American Pie 2 (2001)
Directed by J.B. Rogers
After a year apart - attending different schools, meeting different people - the guys rent a beach house and vow to make this the best summer ever. As it turns out, whether that will happen or not has a lot to do with the girls. Between the wild parties, outrageous revelations and yes, a trip to band camp, they discover that times change and people change, but in the end, it's all about sticking together.
6 connections found
View:
6 films that influenced American Pie 2
What critics say influenced American Pie 2
So the guys party like it's...1965, the summer of ''Beach Blanket Bingo.''
American Pie 2 ingratiates itself via some extensive belly laughs and the kind of risque humor that harkens back to Animal House and the original National Lampoon'sVacation.
Like the teens in Amy Heckerling's seminal Fast Times at Ridgemont High, these kids ring true, obsessed as they are with sex and partying, relationships and school.
American Pie 2 is that rare comedy sequel that improves upon its predecessor immeasurably, which is - admittedly - not a difficult proposition when one considers the caliber of the original.
These days, “American Pie” has morphed into a triumphant brand name, with two official sequels (the infinitely more focused “American Pie 2” and “American Wedding”) and a legion of DTV cash-in product continuing the bawdy legacy of the original picture, along with keeping actor Eugene Levy (eye-bulging it up as Jim’s Dad in every single one of these films) out of debt.
Despite the return of series creator Adam Herz as screenwriter, the film’s not half as smart as American Pie 2, and the change is most evident in Stifler, whose magnetic, endearing hateability has mutated into something far more moronic.
That happened in the summer of 1999 with screenwriter Adam Herz's "American Pie," a comedy that made instant in-jokes of the term "pale ale" and the phrase, "this one time, at band camp..." It has not, unfortunately, happened again in the summer of 2001 with "American Pie 2," a sequel firmly rooted in the tradition of being the same, yet different.
The "force" behind American Pie, brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, have only Executive Producer credits, indicating a low level of involvement.
To sum it up in a statement, American Pie 2, like the first movie, is a good-natured sex comedy.
Advertisement
That made the film awfully discomfiting on the big screen: when I saw American Pie 2 in theatres, I felt similar to how I did the time I endured Close Encounters of the Third Kind on a 13" television; movies, like people, have proportions, and some clothing just doesn't fit.
Eugene Levy ("Best in Show") is back as Jim's dad and seems to take the same unintentionally overbearing interest in his son's sexual development.