American Pie (1999) – Review

American Pie came out in 1999, spawned six sequels (and offshoots) and reinvigorated the teen sex comedy that was so prevalent in the 80’s with films like Porky’s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, & Risky Business, just to name a few.

The film opens with Jim (Jason Biggs) being a typical teenage boy trying to watch scrambled porn off the cable feed when his mother and father walk in on him:

“Son, Why do we keep losing so many socks?“

Jim and all his friends have a disastrous time at a party, while this guy tells them he got laid:

It’s then and there that all the the guys decide to make a pact to help each other lose their virginity by the end of prom.

Each guy devises a plan to get the job done:

Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) calls his brother for advice on how to please his girl Vicky (Tara Reid) and is told of a book with all kinds of advice from previous students.

 

Oz (Chris Klein) decides to join the school choir to seek out untapped resources and falls for Heather (Mena Suvari).

 

Finch AKA “Shit Break” (Eddie Kaye Thomas) decides to pay his friend Jessica (Natasha Lyonne) to spread rumors about him to make him seem cooler to the ladies.

“You’ve seen the size of his schlong in the locker room right?”

Jim is having zero luck until the foreign exchange student named Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) asks him for some tutelage at his house.

Of course Jim (with a little help from his friends) devises the plan to record Nadia changing in his bedroom after ballet practice and stream it online for his friends.

When Nadia gets frisky on her own, Jim finds this the perfect time to go in for some action.

Unfortunately for Jim, he celebrates “prematurely” and blows his shot at getting with Nadia.  He also doesn’t realize he forwarded the link to this entire “show” to the entire student body instead of just his select friends.

With Jim being outcast from nearly everyone, he accepts the offer of going to prom from the geeky band camp nerd Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) who always has an excruciatingly boring story of something that happened “this one time, at band camp”.

“Did you know I play the flute?!”

Throughout the film we have two standout performances that are the backbone of the comedy:

Jim’s Father (Eugene Levy) who does a fantastic job as the awkward father trying to guide his son through this awkward stage of his life.

“Hmmm. Warm Apple Pie…..“

And has the WORST timing EVER for dropping in on poor Jim:

“Dad! This isn’t what it looks like…“

But does his best to arm Jim with the tools he will need to survive it.

“This one here is called shaved.“

And the jerk of the group named Stifler (Seann William Scott) who thinks he is all that with the ladies but comes off as an arrogant prick to them.

“What up, fuck faces?!“

Whether he’s tormenting poor Finch (Shit Break) incessantly, like giving him laxatives to force him to use the facilities at school, which ruins all of his cred when he is tricked into using the girls bathroom and “destroys it”.

“This is why I go home to take a crap.”

Or drinking some suspiciously thick beer:

“Is beer supposed to be chewy?“

With prom night fast approaching the guys have to make some tough decisions about what is most important to them, and if “losing it” is really the most important thing.

The final act has different outcomes for each of the guys than they were expecting, and different feelings than what they were expecting as well.

The best and most fulfilling outcome was Finch’s as he bumped into Stifler’s Mom (Jennifer Coolidge) and pulled a reverse Mrs. Robinson on her.

“Are you trying to seduce me?“

Much to the shock and horror of Stifler.

“Mom?…Shit Break?….“

Overall American Pie is a fun romp with some truly funny moments that reinvigorated the sex comedy genre for a new generation.