196, American Pie Reunion

Growing up when I did, by the time American Pie 1 came along I was able to easily relate to the antics of Jim, Stiffler, Kevin, Finch and Oz as I think most of us can.  Who cant remember a time in their past when they've been caught in an embarrassing situation or got all over-romantic with a girl.  There are even the times when our confidence has been at an all time high or sometimes we even let the inner geek out for a while.  If so, then you too can see why the American Pie movies (not including the Band Camp one) appealed to so many people.

Jump forward over a decade and again I easily managed to relate to the now adults our once high school kids had become.  Kids are on the cards, jobs are taking over and we attempt to seek some form of link to yesteryear, maybe deep down wishing we could still keep up the pace of our younger rivals but in actual fact - probably just better off sitting the occasional all-nighter out once in a while.

Well, The American Pie Re-union is everything mentioned above.  The whole cast from the original movie return and each turning out pretty much as expected.  I wont give away any secrets about our leading lads but lets just go to say there are no real surprises. 

The coming together for the reunion is a fitting tribute to their antics of old and now seemingly rivalled by the current throng of teenagers taking over, our slightly older and obviously comedic crew end up throwing their own style on proceedings with some old school humour and actions that only seem good at the time but as with the American Pie tradition - nothing really seems to go as initially planned.

At the start though its nice to see them all in their new surroundings but from the outset its Stiffler I was disappointed with.  His 'jokes' and actions made me feel that although trying to keep with continuity from the originals they hadn't cleverly moved on and he seemed dated and out of touch with the rest of the movies pace but its only a glitch and pretty soon he'll have you chuckling along with the 'ice-box' incident and the finale of the movie is so rewarding for him (you'll see!)   

As expected - there are some great scenes between Jim & Jim's dad that are as awkward and 'wrong' as any father / son chats should be but brilliantly written and acted to show a turning of the times with the advice now being dished out by Jim himself after the sad death of his own Mom, helping his dad try and move on with his life but the chemistry between them is as fresh today as it ever was - they've even rolled out Stifflers Mom again and her and Jim's dad could easily be Hollywoods most adorable couple!

For the new breed of viewers for this movie you really do need to go back to the original and familiarise yourself with the plot, cast and characters otherwise so many of the in-jokes will be over your head but if like me you saw these when they were made then this brings it all rushing back and I felt no need for any form of refresher outing to dig out the back catalogue and re-identify with them - the movie does that for you.

Its 'gross-out' American Pie fun, exactly as you'd expect it to be and with the entire cast returning including Sherman, the Milf Boys and even Jim's (now viral) sex tape getting another outing it just reminds you of how good the originals were and this just brings it all back home nicely.

Don't bother if you've never seen the first batch but if you have - this is a must!