Anyone with one iota of good common sense knows you really shouldnt find this sort of stuff funny. Its loud, tasteless, churlish and capitalises shamelessly on the thin line that exists between repulsion and humour. But hey youve got to laugh.
American Pie is a tired franchise. The jokes are basically all the same, the spark has more or less disappeared and you can see the punch-lines coming a mile off. Yet, somehow, those now all too familiar characters can still squeeze a belly-laugh or three out of any theatre audience. This third and probably final instalment of the tale might not be scooping an Oscar any time soon, but its ability to continually locate the funny bone when it really has no right to do so is an achievement in itself.
The plot, in case anyone out there actually cares, is nothing particularly original. Jim and Michelle (Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan), having somehow kept their romance alive through two films worth of degradation and humiliation, are finally set to walk down the aisle. Think Father Of The Bride, only with added topless girlies, sex jokes and doggy doo, and youre on the right lines.
A hefty proportion of the original line-up have been punted, though fans of the first two movies will no doubt be delighted to hear that Seann William Scott returns as the now strangely iconic Stifler. As the potty-mouthed party animal with a less than old fashioned approach with the ladies, hes successfully made the transition from bit-part player in the first movie to virtual screen-hugger in the third. Even stranger is that, for the most part, it actually works.
It might not be The Stifmeister whos getting married, but this is in all other ways his movie. And, as long as William Scotts sticking to this sort of stuff and not trying to pass himself off as an action hero as he did less than impressively in Bulletproof Monk, then I for one dont have any problem with him. Mind you, a Stifler spin-off movie might just be taking things a little too far .oh God. I hope Im not giving them any ideas.