Movie Review

American Wedding

American Wedding is the third installment of the American Pie series, a series that basically defines everything I hate about big Hollywood comedies.

There is a difference between clever and just plain forced ? something that the first two films walked a shaky line over. American Wedding is different; it is willing to go for all-out raunchiness, believability excluded, but the characters just seem fake. The goal is to embarrass them repeatedly, but for the film to work there also have to be scenes that allow them sympathy; it?s a double edge sword that barely works.
The main character, Jim (Jason Biggs), is a perfect example. He has been caught in sexual acts so many times that you wonder why he isn?t in therapy yet. Does this kid even have any other interests besides sex? He just seems to go through the motions of embarrassment without ever registering as a real human being; the same goes for the rest of these characters.

This third and hopefully final film in this series finds him proposing to his girlfriend of three years, Michelle (Allyson Hannigan, an actress who scares the hell out of me). The rest of the film focuses on preparations for the wedding, Stifler (Sean William Scott) trying to woo Michelle?s sister, and of course the bachelor party.

The only thing that really registers here as funny is the bachelor party, where Jim unknowingly brings Michelle?s parents back to his house only to discover that Stifler, Finch (Eddie Kay Thomas), and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) have hired strippers for the evening. There is also a scene in a gay bar where Stifler feels he must prove he isn?t a homophobe that is kind of amusing.

The rest is depressingly mediocre stuff that is so forced by director Jesse Dylan that the movie can only look unbelievably desperate. Take the opening scene where Jim tries to propose to Michelle but forgets the ring ? this could go someplace genuinely funny, but instead the filmmakers go for the forced gross out joke that just seems completely out of left field. There is another scene where a dog eats a wedding ring and somehow his poo is mistaken for a chocolate truffle. My eyes were rolling so much in this movie that I think I managed to hypnotize the guy next to me.

Finally, like many of the sequels in theaters this summer, no character in this movie has evolved. There is no talk in this movie about the future or about the responsibilities that they face. At the end, these characters are still hapless Jim, crazy Michelle, and rude, crude, and annoying Stifler. For them to be anything more, the filmmakers would have had to make an effort to make them more than just punch lines. So bye-bye American Pie, your only legacy will be that you signify everything that is wrong with Hollywood comedy today.

Craig's Grade: D+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%