American Pie Essay, Research Paper

Reviews of American Pie

The movie American Pie depicts four seniors, close to graduating from high school, determined not to carry their virginity’s with them to college and so they make a pact to lose their virginity by prom night. The movie is directed by Paul Weitz and stars Jason Biggs, Chris Klein and Tara Reids and takes place around Michigan’s East Great Falls High. The movie opens with high schooler Jim (Jason Biggs) being caught by his parents pleasuring himself in a tube sock while trying to watch a scrambled broadcast on an adult channel. By the End of this movie, all four seniors would have lost their virginity somehow or the other, and as a result with it learning more about themselves, their friendships, love, romance and the opposite sex.

The movie showed a lot of different aspects of high school life and for the most part, some of the characters in it could remind the audience of some high school buddies. It had everything from diarrhea, vomiting, voyeurism, premature ejaculation, the drinking of beer with a sperm chaser and even a scene about masturbation with an apple pie. As vulgar as those seem it didn’t stop teenage viewers to storm the theaters to go see it. Summarizing the reviews of three critics will show that each critic had a lot of the same positive and the few negative views, but they all enjoyed it and the message it sent out to the audience.

But on the other hand the movie had a lot more to offer than just some silly pranks and jokes. Kenneth Turan, an LA TIMES film critic, said ” …the film finally comes down emphatically in favor of treating people with consideration and acting from the heart as the keys to happiness.” The movie had a surface of crudeness and used pretty much as a a sucker bait to get teenage audiences into the theater to see a movie that is “sweet and sincere at heart” (Turan).

As Turan put it, “For one thing, this has got to be one of the least mean-spririted of recent American comedies.” The critic points out the unexpected good feelings that this movie had and that it was sup rising to see in such a teenage film.

Another critic had nothing but compliments towards this movie. as Catherine Jheon put it “Finally, a really good teen flick!” She mentioned about all the gross gags used in the movie and still had some more praising to do. The critic noted how the film was “vulgar, raunchy, innocent, rude, funny and incredibly sweet- much like high school” (Jheon). It reminded viewers of their high school days with the party goers and the so called nerds. She also found the portrayal of girls in the movie refreshing, because they were “more than objects of desire.” She described her memories on the sexual dominance of females over the males because it was the females who choose who they would lose their virginity too and “That’s something that’s bang in the film.”

Comparing the movie American Pie to others in the past such as “Animal house” and last year’s hit “Something about Mary” is something critic Todd McCarthy mostly talked about. As McCarthy put it ” Last year’s semen in the hair [ Something about Mary] has been replaced by semen in someone’s beer.” The critic had a fair feeling about this movie, as if he didn’t hate it, but he didn’t love it as did the other critics did. McCarthy called American Pie ” the king of gross-out comedy” and felt that the movie was crude.

In conclusion , the film had a good “feel good” sense after having seen it , and not all that predicted as seen in the coming attractions. The movie had a lot of fresh faces and a lot of interesting vulgarity with comedy. It surprised most of the critics with its realism, warmhearted and foul-mouthed content , but showed more promising than anyone thought.