The mother of teen films returns with its original cast. American Reunion focuses on the lives of the usual suspects including the infamous Steve Stifler and Jim Levenstein. Hinted by the title, American Reunion reunites the gang back together after several years of separation where they have focused on getting families and careers.
The characters have far out grown their wild party habits and although the film plays on this on multiple occasions, the attempt to recreate the essence of the original trilogy crumbles into a miserably unfunny film. Certain parts do spark an uproar of laughter but hardly enough to reflect everyone’s expectations. Playing on the same ‘ walking in on embarrassing moments’ gag at least five times gets dull and being surrounded with toilet humour adds little substance to this iconic franchise. It was hardly expected that American Pie would include any mature comedy, but with a poor script that didn’t seem to go anywhere, it’s hard for American Reunion to compete with the modern takes on the teen comedy genre.
This film is far from perfect and ultimately a let down for a franchise that has been the centre and pave-way to many comedies we see today. The character’s do already have a history that the audience can warm to helping the film’s case, however for first time viewers of the series there really isn’t anything exceedingly likeable about any of them with exception to Eugene Levy’s exceptional performance as Jim’s dad. It feels that the curtain has finally been closed to re-ignite these iconic films and this is just another excuse for the Hollywood studio’s to make a quick buck!
