American Pie

Released 1999
Stars Jason Biggs, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Chris Klein, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy, Natasha Lyonne, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyson Hannigan, Sean William Scott
Directed by Paul Weitz

The point of every gross, eccentric, and vulgar moment in American Pie is to make the audience laugh. First time director Paul Weitz and writer Adam Herz aren't going for anything remotely intellectual here - they're appealing to the least common denominator in us all. And it works. American Pie is consistently funny and sporadically hilarious. It should come as a surprise to no one that the most effective jokes involve some form of sex (including, but not limited to, intercourse, masturbation, fellatio, and cunnilingus). There's also one instance of (literal) toilet humor that had the audience in stitches. American Pie descends into bad taste with its first scene and has the good sense never to rise above that level.

Summary by James Berardinelli

This is a typical teen sex comedy, but it's a good-natured one with some funny material. It doesn't shoot for cruel, which makes it enjoyable. It also has a great role for Eugene Levy as one of the sweetest, most loving dads you'll ever see. I had one major gripe, though. Why don't these movies have teen-agers play the high school kids? I checked the ages on each of the kids, and they ranged from 19 to 26. It was very distracting watching actors who were obviously past college age playing high school seniors. That's one of my pet peeves about movies... -- Bill Alward, May 19, 2001