive, however this time it works excellently, there's nothing more embarrassing them having your children walk in on you doing something inappropriate. Unlike her counterpart, Michelle too is caught doing something naughty, this makes for a very humorous opening scene. Directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg have brought it back to basics, bringing back the humour from the first film, something that sadly got missed in the third movie.
The characters have grown and matured a fair bit since the third installment, Chris and Heather have sadly gone their own separate ways. Chris now finds himself as a sportscaster, loved up with a model more interested in getting attention than spending time with him. This disappointed me greatly, I would have loved to have seen Chris and Heather settle down together. Their relationship blossomed beautifully in American Pie 2. Kevin (Nicholas) is now married and working as an architect. This confused me to begin with because in American Pie: The Wedding, Kevin states that he is at Law school, was it really necessary to change Kevin's career path, all for the sake of a new movie? Nicholas delivers a tremendous performance and still to this day remains the same lovable character that we all remember from the first two films.
Steve Stifler (Scott), now finds himself working as a temp for JB Global. Scott's performance is excellent, his character really is in full swing in this movie. Stifler might have even grown up a bit himself. It's a shame we only briefly see Vicky and Jessica, two of the main leads from American Pie, I was shocked to know that Vicky and Kevin hadn't settled down together either, however it did make their scenes more interesting. The dialogue is excellent, the writers have gone back to basics, learning what made audiences laugh in the first two films and reprising that humour in this film. We even get a brief glimpse of Nadia. A couple of scenes were cheesy and to a degree unnecessary, particularly scenes involving Chris, it did ruin it somewhat, however the fantastic ending really makes up for those scenes.
Unlike the previous film, both directors really took into account that time has passed, ensuring that the film's soundtrack sounds very modern, particularly with LMFAO's song "Shots", it works excellently in the scene and really adds to the films atmosphere. Their high school reunion naturally has a nineties feel to it, the choice of music for the end scene is excellent, with hit songs from Montell Jordan and Wreckx n Effect. It certainly reminds me of the nineties. Despite, the films "15" rating, there is a scene in which Jim's next door neighbour Kara is seen illegally drinking with friends at a party. To UK audiences this would be considered a pretty normal thing to see, however is it not illegal to drink in the USA until the age of 21? One could say, that scene is encouraging young people to illegally drink. Kara could easily have been celebrating her 21st birthday, with the same motion.
All in all, an excellent film, I'd love to see the story end here.
4/5
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