A Look Back at the 'American Pie' Films

For those who don't already know, the American Pie film franchise is a series of teen comedies, full of people finding themselves in awkward and often embarrassing situations... with a bit of gross-out humor thrown in for good measure. These are not high-concept cinematic masterpieces and even though I usually don't get into these types of movies, I've always enjoyed this franchise. 

Now, I'm only going to focus on the main series and not any of the spinoffs like American Pie Presents: Band Camp or American Pie Presents: Beta House. This is because;

 A) All those spinoffs were direct-to-video releases and they're all awful, so I don't want to rewatch any of them for this piece.

B) Other than Eugene Levy, none of the core original cast is in the spinoffs.

Now, none of these films were hits with critics for obvious reasons (the first film features Jason Biggs humping an apple pie), but they all did well at the box-office. Looking back, the first three films are pretty dated but a lot of the jokes still get a laugh out of me and the pop-punk/alt. rock soundtrack each film has is right up my alley. I find the core cast of this series to be a bit of a mixed bag with actors Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, and Eugene Levy all giving memorable performances, whereas some others like Chris Kline, Tara Reid, and Thomas Ian Nicholas are kind of forgettable.

Let's start, obviously, with 1999's American Pie. This first film focuses on a group of friends who are high school seniors that make a pact that they'll each find a girl and have sex by the end of prom night. It's a premise that worked in '99 but probably wouldn't do so well today. Even though each character gets their own story beats, Jim Levenstein (played by Jason Biggs) is the real standout of the movie, and he becomes the true main character in subsequent films.

Next up is American Pie 2 which was released in 2001 and stars all the same cast as it's predecessor. The film picks up with each of our main characters from the previous film after their first year at college. It's summer break and the guys rent a lake house for a summer of fun and plans to end it with a big party. Alyson Hannigan's character (Michelle Flaherty) has a bigger role in this film, with her and Jim developing a relationship. The best way I can describe this one is, uneven. It has some of the series' best moments, and also some of the most skippable.

The third entry in the series, American Wedding, came out in 2003 with some noticeable absences to the cast. There's no Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, or Natasha Lyonne, but when rewatching the movie I really didn't miss any of their characters. In this one everyone is done with college and, as the title suggests, they're all preparing for Jim's wedding to Michelle. Of course, shenanigans ensue, and even the characters in the film acknowledge how remarkable it is that Jim gets into all these crazy situations and ends up coming out of it on top. 

Nine years later the cast of the original came back together for one last time for 2012's American Reunion, and this probably the last we'll see of that original cast in an American Pie film (unless all of the actors get real desperate for money in the future). I never went to the theater to see this one and, in fact, only recently watched it for the first time. While I do enjoy the series, I thought American Wedding was a satisfying conclusion so I passed on this one initially. It's been thirteen years since the gang graduated high school and they're all back in town for a reunion. This one is definitely the weakest of the bunch and a lot of the jokes don't land as well as they did in previous films. It's not terrible, but the movie relies a little too much on the viewer's nostalgia for the older films.

Overall, I wouldn't call any of these movies great, but I think they're fun. Maybe I was just at the right age as these movies came out but, despite their flaws, I find myself going back to them every so often.