American Wedding
March 2004 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Father, forgive me. Even if it means I have to turn in my serious critic credentials, I have to admit it -- I love all three of the American Pie films. The combination of the films’ adolescent gross-out toilet humor, healthy respect for the joy of sex, and characters I actually care about gets to me every time. American Wedding takes about half of our friends from the first two flicks (adios to Oz, Chuck, and most of the girls including, sadly, Nadia) and brings us up to date on their post-college lives.

Jim Levinstein (Jason Biggs) and his love, Michelle "and when I was in band camp" Flaherty (Alyson Hannigan), decide to get married. His buddies, Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), are there for their pal, but no one wants Stifler (Seann William Scott) anywhere close. The trouble is, Michelle wants a formal wedding and that means that Jim will have to dance. The mere thought of dancing panics him and, for some reason, the only person he can find to teach him to dance is Stifler. He is willing to teach Jim because he wants to get Michelle’s sister, Cadence (January Jones), into a few compromising positions.

American Wedding, like its forebears, does two things with such rare perfection that it deserves some kind of Bizarro-World Oscar. First, the sight gags are set up carefully so that by the time they happen, you are already rolling on the floor in anticipation of what you know is going to happen. Second, no matter how gross or depraved our buddies act, you always sense an underlying sweetness that comes from the filmmakers having respect for both the characters’ lives and our intelligence. In the long history of this genre, we went 21 years (between 1977’s Animal House and 1999’s American Pie) where no other filmmakers seemed to understand that the audience will let you get away with almost anything if you just act as though you like both your characters and your audience.

Special kudos to the fathers of the bride and groom. Eugene Levy has become a comic master, a walking study of timing perfection. No matter how bad a position his son is in, he always believes in him and defends him. Fred Willard has never done anything but play Fred Willard, but his deadpan comic timing is also perfect. The big surprise of the cast is Seann William Scott. He provides some of the most hilarious scenes in the movie, as we watch him enjoy a bit of scatological cuisine, see him terrified by his homophobia while dancing with a man in a gay bar, or check his reaction to an accidental May-December sexual tryst.

Universal’s DVD contains both the unrated and rated version. I went straight for the hard stuff. This is a different type of unrated version. Instead of ostensibly being the director’s further artistic thoughts, the additions were specifically shot for the DVD. The cast and crew just sat around and thought up funny stuff, then filmed it. Almost all of the additions take place at the bachelor party, and you can imagine where that goes.

The quality of both the picture and sound is good. I had to go back and check a second time because I was laughing so hard the first time. The extras are abundant and include Playmate Nikki Ziering taking us on a tour of the bachelor party, as well as several of the crew explaining the most important special effect (the pubic hair tornado).

One thing saddens me about the American Pie trilogy. In the emotional-maturity bell curve of society, many people who should see the movie won’t, and lots who shouldn’t will. I hope that the people buying the DVD just to be grossed out will be seduced by its sweetness. And maybe the DVD will allow some who are phobic about vulgarity to see just how lovable these films are.

File this under guilty pleasures.

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