I’m a fan of “American Pie”; I loved that movie, I thought it was very funny and the closest we’ll get to a classic comedy of the modern era, I mean what other movie featured such a hilarious sight as a guy having sex with a pie? Then there was “American Pie 2”, not exactly a creative title for a sequel, and all in all it was a mediocre film with a mediocre plot. There were minimal laughs, obvious jokes and puns, and nothing else to feature, then with a further saturation, there’s “American Wedding”.I was strictly against a third film in the “American” series, and now it’s clearly evident my instinct was right all along.
The first film was the best and it should have stayed that way and we’ve just about reached the end with “American Wedding”. Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Natasha Lyonne, and Shannon Elizabeth who wisely declined to star are missing in the cast and maybe their presence would have made the film better, but could anything have? I realized while watching this film that American Pie was only good for one reason: the good writing. I also realized that everyone of these characters are bland and very trite and the great writing pretty much anchored the bland characters. It’s clear the writers had little material towards the plot of the third film as this tends to focus primarily on the character of Stiffler, a very obnoxious creepy character who once served as a supporting character takes center stage in the film despite the fact it’s supposed to be about the character Jim. As a matter of fact we rarely ever see Jim during the film and he engages in no truly funny acts that would render him the star of the film. What’s the point of calling this “American Wedding” if this hardly focuses on the relationship between Jim and Michelle and their wedding.
Wouldn’t it have been nice to see a slapstick screwball younger perverted “Big Fat Greek Wedding” with two odd people? No, it doesn’t work out that way. We occasionally see them make a brief appearance with hardly any comedic overtones excluding the funny opener, which is sort of obligatory as of late with the “American” films. They’re only there to react to Stiffler as does everyone; Finch reacts to Stiffler, Cadence, Michelle’s parents, Jim, Michelle, Me. They all react with a cringe and a disgusted look, I don’t know about them, but my cringe and disgusted look was not meant for comedy, only for pure disgust at the distaste. As always there’s this hilarious opener when Eugene Levy enters conveniently at the most inconvenient moment where we enter into the story. The first film’s opening was priceless, the second was a little forced but still funny, but the third time it’s just pathetic. We now see Jim who’s preparing for the wedding and we’ve received the lesser of the cast including the bland Eddie Kaye Thomas back as Finch, the even blander Thomas Ian Nicholas as Kevin who’s rarely ever shown, and the newest addition, the pretty but terribly bland January Jones as Michelle’s sister Cadence who drifts through the film with little to do except engage in an awfully boring love triangle between Finch, Stiffler and she.
Along with the terrible casting decisions, the script is horrible. The dialogue is simply terrible with much obvious one-liners mostly spouted by the obnoxious Stiffler played by Sean William Scott who hams it up big time showing why he’s only funny in comedies where he stars with someone else, and then there’s your usual array of toilet humor that goes beyond boundaries into idiocy including a surprise closet rendezvous with an old lady, dog poop thought to be chocolate (use your imagination), and much much more. And just when the film might get funny it goes on w-a-a-ay too long with the jokes becoming really tiresome. Aside from that there’s plenty of scenes that are so far-fetched and make no sense, including a long, unfunny tacked on sequence where Stiffler dances at a gay bar to help Jim pay for his fiance’s wedding dress.
Awful (and far-fetched) as it is, it doesn’t account for the over-acting by Sean William Scott who’s completely ridiculous being forced to take center stage. The character of Stiffler isn’t that interesting a character and not funny and now he’s extended into over an hour of film and it’s terrible. For shame on Sean William Scott for accepting such a role; true he’s not an academy award winner, but have a little common sense. Thus with one fell swoop one awesome movie was extended into a fair series of bland sequels. Ultimately the final moments of the film, the redemption of the character Stiffler, and the climax are all so utterly ridiculous. And what happens? As always Stiffler’s mom shows up at the wedding, which is odd considering she has no relation to any of the members of the ceremony except for Stiflfer who’s only one of the ushers. Ya-a-awn! A fair series to a great first film. “American Pie” was great, “American Pie 2” was mediocre, this, however is just embarrassing.