THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THIS FILM...

By Thomas Chau

  Cast: Jason Biggs (Jim), Alyson Hannigan (Michelle), Chris Klein (Oz), Tara Reid (Vicky), Seann William Scott (Stifler), Eddie Kaye Thomas (David Finch), Thomas Ian Nichols (Kevin), Eugene Levy (Jim's Dad)

General Plot: Four kids (Jim, Kevin, Oz, and Finch) in a high school in Michigan form a pact to lose their virginity before graduation after the class geek Sherman scores at a classmate's party. Overall Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Don't think of me as hypocritical here...I like some teen movies believe it or not. So why then did I criticize teen movies in my "10 Things..." column? To basically explain the fallacies of why such movies are so non-reality based, that was all. See, I've found teen films like Can't Hardly Wait, Scream and She's All That entertaining. And American Pie definitely ranks on my list of all-time best teen comedy flicks.

Casting for this film I thought couldn't have been anymore perfect. Very few teen films I've seen in the past have any kind of character depth in the teens themselves. Set in East Great Falls High in Michigan, four male teenagers make a pact to lose their virginity before graduation. Playing the unlucky Jim is Jason Biggs, where misfortune seems to lurk at every corner. After all, you'd expect the guy be an inconfident, cynical guy if his own parents walked into the room while masturbating to scrambled porn. Chris Klein plays Oz, a seemingly cocky guy on the outside who tries to win the heart of sweet, "goodie-good" choir girl named Heather (played by Mena Suvari). Kevin, played by Thomas Ian Nichols (Rookie of the Year, Kid in King Arthur's Court), is the more experienced of the three: He already has a girlfriend, Vicki (played by Tara Reid of Urban Legend), faced with the dilemma of their inevitable separation when they depart for college. And finally, there's David Finch - a shy, quiet kid who pays the ultimate price after Stifler takes advantage of Finch's fear of school bathrooms.

A word of caution though: You can't have a weak stomach going into this film. It's undoubtedly going to gross you and out and depending on your sense of humor, you're either going to find it among the ranks of There's Something About Mary or a trash-filled display of crude humor. So I guess it really is on this one a matter of opinion. And with this type of comedy, you'll definitely walk out of the film carrying some of the scenes from the movie with you, well, forever. You'll never look at apple pie, a sock, a flute, or even beer the same way again.

Nevertheless, you'll get a good laugh out of this film, one way or another. And if you really want to get into the movie, perhaps you'll sympathize with our four heroes on a quest for sex before graduation. As star Alyson Hannigan stated on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, it's a film for anyone (specifically teens) who've ever had, thought about, or is considering having sex. And for the adults, there's something for them as well: They will reminisce their high school or college years when they spoke about "doing it" for the first time and laugh at just how silly they were.

And now a review from Dave Paniagua...

Open wide and don't swallow too fast, or you'll miss all the jokes in Universal's American Pie. It's been a long time since I opened a review with such cliches, but this is what the movie is all about. Yet, the final product is a collective batch of partial originality, steming from a cast of unknowns and even Willow (Alyson Hannigan) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story opens up with Jim (Jason Biggs) attempting to enjoy his late-night with some quality television. After a brief run-in by his mother and Jim's Dad (played by SCTV's Eugene Levy), the parents find out more about their son's fetish for scrambled programs. Off we go to high school, but it's not just any typical school. It's the most perverted place of higher learning than a week at the Animal House. You've got everybody, from the horny couple (Thomas Ian Nicholas and Tara Reid) to the jock-type that ends up getting soft to win the heart of a lady.

And what would a teen movie be without the beer? Leave it to any scriptwriter to include underage drinking, but the first party scene works very well thanks to the alcoholic beverage in a scene too tame for There's Something about Mary's standards.

For a movie based on the sexual aspects of pie, there is definitely no need for the scene either. It is one of those crowd pleasers you will always get a kick out of, when you're watching the movie in college on one of those illegal video CDs. That's not to say American Pie is for the Porky's crowd (the same type of people that made Varsity Blues uber-popular). The quality is so fresh that everything is more than made up with the mostly unoriginal plot. There is no main character, despite what the movie's trailer has you believe.

The film's central plot involves Oz (Chris Klein) in his attempts to gain the affection of Heather (Mena Suvari). Klein has just come off from the critically-loved Election, and here in American Pie he gives some importance to the rest of the characters in their struggle to lose their virginity. He makes the romance worth something, and not just a movie where the guys must have sex to please the audience. Besides, don't you want to hear some dorky guy say, "Suck me, beautiful!" to some college girl he doesn't know? Now that's reality!

So, here's the checklist: American Pie is quite possibly the best comedy of the summer. It's got moments that are so funny, you actually clap for the movie. Now I don't recall the last time I actually clapped for a scene, but when a movie hits one right out of the park with classic moments involving a teenage girl about to come downstairs for dinner, you know something is perfect here.

Visit David's webpage at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Cinema/4069/