Many of the jokes would have been a whole lot funnier if I hadn't already seen them 30 million times in the previews. The shot of the kid screwing the pie would have been uproariously funny ... if I hadn't been waiting for it since frame one. But, I mean, honestly, would it be too much to ask for a little wit and intelligence to underlie the sex jokes? Election, to pick one example, had some outrageously vulgar jokes that were hysterical because the movie as a whole was so smart and fresh. The jokes had a purpose, which is sorely lacking in American Pie. Nearly every scene and every line of dialogue seems to be created expressly for the purpose of setting up a punchline, rather than developing characters or advancing the plot. And how about a little believability while we're at it? Do not ask me to believe that a high school girl would start masturbating to porno mags in a total stranger's house. Do not ask me to believe that a school full of girls would start fawning over a boy because they heard he has a big dick. Obviously the screenwriter didn't know a whole lot of girls in high school, which probably contributed to his need to write a movie about a group of high school boys' quest to get laid. They say you should write what you know...
I don't mean to be an old crank here, and I'd like to make it clear that it wasn't the sex that offended me, it was the shoddy filmmaking. Oh well, at least there were funny parts, as opposed to Eyes Wide Shut, which, from what I hear, is also a shoddily made film about sex. And American Pie is a lot shorter.
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