American Pie 2

There’s something refreshingly capitalist about the way the whole series of ‘American Pie’ DVDs attempt to market themselves. This one, for instance, describes itself as “unrated” and “unseen”. It’s a 15, and I watched it this afternoon.

Anyway, now I’ve got that one minor quibble off my chest, what of the movie itself? Well, as you’d probably expect, it’s just like the original one, only predominantly without either the spark or the originality. Sure, there’s a superglue gag in there that’s rightfully destined to go down in comedy lore, and my blokeyness necessitates mentioning the one tremendous instance of girlie nudity, but other than that it’s a disappointing and overly-long affair.

It’s set a year on from the first one, and our favourite gang of sex-starved compadres are back home for the summer after finishing their fresher’s year at college. As with last time, the main focus is on ridiculously unlucky-in-love Jim Levinstein (Jason Biggs), his budding relationship with flute geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), and his scene-stealing cringe-inducing dad (Eugene Levy). Also doing the same stuff as last time are the likes of Seann William Scott as uber-pratt Stifler, Shannon Elizabeth as the bizarrely-accented Nadia, and Chris Klein as lank-haired dullard Oz.

So the components might largely be the same, but the laughs are hard to come by and little-known director James B. Rogers criminally moves things along at a snail’s pace. It’s a long way from the most unenjoyable viewing experience you’ll ever have, but to say it’s a little flat would be the understatement of the year.