And so we have "American Pie 2," the quest for more booty. Returning are our favorite loveable scamps, Jim, Finch, Oz, and Kevin. This time around, they've finished up their first year at college, and have now endeavored to rent out a beach house to score more chicks. This time they are joined by Stifler, who was apparently such a hit in the original "American Pie" that producers have now tried to place Seann William Scott in as many films as possible, and always playing the same type of character. Rock on.
The basic plotline for each character is as follows: Kevin has broken up with Vicky and is trying to figure out what 'friendship after breaking up' means; Oz's girl is in France so they've had to start using phone sex to keep it in the real, Jim realizes that he's as bad a sex partner as they come and has employed band camp girl Michelle to prep him for the return of Nadia, and Finch has taken to studying the Tantric arts so that he will be able to satisfy Stifler's mom. Stifler just hangs around trying to score and get freaky with the lesbians.
The setup is fine, but now we delve into why sequels are never a truly good idea other than to make money. Like any other sequel, this one just doesn't have the spark of the original. In the first movie, we were introduced to a bunch of guys not unlike ourselves and found it easy to relate to their insecurities and struggles with life. They happened to get into lots of funny situations that made us laugh, but there are a lot of movies out there that do that. What the first movie did, though, was create memorable characters, which is something very difficult to do. In this second movie, the premise is that we already know the characters, so therefore the director can just produce a bunch of funny situations and we will love it again. Well, they did come up with another set of funny circumstances, and yes, I did laugh quite often. But…
There was nothing memorable about it. Jim takes the forefront once again, as he seems to be the one in need of most help. Finch provides good support in his Tantric channeling. However, the characters of Oz and Kevin are totally taken out of the picture. Each of their relationships with Vicky and Heather, respectively, are almost portrayed as an afterthought. There's no reason to care about them. While we can really enjoy Jim's trials with trombones, dildos, and superglue while discovering his band geek tendencies, none of the other characters really give us anything to think about or remember.
Perhaps I'm being harsh here; it really is just a summer movie that is made to make us laugh. And for that it succeeds. But I guess with the depth of the original, I had hoped for more. It's a funny movie, but not much more.
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