American Wedding (2003)

VERDICT:
5/10 Dookie Truffles

Yeah, it’s another American Pie movie. That’s about it.

American Wedding picks up with that kid who banged the pie as he gets ready to marry the chick who violated her flute. Somehow Stifler gets invited to the wedding and everyone does their best to make sure he doesn’t ruin it.

UNLEASH THE SEXUAL AWKWARDNESS!

Caught this on TBS last weekend because it was either this or Olympic ice dancing – aka: the lamest thing anyone can do on ice. As stated on the poster, this here is “The Thrilling Climax of the ‘AMERICAN PIE’ SAGA” (notice the oh so subtle innuendo going on there), so if you’ve seen the other two, you know what to expect.

Now, I’ve been waiting to review the original American Pie because the first two times I saw it I found it pretty funny, at least a hell of a lot funnier than every movie after it that tried to emulate the bar Pie set for crude teen sex comedies. Then on the third time around, I could hardly even watch it. Considering I’ve got a two-out-of-three-ain’t-bad situation going, I need to give it one more go around before deciding on a final verdict. But Wedding is pretty much more of the same.

For the first half of the movie, I was tempted on numerous occasions to just turn it off, but like I said…ice dancing. The first hour is utterly devoid of laughter, it’s totally predictable and it’s just raunchy for the sake of being raunchy. A mistaken bestiality threesome? Screw that noise. Not funny.

But then the second half boots up and things start working in its favor.

The thing is, I don’t even know why they called this American Wedding because it’s all about Stifler. This is also the thing that saves the movie because Stifler has always been the funniest part of this whole series and once he steps into the forefront during the second half, everything else becomes that much more enjoyable. He’s a total dick as usual, but that’s the appeal and he’s the only one in the main circle of friends that doesn’t come off as a carbon copy of the guy standing next to him.

But I’ve always liked Seann William Scott. Dude’s always been pretty funny and has never taken himself too seriously. I dig that.

I don’t know, I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one other than it ain’t a bad alternative to ice dancing. But so is eating wax, so that’s not much of a recommendation at all. Alright, let me try that again. American Wedding‘s not as memorable as American Pie, but for all the ways it screws up right off the bat, it gradually redeems itself to the point where it’s entertaining and worth a smile. Much better.